Chris Curl,
Editor
Feb. 23, 2022
We’ve been hearing a lot about decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies lately. Much of this is due to the Canadian truckers’ convoy.
These protests began on Jan 28th over the Canadian government’s introduction of a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all cross-border truck drivers. This was a mandate that didn’t make a lot of sense from a medical standpoint as truckers are mostly a solitary lot. And many people remain understandably skeptical about the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines.
Whether you want the vaccine or not, the fact that governments worldwide are mandating it for private citizens to continue their employment is a major cause for concern.
In the last couple of years, we have witnessed a strong push from Western governments toward authoritarianism. In fact, many of their policies have been so socially and economically ruinous that it’s hard to understand what their ultimate goal of them was.
Many people were hoping for a return to normalcy after nearly 2 years of lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations. But, as is usually the case, once governments seize power, they rarely relinquish it.
Truck drivers are the lifeblood of the economy. And our society would quickly collapse without them. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the men and women who work long, dangerous hours to ensure that essential goods like food and medicine are getting to where they are needed.
These draconian vaccine mandates left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole situation smacked of an elite ruling class beating down the little guy. I think a lot of people felt this way. And they voted with their wallets.
A GoFundMe was set up for the truckers and it quickly raised over $8 million. This didn’t last long, however. On February 4th, GoFundMe took down the fundraiser citing violations of their terms of service. They initially said they would refund the donations but only if they were requested by the February 19th deadline. Any unrefunded money would be sent to “credible and established charities” that were verified by GoFundMe.
This outraged many people who felt like their donations were being stolen and reappropriated without their consent. The fallout from this is ongoing.
And in a further authoritarian push, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enacted an emergency edict that froze the bank accounts of anyone thought to be associated with the freedom convoy.
This edict also allows the government to ban public assemblies and other basic civil liberties.
People who donated $50 to the truckers were waking up to find out that they had no access to their money and no way to transact.
Except for people who used cryptocurrency.
In a desperate attempt to crack down on Bitcoin donations sent to the Canadian truckers, the government-sanctioned 34 crypto wallets hosted on central exchanges like Coinbase and Crypto.com.
Of course, this would have not been possible for people using DeFi wallets. In fact, going even further, some enterprising Bitcoiner raised 21 BTC for the truckers and has already distributed almost 15 BTC via paper wallets printed out and placed in envelopes. Each wallet contains roughly $8,000 worth of BTC.
If my data is correct, then by the time the Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) got to these 34 crypto wallets they were emptied or redistributed. Out of the initial 20 BTC (roughly $788,000), less than 0.01 ($380) remained for the government to freeze or confiscate.
This was a win for crypto living up to its promise as a decentralized tool to combat corrupt and oppressive systems both in government and finance.
And it’s only starting.
In the next part of this article, I’ll talk about Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and how they’re being used to raise money and even purchase major professional sports franchises.
Until then, I’ve got an entire how-to video series — called CryptoU — for you on how to buy and store various cryptocurrencies, including on DeFi wallets that are out of government reach.
Get access to it here.
Keep coming back,
Chris Curl
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle