Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡
@gladstein
Followers
251K
Following
58K
Media
2K
Statuses
128K
Chief Strategy Officer: @HRF + @OsloFF / Author: https://t.co/JbAaLXQAib + https://t.co/AsDltMVMam / Nostr: npub1trr5r2nrpsk6xkjk5a7p6pfcryyt6yzsflwjmz6r7uj7lfkjxxtq78hdpu
Joined January 2009
The media, governments, and the establishment continue to say Bitcoin is useless. Unfortunately for them, I packed my Nashville keynote with dozens of specific Bitcoin use cases from across the world in the areas of commerce, freedom, and energy. No price talk, all utility ✌️
362
1K
4K
Tesla buys Bitcoin. El Salvador adopts Bitcoin. Twitter adds Bitcoin. Central banks attack Bitcoin. 200M users, growing faster than the internet. And yet, most people in finance and economics are totally oblivious to what is happening. What a world! 🌎.
181
1K
7K
So many are just completely missing the historical importance of what is happening in El Salvador. The govt could have pushed a surveillance and control coin, a civil liberties-stripping CBDC, a China project. No! They went with Bitcoin. Freedom money. Just remarkable.
143
914
6K
Historic moment. El Salvador on track to become the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender and to hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset. The future is wide open. @JackMallers is a legend.
150
1K
6K
Run a ponzi, steal billions, and then -- wait for it -- headline a NYT conference with the people who run Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the global dollar system. 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡.
SBF confirms today he is speaking at NYT for the DealBook Summit. Other speakers include Zelensky, Zuckerberg, and Yellen. It cost $2,499 to attend.
430
1K
5K
Flawless experience using @MuunWallet here in El Zonte to buy all sorts of things with Bitcoin 👌. If you visit, make sure to stop by for a coffee with Karla, an excellent barista. You can tip her instantly from anywhere in the world with Lightning here:.
371
839
5K
Satoshi Nakamoto listed their birthday as April 5, 1975. If you are wondering what animated them to create Bitcoin:. April 5 = FDR signed order 6102 making it illegal for Americans to own gold. 1975 = Americans could legally own gold again. It’s all about about financial freedom.
80
1K
5K
I agree with @Fidelity, of course, but still astonishing to read this on Bitcoin adoption game theory in such a mainstream financial report:
150
1K
5K
With Brazil now experiencing double-digit inflation, we're now at more than 1.4 billion people on earth living under double, triple, or quadruple digit inflation:. -🇵🇰 226M.-🇧🇷 214M.-🇳🇬 213M.-🇪🇹 118M.-🇨🇩 93M.-🇮🇷 85M.-🇹🇷 84M.-🇦🇷 45M.-🇸🇩 43M.-🇺🇿 34M.-🇦🇴 34M.-🇬🇭 31M.-Rest of 🌍 213M.
219
1K
5K
Why Bitcoin matters for human rights, in two minutes.
169
2K
4K
Still one of the greatest Bitcoin tweets of all time. Ziya the 🐐
107
521
4K
Let's be honest. A lot of people did not expect Bitcoin to get back to ATH territory with Fed Funds at 5.33% and the average mortgage rate at 7.27%. It was a speculative, zero-interest rate, easy money phenomenon, they said. Boy do we have news for you.
71
396
4K
The Ukrainian parliament has passed a law to legalize Bitcoin 🇺🇦.
146
691
4K
“The plan is for Ukraine to make Bitcoin legal tender by the start of 2023 and create a ‘duel-currency country’ where Bitcoin sits alongside the fiat hryvnia before potentially being phased in as the dominant financial structure”. 🇺🇦.
125
657
4K
Just visited Norwegian parliament to educate top government officials about the global human rights and humanitarian impact of Bitcoin. Was an easy job with this Avengers-level crew! 🇳🇴 ⚡️
211
442
4K
The fact that the NYT protects and refuses to call SBF out as a scammer *even today* while they continue to attack Bitcoin as bad, criminal, destructive, etc tells you all you need to know about their agenda.
151
548
4K
At approximately $72,800, Bitcoin will surpass the total value of all the silver in the world. That's the next big milestone for Satoshi Nakamoto's remarkable invention, once just a string of code on a solitary computer, running quietly in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis.
78
580
3K
Zero to nation-state adoption in 12 years. Not bad for an open-source competitor to central banking. Satoshi Nakamoto 👑.
