Stablecoins and cryptocurrencies are the first line of defense against financial deplatforming

Since the early days of ICOs, one of the main stories of cryptocurrencies has been their ability to “bank the unbanked.” According to the World Bank Global Findex Database 2021, 76% of adults worldwide own some form of account. However, banks operate at their own discretion and sometimes in a very arbitrary manner. Even in 2024, just because you have a bank account doesn't mean you might be unbanked from one day to the next. Considering this, holding a crypto wallet with savings in stablecoins (coins that are pegged to the value of a currency) emerges as a citizen's line of defense against irate organizations.

As Forbes contributor Emily Guy Berken highlighted in a December 2022 article, being unbanked or unbanked means not having access to a bank account or having access to credit or It means they cannot access other financial services such as loans. While researching for this article, I decided to run a smaller article because I wanted to focus on the stories of people who are “unbanked.” Twitter-based survey Among crypto people. My research resulted from several days of reading replies and direct messages from people whose accounts were closed with only a few days notice. Most of that is due to its relationship with cryptocurrencies. And by “cryptocurrency ties” we mean everything from cashing out your Coinbase account to becoming a digital artist selling your work through NFTs.

sofia garcia Founder of ARTXCODE, an arthouse that provides artist representation and advisory services to organizations. She is also a board member of code/art, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the number of female students studying computer science. After I posted the survey, Sophia contacted me directly via her message to tell me that Chase Bank had closed both her business account and her personal account. A Chase employee revealed to her that her account had been flagged after a series of deposits from Coinbase. Sophia recalled the weeks spent trying to find a new bank for ARTXCODE as “horrible.” In particular, before working with cryptocurrencies, I was part of a team at JPMorgan thinking about how to use cryptocurrencies. ”

Unfortunately, this refusal of payment services does not only occur at the bank level. Payment applications like Venmo, Paypal, CashApp, and Wise work just like banks. It is important to protect yourself from these events that can cause serious disruption to your daily life.

Allie Eve Knox is a sex worker and activist who has worked since 2018 as an advisor for Spankchain ($SPANK), a crypto project aimed at providing the adult industry with a censorship-resistant payment system, SpankPay. There is. About conversations via Google
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By the way, Aly explained that her relationship with Cryptocurrency Payments began after she was deplatformed for doing legal sex work (camera shows). In 2014, Allie became interested in Bitcoin.
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After one of her viewers suggested using Bitcoin payments via QR codes, she was hired by Spankchain in 2016 for her experience and expertise in the field. She knows that cryptocurrencies will be of no use to people like her unless the app is very simple and easy to use so that she doesn't have to spend a whole day overcoming UX challenges. I did. The solution she is working on, SpankPay, was fully operational until March 2023, when Wyre, the payment processing company that provides the on- and off-ramps, terminated her contract. In our conversation, Ally said that while a relaunch is currently nearing, with a different, more complete approach, and new payment providers are involved, Spankchain and Ally are working in Washington, D.C. He said he was lobbying for the project. Ally emphasized that the ordeal is based on economic discrimination, as the work done by the SpankPay people and herself is legal in the United States.

Sex workers are not the only marginalized group relying on cryptocurrencies. This form of payment has proven highly effective in extreme situations, such as fundraising efforts in war-torn areas. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2023, the crypto community quickly rallied and tried to send funds to provide routers, food, and even donations to the Ukrainian military.Russian art group Pussy Riot cooperates with coordination Ukraine DAO Raised $3 million for the defense. At the same time, Come Back Alive, an organization with a similar mission, was being deplatformed from his Patreon. Most recently, new crypto-funding initiatives have emerged as Gaza has been irreparably destroyed by extreme and disproportionate retaliatory attacks following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Our initiator, Kat, is a Cryptocurrency Product Manager based in Europe. In 2023, she traveled to Gaza to provide guidance to people wanting to learn technology skills under Gaza Sky Geeks, a humanitarian initiative aimed at boosting Palestine's digital economy. During that time, Kat met many Palestinians who were eager to learn about the technology she helped build. These people, all civilians, are currently evacuated with their families, and Kat is fundraising to help them get the documents they need to cross safely to Egypt. So far, her ETHevacuations campaign has raised over $100,000 and the first family has been evacuated, Kat confirmed in a private conversation.

Even if you are not in an extreme situation or belong to a marginalized group, cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins ($USDC)
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$GHO, $RAI, $USDT
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being part of the alternatives that are out there) can increase your “anti-fragility”. We are all vulnerable to extreme events and ever-changing rules and regulations. It is in your best interest to protect your assets by diversifying into cryptocurrencies.