Alternative Media Attacks Bitcoin: A Response to “Bitcoin Can’t Free Palestine”
It is obvious that bitcoin cannot liberate Palestine, let’s start there. The Bitcoin network only offers better money, not a miracle cure. It offers a decentralized currency that cannot be debased by any government, more or less. The author of “Bitcoin cannot liberate Palestine” says, “at the heart of Bitcoin’s appeal is the urgent and necessary pursuit of Palestinian economic independence.” Okay, bitcoin can help with that particular problem. “Ultimately, there is no substitute for a political resolution to end the colonization of Palestinians ,” she claims, stating the obvious.
Another day, another journalist who didn’t do his homework and comes to attack bitcoin with the weakest possible arguments. “An independent Palestinian economy will not magically emerge from a sovereign currency.” Of course it won’t. Who claimed otherwise? Hadas Thier’s article appears to be a response to Alex Gladstein’s «Could Bitcoin Be Palestine’s Freedom Currency?” As you can see, there is a huge difference between Gladstein’s premise and Thier’s wild claims.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the author has no problem lying to get his point across. There is perhaps no malice in the fact that she uses “bitcoin” and “cryptocurrencies” interchangeably, although that fact invalidates her entire argument. Maybe this is not her field and she is just as confused as the average citizen. However, there is definitely intellectual dishonesty in claiming that private keys can be seized and El Salvador has lost money on their bitcoin efforts, for example.
Let’s read what the author actually said and respond to each of the wild claims.
Since this publication’s focus is bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, we will stick to the claims related to these two topics. Everything else is outside our jurisdiction.
BTC price chart for 07/26/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Can Bitcoin Help Palestine? Of course it can
The article starts off a bit shaky, it is obvious that technology is not the author’s forte.
“They argue that Bitcoin, the oldest and most widely used among thousands of cryptocurrencies, can be used to undermine Israeli sanctions and financial control over the money supply, give an occupied and isolated people a means to trade economically with the outside world, and allow individual Palestinians a means to to save in cyberspace.”
Geez, cyberspace? Really? Is this article from the year 2000? Anyway, bitcoin can definitely do all this. And do it every day for people who are willing to put in the work and figure out how to use it. The author is far from that group. She hasn’t even begun to learn about the miracle that is bitcoin and it’s already trying to ridicule it.
“Since local crypto transactions in Gaza and the West Bank do not connect directly to banks or major crypto exchanges, it remains unclear how many Palestinians have engaged with crypto at all. In fact, most crypto proponents admit that the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is limited to a small number of technical freelancers.”
The first point, that’s a good thing. “Banks or major crypto exchanges” are centralized entities. If you deal with these, the bitcoin network’s decentralization will not help you. The second part of the statement is true worldwide, bitcoin is still a relatively small phenomenon. Does that mean it has no potential to help Palestine? No, it doesn’t.
Enter Alex Gladstein and Sara Roy
Does Hadas Thier have a problem with Alex Gladstein? It certainly seems that way. She tries to ridicule him by saying that he offers “cryptocurrency as the solution to all kinds of global injustice,” not knowing the potential of this earth-shattering technology. Back to Palestine:
“Furthermore, the economic analysis used to justify crypto-based solutions misses the roots of the problem. Gladstein claims that “money is at the very root of [Palestinians’] Matches.” But in fact the monetary relationship between Israel and the Palestinians reflects a more fundamental political power asymmetry. Israeli policy has long sought to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state or movement. The sabotage of the Palestinian economy is an outgrowth of this political reality, which cannot be bypassed in cyberspace.”
Money is the basis of every struggle because money is the cornerstone of every society. Everything she says about Palestine may be true, but money is still at the root of that problem. In addition, she claims that political reality “cannot be broken via cyberspace” as if it were a fact. It’s just the opinion of someone who doesn’t even imagine the eternal problem that bitcoin solves. That is: the distinction between money and state.
Later, the author claims “Gladstein relies heavily on the work of the political economist and researcher Sara Roy.” And reveals, “Roy’s economic analysis is not limited to issues of currency,” as if that is some kind of limitation.
“I spoke to Roy about Gladstein’s article. She strongly disagreed with the notion that “cryptocurrency is somehow impervious to the political reality that Palestinians and Israelis live in” or that it could “give abducted Palestinians parity with empowered Israelis, eliminate the gross power asymmetries between them, and give Palestinians economic sovereignty. “
First of all, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are two different things. Secondly, maybe Gladstein exaggerated there. Does that mean bitcoin can’t help the Palestinians who are willing to do the work and learn to operate in this new world? No, it doesn’t. Bitcoin definitely can and does help Palestine. It is not and will never be a miracle cure.
