Cryptocurrency and Human Rights
Garry Kasparov is a grandmaster chess player from Russia who has held the first rank from 1984 to 2005. He has given speeches against totalitarian governments, opposed Vladimir Putin after retiring, and fought for humanitarian causes, now serving as chairman of the Human Rights Foundation in New York.
Kasparov has recently stated in an interview for Coindesk that he believes technology should be used to fight against the power of the state. Taking into account the digitalization process that the world is currently undergoing, he explained that cryptocurrencies, used as digital money, would limit the State’s ability to print more money and devalue currency, ultimately taking away from the freedom and power of the individual.
The grandmaster has used cryptocurrency to support the work of human rights activists in undemocratic regimes. This is because electronic money such as Bitcoin is borderless, pseudonymous, seizure-resistant and does not require an intermediary bank to be transferred. While cryptocurrency is controversial, Kasparov stresses that it is merely a tool that may be used for good or evil. The Human Rights Foundation has created a Bitcoin Development Fund, which awards software developers working to transform Bitcoin into a tool serving civil society organisations, human rights activists, and journalists.
Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, also believes that cryptocurrencies may play into the aspect of human rights relating to financial freedoms. He considers Bitcoin to be the golden standard or cryptocurrency code and argues that it is an accessible and equitable savings technology, while also being an exchange medium resistant to censorship.
There are also numerous initiatives to use the traceability provided by blockchain technology in industries ridden by human rights violations, or unsustainable and polluting practices. Everledger is taking such initiative in the mining industry, in partnership with Source Certain International, while Circulor and Transfigura use blockchain to provide transparency and CO2 tracking along the supply chain of electric vehicle batteries.
Google is also implementing a blockchain-based tool to ensure its own supply chain is entirely ethical. Other initiatives, Amru Rice and BlocRice in collaboration with Oxfam Novib, aim to improve the livelihood and pay of rice farmers in Cambodia by using blockchain solutions to trace and analyse agricultural produce and then provide more online selling opportunities for the farmers.