42
421
3K
Fidelity spot ETF rejected. Kind of amazing how worried the US government is about the population investing in Bitcoin at a wide scale. Hint: it’s not about consumer protection, but about preserving financial privilege.
125
439
3K
WATCH: Check Your Financial Privilege. A new @HRF short animated film 🎥 . Feat. @ireaderinokun @SudanHODL @KalKassa . 🇳🇬 🇸🇩 🇪🇹 🌍 ⚡️.
268
2K
3K
Apparently people in Brazil and all over the world are planning to convert $30 worth of their local fiat into BTC this Tuesday September 7th to commemorate El Salvador’s law making the open-source, decentralized, debasement-proof currency legal tender 🌎.
148
708
3K
I feel like the fact that the IMF is forcing El Salvador to stop its Bitcoin adoption should be bigger news . Zero coverage in the mainstream economic media but think of the simple implication:. The IMF considers Bitcoin a threat . No longer useless, but revolutionary
196
613
4K
Critics: "Bitcoin has no use case". Ok, here's me in a small village in Central America quickly transforming Bitcoin from my open-source, non-custodial, non-KYC mobile wallet into a $10 bill for a small fee.
190
755
3K
1/ It is *really important* to understand that Bitcoin is very different from Dogecoin. Some are making jokes comparing the two, especially as Doge has outperformed BTC + ETH this year. Many of you already know, but for everyone else, here are some of the key differences 🧵.
188
888
3K
Shocker.
115
340
3K
Bitcoin critics: The government will ban BTC. SEC commissioner @HesterPeirce: "I don't see how you could ban it. It would be a foolish thing for the government to try. A bigger problem is we'd be missing out on the innovation around Bitcoin".
75
658
3K
“We’ve gradually gotten used to this environment where we can’t pay another person unless there is a corporation involved”. Watch Rogan’s sinking realization when Andreas explains to him what this really means.
90
830
3K
Read each word very slowly:. “Bhutan has mined over $1 billion worth of bitcoin using its previously stranded hydropower resources”.
Bhutan has mined over $1 billion worth of #bitcoin using its previously stranded hydropower resources. My country, Norway, also has abundant, stranded hydropower. When will we start a national bitcoin mining project? 🤔
78
513
3K
Important to keep in mind:. Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work was invented to escape Proof-of-Stake financial systems, where the largest asset owners can unduly influence the rules of the game. Thanks to PoW + full nodes, neither miners nor the biggest BTC hodlers can change the protocol.
94
612
3K
It’s hard to believe this is real. The pride with which this politician announces emergency surveillance measures in a country like Canada would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.
210
399
3K
Say what you want about the Elon thing but if he bought $6 billion of Bitcoin today and then in 10 years distributed it evenly among the world's poorest billion — ~10,000 sats per person — it would be the most powerful and disruptive act of philanthropy of all time.
163
241
3K
In 1944, the world monetary system was fixed by elites at Bretton Woods. In 1971, it was rigged up by Nixon + Kissinger at the White House. In 2021, after a decade of online public collaboration, a new open system was launched on a beach in El Salvador. This time is different.
47
461
3K
Today I join 20 rights advocates from 20 countries in asking Congress to consider Bitcoin’s humanitarian impact. Western technologists may ignore Bitcoin's role in helping tens of millions under tyranny or failed economies, but policymakers should not 🌍.
155
593
3K
1/ I'm thrilled to announce the publication of my new book:. CHECK YOUR FINANCIAL PRIVILEGE. It's a collection of two years of reporting on financial repression, monetary history, and global Bitcoin adoption. Pick up a copy today:.
446
493
3K
Those shocked by this tweet live in a bubble of financial privilege. *1.3 billion* live under double, triple, or quadruple-digit inflation: Turkey, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan, and beyond. It’s already one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises.
Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It’s happening.
84
588
3K
The government of El Salvador is planning to airdrop ~3,000 BTC into the hands of its citizens. And they can’t even print money to buy the Bitcoin. This will be really crazy to think about 10 years from now.
74
264
3K
A leading Ethereum engineer with some thoughts worth reflecting on
141
389
3K
We’ve officially crossed the Rubicon in terms of the “does Bitcoin have any value” discussion. If people still refuse to see the value after mass financial deplatforming in Canada, and after the Ukrainian government is fundraising with BTC during a crisis, they are truly lost.
