Washington DC - Pro-Bitcoin advocates are leveraging Latin American autocracy, currencies to pressure lawmakers
Latin America’s autocratic regimes and currency controls are textbook cases being weaponized for pro-Bitcoin innovation lobbying.
Lawmakers, activists, and lobbyists with interests in Latin America are lobbying key US policymakers in Washington, DC as congress begins to assess a bipartisan piece of crypto legislation.
The gist of things is this: tech advocates from the developing world are locking horns with tech advocates from the developed world over Bitcoin and blockchain policy. Pro-Bitcoin advocates generally think Bitcoin and crypto solves problems for people living under totalitarian surveillance states, like China, or broken currency regimes, like Argentina and Venezuela. The anti-Blockchain advocates warn against criminal activity and dead-end innovations that do more harm than good.
One notable group to watch here is the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Through the work of Alex Gladstein, HRF is a main proponent of Bitcoin technology development. In April, 2022, the HRF funded a Lightning Network project in Venezuela, among other developer initiatives around the world.
HRF is led by Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, a Venezuelan filmmaker close to Leopoldo López. Lopez has been a key operative in lobbying Washington to pry power away from Maduro and pave the way forward for fair democratic elections.
Francisco Calderón’s project is one of several initiatives wedged in the middle of Latin America’s political climate and whose fate could hang on the outcome of US policy moves. Calderón wants to build a layer of software on top of the Lightning Network and Telegram. It will effectively allow Venezuelans to send and receive value via Bitcoin’s payment rails using Telegram messenger.
Venezuelans are in an interesting predicament. On one hand, US sanctions forbid many people from transacting with formal banking infrastructure inside Venezuela because it favors the Maduro government. On the other hand, the Maduro government has set up government-backed crypto exchanges in order to circumvent these constraints. At the moment, Maduro’s government is brokering land concessions for agricultural production. The way investors are bringing their money into the country is via these crypto exchanges.
If an ordinary Venezuelan wants to use a national crypto exchange to get money in and out of the country, he or she can transact through these platforms. But it means trusting the Maduro government with your money. Many Venezuelans would still prefer to settle through US bank accounts in Miami. Or trustworthy blockchain alternatives… if they are actually developed.
The situation is tricky. Biden is in the middle of brokering a deal with Maduro: relaxing sanctions in favor of ramping up oil exports to US refineries. Elections are part of the game too. But no matter how free and fair Venezuelan elections might turn out to be - I doubt they will get very close to being truly free and fair - you still need financial architecture to restart the economy in Venezuela in a post-sanctions, post-Maduro world.
Bitcoin, according to Halvorssen and López, seems to be part of a political solution for settling a diplomatic war that they have been losing for years. However crypto policy is settled in Washington will inform their plight back home.