This is one article in a collection of 52 articles published weekly throughout 2023 on the basics of Bitcoin. The series is intended for people unfamiliar with Bitcoin or people wishing to enhance their understanding of the fundamentals that underpin the technology. Please contact us, if you have any questions or comments.
Bitcoin’s censorship resistance feature was seen more recently in Canada as a dispute broke out between Canadian truck drivers and the Canadian government. The dispute was centered around the Canadian government mandating that all cross-border truck drivers receive the COVID-19 vaccine as a part of the Canadian government’s policy of minimizing the risk of the transmission of the disease. Many truckers strongly opposed the vaccine mandates and argued that the vaccine mandate infringed upon their personal rights and freedoms.
In response, the truckers organized widespread protests and blockades at major trade routes to express their dissent. The story quickly picked up massive news coverage as the debate regarding the ethics and effectiveness of a vaccine mandate were debated around the world. To show support for the truckers a group of individuals organized a GoFundMe page. The GoFundMe campaign was extremely successful raising over $10 million! Unfortunately for the truckers, the GoFundMe page was shut down as a result of the campaign apparently violating the terms of service.
In response to the censorship, a different campaign was put together to support the truckers using Bitcoin. The Bitcoin campaign successfully raised $1 million worth of bitcoin and it was able to distribute over $600,000 worth of the bitcoin to the protestors. However, those who opposed the Bitcoin campaign soon found a way to shut down the channels of funneling bitcoin to the protesters by freezing 29 bitcoin wallet addresses associated with the truckers’ protest through legal action. The Canadian court system prohibited the banks from interacting with these wallet addresses and presumably any wallet address where funds from those wallets could be transferred which again could be meticulously tracked by anyone because of Bitcoin’s open, public ledger.
The Canadian trucker’s protest illustrated the power of the Bitcoin network while at the same time illustrating the shortfalls and censorship barriers that still exist as a result of the on and off ramps that still present large obstacles to the Bitcoin technology. On the one hand, using bitcoin as the currency to fund the Canadian trucker’s protest was impossible for the government to censor. Any person can send his/her bitcoin to the wallet address of another person for any reason and it will be impossible for the government to shut down the transaction from occurring. However, there are still tools a government can use to prevent bitcoin from being converted to cash thus making options like a Bitcoin campaign less effective.
While Bitcoin is censorship resistant, the on and off ramps can be manipulated by governments to inhibit this feature. As the price of bitcoin matures, governments will be more limited in the ways they can interfere with Bitcoin’s censorship resistance feature as people will be more willing to sell goods and services using bitcoin as the currency. This is a good thing. One of the many lessons COVID-19 taught the world is in times of great uncertainty, vigorous, open, robust debate is necessary. Bitcoin is a tool that allows that debate to occur more freely and openly.