57
433
3K
Grateful for those trying to convince the govt to not pass restrictive legislation but ultimately Bitcoin is the product of activists who thought we should seize — not beg for — our freedoms. This quote from Wei Dai (a Cypherpunk cited in the Bitcoin White Paper) sums it all up:
63
700
3K
Bitcoin users: be prepared to be labeled “fascist” for choosing to opt into an inherently anti-fascist and open currency by the mainstream economic orthodoxy which ironically views increasingly centralized control and surveillance as the only way forward for the monetary system.
126
399
3K
The scale of Bitcoin adoption in Africa is absolutely staggering. Today I met people running growing Bitcoin businesses or communities in Somalia, Cameroon, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, South Africa, DR Congo, Sudan, Benin, Senegal, Uganda… just to name a few. 🌍 🤯.
115
392
3K
The @Strike send globally feature is amazing. I just sent $5 from my US dollar balance to @bernard_parah in Lagos, and in under 2 minutes he received the value as naira in his Nigerian account. All I had to enter was his phone number, bank account, bank name. Made possible by ⚡️.
182
388
3K
Bitcoin just activated a major upgrade, increasing privacy, flexibility, and efficiency for global digital sound money… with no major opposition and—you have to think—basically all government officials and bank executives not even having a clue that it happened. Bullish 🥳.
58
320
3K
Stage 1: Bitcoin too small to react to Fed policy. Stage 2: Bitcoin big enough to react to Fed policy (you are here). Stage 3: Bitcoin too big to react to Fed policy.
33
274
3K
Bitcoin is coming to hundreds of U.S. banks this year, says crypto custody firm NYDIG
38
310
2K
BREAKING:. 1 USD crashes below 1,000 sats.
BREAKING: . 1 USD crashes below 2,000 sats.
31
276
3K
If not Bitcoin or cryptocurrency:. How else can one send $100 to a Ukrainian who has fled into Poland?. How else can one send $100 to a Russian stuck in Moscow?. This can be done instantly w/ virtually no fees to *any phone* via ⚡️. The “BTC has no value” camp has lost. Onwards.
68
367
3K
Bitcoin network back to full strength (without central planning) just months after the CCP knocked out half its power. Unbelievably resilient decentralized architecture.
82
456
2K
1/ While doing research for my essay on the negative externalities of the petrodollar, I learned a huge amount. Much of it was shocking or surprising. Here's a thread with a few of my favorite bits of insight, with links for further reading 🧵.
101
888
2K
Some think “Bitcoin fixes this” is a joke. It’s not. A very partial list of things BTC fixes:. -Extortionate remittances.-Financial censorship.-Elites having special abilities in a monetary system.-Frozen funds.-Immoral sanctions.-Payments without a bank account.-Debased savings.
96
560
2K
1/ Update: there are now more than *2 billion people* living under the extreme time theft of double or triple digit inflation worldwide 🚨. -🇵🇰 229M.-🇳🇬 216M.-🇧🇷 214M.-🇷🇺 146M.-🇪🇹 120M.-🇪🇬 106M.-🇮🇷 86M.-🇹🇷 86M.-🇨🇴 52M.-🇪🇸 47M.-🇦🇷 46M.-🇸🇩 46M.-🇺🇦 43M.-🇵🇱 37M.-Rest of 🌍 590M.
76
618
2K
“Bitcoin is the world’s first globally-accessible public money. It will be as significant for freedom, prosperity, and human flourishing as the birth of the internet.”. Always great to see this GOAT speech by @valkenburgh pop up on the feed.
75
736
2K
Something that blew my mind when I first learned it:. Bitcoin's mining difficulty is updated every 2,016 blocks. as in, 6102 backwards. Also Satoshi chose as a birthday April 5, same day FDR issued 6102. Bitcoin was invented to stop government theft of citizen resources.
142
645
2K
Reminder: Bitcoin has done more for people of color and vulnerable populations worldwide in a few short years than this warmongering, elitist magazine has ever done in its 175-year history.
As long as bitcoin and its ilk are decentralised, the ability of far-right groups to use them will remain
44
420
2K
Brilliant explanation of why Bitcoin is so revolutionary by Julian Assange in 2014 🎯.
56
789
2K
Humans can do incredible things. The Pyramids. Flight. Going to the moon. Nuclear power. But creating a money system that no one can corrupt might be our most impressive and improbable achievement.
