I stumbled on this interesting story on
YouTube. Although it is from 6years ago, I guess that many people may not have known that it happened. Otto de Voogd is the world's self-proclaimed first bitcoin refugee. Why? Because about six (6) years ago, he fled Estonia for the Netherlands after being threatened with imprisonment for being a staunch bitcoin advocate and for running a bitcoin exchange
BTC.ee. What actually happened was that at that time, the Estonian government wanted to regulate bitcoin trading and other digital currencies. Otto de Voogd's company BTC.ee was one of the crypto companies targeted by the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit. His appeal to the Tallinn Administrative Court and the Tallinn Circuit Court to operate a bitcoin exchange which was turned down twice. He therefore, had no option than to flee the country or risk being
imprisoned for 3 years. Indeed bitcoin has come a long way. Do you have a similar story to share?
SourceThere must be other stories available but I have one to share. But in my store I won't use the word "Refugee".
Zebpay was the first ever bitcoin wallet and exchange service available in India. They were doing business when there was no rules and regulations available for cryptocurrency in India. So as expected, Indian government started attacks through the banks and their bank accounts were frozen. The owner of Zebpay was a true visionary and he knew that if he tries to fight a legal battle in India, he will have to spend the rest of his life on this.
So he simply moved to Singapore with some of his initial employees and registered his business there. Now he is operating in more than 30 countries excluding India. Can we call him a willful refugee??