Canada’s truckers have been protesting for weeks now because of COVID-19 related regulations. They occupied Ottawa streets and also managed to raise funding for their protests via Bitcoin. The country moved to freeze any money in bitcoin wallets and other funds in bank accounts. This decision has people who don’t like the idea of crypto rethinking their stance.
One prominent person who has done this is David Hansson. He is the creator of the Ruby on Rails framework for the web. He posted on Twitter on his change of mind and that he was no longer skeptical. He was surprised that Bitcoin believers proved to be good prophets on the value of cryptocurrency. He admitted that he was wrong about the usefulness of such currency and how it is a fundamental need in every western democracy.
He also posted a blog on how he was very wrong about crypto and why it is so useful. His biggest reasons for not endorsing bitcoin were the need for transaction feed, high energy use and the fact that there was no real decentralization. He also talked about fraudulent activity related to Tether and other cryptocurrencies.
He also said that these arguments were not strong enough to dismiss cryptocurrencies entirely. These are good tools for foster democracy and freedom in situations where martial law was imposed by the Canadian government. Peaceful protests in democratic countries are a must and crypto can help. He categorically stated that he was wrong, and he can now see how it is useful to have access to funds that help to protect fundamental freedoms.
There is no doubt that his change of heart about Bitcoin in response to Canada’s invocation of the Emergency Act is seen as excessive. Some reports say that Trudeau’s crackdown on people protesting about COVID-19 vaccines have caused banks and ATMs to go offline.