84
291
2K
Advertisement in Kenya, coming after a decade where the shilling lost almost half its purchasing power against the dollar and where the Central Bank is now mulling a CBDC 🇰🇪 🌍
51
317
2K
At the end of the 50BTC block subsidy era, there was 50% of Bitcoin left to be mined. At the end of today’s 6.25BTC block subsidy era, there will be 6.25% of Bitcoin left to be mined. And on and on. Just a neat detail but hadn’t connected the dots before.
99
267
2K
Photo of Ukrainians fleeing Kiev, heading closer to Poland and NATO troops. What if you had to escape your home because of an invasion today?
107
369
2K
1/ Bitcoin is a powerful tool for human rights. What is happening in El Salvador will have a huge impact on the lives of people there and across the world. A nation adopting Bitcoin is a big step forward for global human freedom. But that's not the full story 🧵.
201
505
2K
You have to wonder if Satoshi thought this day would actually come, where the issuer of the world reserve currency would get visibly nervous.
117
344
2K
@stoolpresidente You never owned any bitcoins unless you withdrew them to your own control. If you paid FTX or anyone else for “Bitcoin” which you then just kept in their system then you only owned a claim or IOU which at this point sadly may not be redeemable. Best practice is to self-custody.
27
95
2K
@Jason Do you know how impoverished this country is? 70% don’t have a bank account. You’re going to dunk on them from your private jet. What an unbelievable display of ignorance and lack of empathy.
46
110
2K
Satoshi was a human rights activist. Igniting the biggest and most effective peaceful protest of all time. Planting a seed of liberty at the root of exploitation and tyranny. With nothing more than free and open-source code. ✌️.
58
437
2K
Bitcoin is anti-fascist technology. Bitcoin is anti-imperial technology. Bitcoin is anti-ruling class technology. Bitcoin is anti-communist technology. Bitcoin is anti-forever war technology. Bitcoin is anti-megacorp technology. Bitcoin is anti-tyrant technology.
124
453
2K
Me: Wow, a country seems to be adopting Bitcoin at the national level. Media and experts: It’s not a big deal. And probably won’t work. Trust us. And please look right here:
39
293
2K
And a new enemy of Bitcoin is born. The “National Cryptocurrency Association”.
Ripple is proud to support the launch of the National Cryptocurrency Association (@NatCryptoAssoc). Over the last few years, crypto has catapulted to the mainstream. Today, 55 million Americans hold and use crypto, and many more are curious – where, when and how can I use this.
249
203
2K
My @TIME column on why bitcoin matters for freedom. For billions living under authoritarianism, it can be an alternative money system and an escape from economic control. And for all of us, it preserves the peer-to-peer virtues of cash in an increasingly digital financial world.
130
662
2K
1/ Thread on Ziya Sadr, the Iranian Bitcoin educator detained by the regime amid #MahsaAmini protests. I've followed Ziya's work for years: he is an incredibly brave person who has helped thousands of Iranians achieve more freedom by teaching them how to use open source currency
70
911
2K
1/ Secretary Yellen’s latest public remarks are nothing short of remarkable. Here, the top US govt official in charge of the financial system talks about Satoshi Nakamoto's innovation:. “New technology has raised the possibility of reduced reliance on centralized intermediaries”
97
546
2K
Oct 31, 1517: Martin Luther nails 95 theses to a church door in Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation. Oct 31, 2008: Satoshi Nakamoto posts the Bitcoin white paper to the Cryptography Mailing List, sparking the separation of money and state. Hadn’t realized that before 🤯.
124
459
2K
In case it wasn’t obvious to you yet, here’s the head of the Bank of International Settlements clarifying that the difference between cash and CBDCs is that the former provides privacy while the latter gives the central bank “absolute control” 🥶 .
259
767
2K
Today HRF launches the Finney Freedom Prize to honor Hal Finney, a champion of privacy, open-source software, and electronic cash. The 1 BTC award celebrates those who do the most for Bitcoin and freedom each halving era. Let it inspire many more Hals✌️.
156
548
2K
Theory as good as any: Satoshi Nakamoto was sent back in time from the dystopic future with a blueprint for something that would kill the otherwise inevitable Skynet of money — Central Bank Digital Currencies
115
211
2K
Many make the mistake of thinking Bitcoiners are doomers hoping for social collapse. On the contrary. Bitcoiners are some of the most hopeful people I have ever met. They believe in a positive future for humanity that is meaningfully better, more free, and more just than today.
