Mar 02 2025 66 mins 14
Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, joins us to discuss how Bitcoin functions as essential "money dictators can't stop" for human rights activists worldwide. With nearly 18 years at HRF, Alex shares fascinating stories of Bitcoin adoption in authoritarian regimes, his journey from skeptic to advocate, and why Bitcoin—not general "crypto"—provides the unique properties needed for financial freedom in oppressive environments. He explores privacy solutions, scaling challenges, and the future of complementary technologies like ecash and Nostr.
Follow Alex on Twitter: @gladstein
Notes:
- HRF quarterly Bitcoin grants
- The "currency of activists"
- Most global humanitarian funding stays in free countries
- Alex’s "Check Your Financial Privilege" book
- Bitcoin users in Malawi upgrading from saving with goats
- Stablecoins are primarily valuable when permissionless
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:30 Alex intro
11:48 HRF Bitcoin focus
17:08 Current projects
21:55 Cross border vs circular economies
27:30 Stablecoins
38:17 Bitcoin privacy
45:59 Covenants
51:17 Education is lagging
55:24 Does "crypto" have value?
1:02:31 NOSTR
👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.
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