Lying to get her point across
This is where the intellectual dishonesty is reinforced. For example, the author says:
“Thousands of crypto millionaires have swarmed Puerto Rico, for example, taking advantage of tax incentives and beach resorts, buying up real estate and experimenting with energy-intensive crypto projects on an island plagued by power shortages.”
We analyzed the articles she refers to and, 1.- It’s about crypto people, not bitcoin people. 2.- Not once does it say that anyone is mining in Puerto Rico, so the “energy intensive crypto projects” are not a factor. 3.- These tax incentives are in place precisely to attract these crypto millionaires. Anyway, intellectual dishonesty aside, the author hasn’t lied yet. But…
“One year later, very few Salvadorans use Bitcoin, but government investments in Bitcoin have so far lost tens of millions of dollars in public funds. For a country with a relatively high public debt, investing in such a volatile asset can further strain the state’s budget and make the country vulnerable to default on its debt obligations.”
El Salvador has not lost one dollar because they have not sold one bitcoin. Does this woman think the Salvadoran government was unaware of bitcoin’s volatility? It’s insulting. Moreover, El Salvador’s economy is practically the only one in the world currently showing signs of growth. While other dollarized countries such as Ecuador and Panama are struggling, El Salvador is thriving.
Back to Palestine with the same outdated arguments
Incredibly, Hadas Thier had the girl say “Given the level of economic distress, it is unlikely that many Palestinians will use cryptocurrencies. Most people don’t have the resources to do that.” She went with the insulting statement and did not interview a single bitcoiner in Palestine for her article. Fortunately for us, Gladstein did for his.
“Some receive bitcoin directly through mobile apps from friends or family abroad. Others use Telegram groups to coordinate in-person meetings to exchange money for bitcoin, or they bring cash to brick-and-mortar stores and make exchanges there. At these stores, Uqab said, the authorities take a cut and keep lists of who buys and sells. No one yet, he said, has been arrested for Bitcoin use. To store bitcoin on their phones, Gazans can use Binance or Payeer as escrow solutions, or Blue Wallet, which is native Arabic, as a non-escrow solution.”
We can interpret the following passage as Thier’s weak response:
“Finally, the more limited promise of easier transfer of remittances from Palestinians in the diaspora is also wrong. First are the barriers to sending remittances, which in most cases require a bank account and identification, as well as often high fees. Then the wildly fluctuating value of bitcoin and other digital assets that what might start as $100 worth of bitcoin can result in $50 when withdrawn, provided the recipient finds a way to convert the bitcoin to cash.”
What is this woman talking about? “Bank account”? “Identification”? “High fees”? Not with bitcoin. And the “wildly fluctuating value of bitcoin” also means that this $100 worth of bitcoin could result in $200 when withdrawn.
More lies, this time about Hamas
This is where the author loses all traces of decency. She claims:
“Last summer, when Hamas attempted to raise funds through bitcoin and other digital currencies, the Israeli state responded seize their cryptocurrency wallets. Hamas had collected over $7 million worth of crypto assets. Israel’s National Counter-Terrorism Financing Agency tracked down 84 digital wallets and their private keys believed to be controlled by Hamas and transferred their contents out of the wallets. If they can seize crypto assets from Hamas, they can certainly do the same to Palestinian investors.”
This is a lie. The the article she links to clearly states:
“Officials did not specify how much cryptocurrency has been seized. But Elliptic’s report showed that Hamas collectively received over $7.7 million in crypto assets.”
If Hamas had their cryptocurrency in a centralized service, okay, some intelligence agency could seize their coins. That’s why one of bitcoin’s central principles is “Not your keys, not your coins.” If Hamas had its coins in self-storage, there is absolutely no way they were seized. And Hadas Thier would know if she had done her homework. What she did instead was exaggerate an already bogus report that said nothing about “private keys.”
“Neither Gladstein nor others in the crypto community are willing to say they support Hamas in doing so because it further implicates blockchain technology as a conduit for avoiding illegalities.”
Another of bitcoin’s central tenets is “Bitcoin is money for enemies.” The logic here is that if your enemies are guaranteed to be able to use bitcoin, your friends have the same guarantee. In other words, bitcoin is for everyone, even people who break the law. Everyone in bitcoin is willing to say it and does so often.
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