72
276
2K
Senator Warren:. Emissions from open source incorruptible money available to billions worldwide: bad. Emissions from private jets: totally fine. 🤡.
95
293
2K
On this day 13 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin. Why?. Hidden in the genesis block—mined on January 3, 2009—is a clue. This wasn’t a reaction to a surveillance scandal, but rather a reaction to the inadequacy and injustice of central banking and fiat currency.
88
531
2K
1/ This post from the IMF is worth reading. They are hugely concerned about more countries taking a “shortcut” by making Bitcoin a national currency, as they predict this will hamper their global operations 🧵.
Privately issued cryptoassets like Bitcoin come with substantial risks. Making them equivalent to a national currency is an inadvisable shortcut. Read more in our #IMFBlog by the IMF’s Tobias Adrian and @RhodaWeeksBrown:
70
561
2K
Some Bitcoiners don’t like how Bukele imposed BTC on 🇸🇻. Some Bitcoiners don’t like how 🇺🇦 is fundraising in BTC to defend itself from Putin. Some Bitcoiners don’t like Terra buying tons of BTC. Reality check: Bitcoin doesn’t care and will continue its march to global adoption ✌️.
67
176
2K
People skeptical that Bitcoin can still work if all hell breaks loose are apparently completely unaware that it is keeping millions of people afloat right now where all hell *already* broke loose in Iran, Venezuela, Gaza, Sudan, and many other places.
60
307
2K
Here’s an IMF paper recommending that governments consider “financial repression” (i.e. looting public savings by pinning interest rates below inflation) as a tool for reducing national debt in advanced economies:
148
669
2K
It's increasingly likely that governments will protect and promote KYC'd Bitcoin, custodied BTC, and regulated Bitcoin securities. While at the same time discouraging or even prosecuting non-KYC activity. Building out global non-KYC BTC infrastructure remains mission critical 🫡.
77
308
2K
No, Bitcoin *undermines* Putin’s plans to isolate, repress, and plunder the Russian people. It gives them a way out. Do not allow confused, pro-surveillance and control politicians to tell you otherwise.
Cryptocurrencies risk undermining sanctions against Russia, allowing Putin and his cronies to evade economic pain. U.S. financial regulators need to take this threat seriously and increase their scrutiny of digital assets.
48
343
2K
This is an encyclopedic and must-read essay from @LynAldenContact about the nature and politics of money. Here are some highlights 🧵.
58
625
2K
Astonishing @nytimes chart of home equity wealth by generation. Over the past 2 years US home owners gained more than *$6 trillion* in housing wealth. These gains have almost entirely gone to those born before 1980, while millennials are mostly locked out of home ownership.
220
472
2K
Bitcoin was $8k two years ago. $2k five years ago. $5 ten years ago. Today, in the early innings of some of the worst macroeconomic conditions in 50 years, it’s at $30k. Could it go down a lot from here?. Absolutely. But context and history matter. Zoom out and reflect 👌.
56
320
2K
Thrilled to share my new essay. "Stranded: How Bitcoin is Saving Wasted Energy and Expanding Financial Freedom in Africa". I was profoundly moved by what I saw on a trip to Kenya + Malawi. If this can show you even 1% of what inspired me, that's a win 🧵.
146
678
2K
Germany selling large amounts of Bitcoin for euros *that it can print* will go right up there with ditching nuclear power in exchange for relying on Putin for fuel as biggest self-inflicted wounds of the 21st century.
87
292
2K
1/ My essay "Structural Adjustment: How the IMF and World Bank Repress Poor Countries and Funnel Their Resources to Rich Ones" is now live. The Bank and Fund claim to help poor countries develop and rescue them from crises. But what if that's not true?.
158
819
2K
TIL Maya Parbhoe is running for president of Suriname on a platform to put her country onto a Bitcoin Standard. Also loves Nostr 🇸🇷 . @MayaPar25
64
226
2K
Debanking is being revealed as a major problem inside the United States. Now just wait until you hear how bad it is for the 5+ billion people who live under autocracy worldwide. Depoliticized money is a revolution ✌️.
43
346
2K
@joshtpm 1/ Josh, what's remarkable is your arrogance, ignorance, and financial privilege. 1.3 billion live under double or triple digit inflation and 4.3 billion live under authoritarianism. Millions of them have turned to BTC as a way out. That you would mock them is bizarrely cruel.
50
226
2K