THERE WAS A time when it was fair to question whether bitcoin was an effective tool for liberty. In its first few years, when the digital currency didn’t have many users, wasn’t worth very much, and lacked global markets, it was more a dream than a lifeline. But those days are long gone. Today, millions of people—especially in dictatorships and collapsing economies—rely on bitcoin to give them liberty that governments and corporations try to steal away.
Most bitcoin users aren’t “freedom fighters” or “dissidents” in the classic sense.