In recent weeks, Russia has launched a devastating attack on the European democracy of Ukraine. What was first an invasion in the east of the country has developed into bombings across Ukraine, resulting in a mass exodus of Ukraine’s 44 million citizens. Russians are also experiencing collapse of normalcy, with its citizens protesting the war and its currency crashing at record rates. Both economies are struggling and so are its peoples. As uncertainty looms for Ukraine, Russia, and the rest of the world, one thing is clear – people don’t deserve to lose everything because of their circumstances. Here’s where a privacy-first approach to blockchain technology comes into play.
An inherent problem during geopolitical showdowns is financial security. As economies crash, individuals can no longer turn to institutions backed by their governments. Cryptocurrencies offer a way to protect a part of the lives they’ve built for themselves. Because crypto is borderless, the effects of geopolitical conflict don’t have the same effect on currencies, enabling them to retain their value. Its decentralized nature also means that people can use it to send and receive funds in a country they may have traveled to to find safety. Giving citizens access to money outside of their national currency can be the difference between poverty and subsistence.
Another critical issue millions of people are facing – whether they’re two minutes to two thousand miles from ground zero – is the inability to privately send and forward payments. For those deeply entrenched in the war, it’s imperative that they can access payments without giving up their identity. On the other hand, those from all corners of the world must be able to privately send funds and donations to those fleeing or fighting. While traditional institutions and technologies allow for global payments, those payments are public and don’t protect individuals from governments engaging in war. But when individuals…
