Exactly a year ago Putin invaded Ukraine -- on February 24, 2022. It's a sad anniversary for all Ukrainians and also for all humanity.
An article from Bitcoin Magazine, recommended to me by 1miau, recently drew my attention. Bitcoin Magazine is a great resource for many informative articles about Bitcoin but it also publishes a vast specter of philosophic and libertarian essays.
This article is long, maybe one of the longest I ever read, having almost 14.000 words. It took me some time to read it but, at the end, it drove me even more to support Ukraine's cause. The article talks about tumultuous past of Ukrainian people, their struggles from the past which are continued even during present. Things causing these struggles varied in time, yet pain remained the same.
We are also informed about Bitcoin adoption in Ukraine and the narrative tells us the stories of true war heroes or stories of Ukrainian bitcoiners. One story presented in the article is really touching. It introduces us Naumenko, a dedicated bitcoiner and a hero:
In 2018, Naumenko got the chance to work with Bitcoin giants like Greg Maxwell and Pieter Wuille as an intern at Blockstream, eventually co-authoring a paper with Maxwell and Wuille on a proposed Bitcoin improvement called Erlay, which could make the network more efficient and resilient. In 2021 and early 2022, Naumenko’s work on the Bitcoin protocol approached a new milestone.
Just days before the invasion, Naumenko released “CoinPool,” a new implementation of Bitcoin which would allow many users to share the same “UTXO,” or spendable piece of bitcoin. A complement to the Lightning Network, and something that might help Bitcoin scale better and add privacy, CoinPool was the result of years of work with fellow developer Antoine Riard. The release would be an impressive achievement under any circumstance, but it was an astonishing scientific feat from a country on the brink of war.
On February 24, Naumenko was shaken from a dream by his buzzing phone. His friends were frantically texting him: The invasion was happening. He had assigned a small probability for this in his mind but only a tiny one. Only 12 hours earlier, he had been riding his new electric scooter to a coffee shop to read a book. The weather was gray and depressing. There was no one on the streets. He was overcome by a strange feeling. Only when he was jolted awake at 5:00 a.m. did he realize war had arrived. He threw together a backpack and hurried to a nearby metro stop, where he descended into a Soviet-era bomb shelter, built to withstand nuclear attacks.
He spent three days and two nights in the bunker. At first, when he went into the subway station, the old woman at the turnstile asked him to wear a mask. He looked at her, baffled. COVID-19 was over, and war had begun. More and more people and families with children joined him, bringing pillows and food, preparing to live there. The initial shock of war drove crowds underground, but after a few days, out of necessity, people started to return to their terrestrial lives.
When Naumenko finally left the shelter, he met up with friends and decided to leave the city in a pink BMW. The car was ostentatious but was the only one available. They were afraid their ride might bring too much attention but decided to use it to split west anyway. The Russian army was in the suburbs outside of Kyiv, killing civilians, and they could hear the firefight. Time was of the essence.
Naumenko’s friends disappeared into Romania, but he asked to be dropped off in a Ukrainian town right before they crossed the border. He wanted to stay and help.
Putin's troops brought so much suffering for Ukraine, where Russian troops bombed and destroyed the houses of many Ukrainian civilians. Some Ukrainian cities have been destroyed completely and Mariupol, a city once populated by 500.000 people is completely ruined. Satellite images even showed that Russians have dug mass graves, most likely to get rid of Mariupol citizens which would be a war crime.
Putin brought war to almost everyone in Ukraine and even those in the western parts of Ukraine need to seek shelter when Russia is launching new missile strikes. It's horrible, because any time you can get an air raid warning, hoping the rocket won't hit your house.
But Putin also brought suffering to his own country. When he rushed more troops to the front to conquer Ukraine, he announced mobilization of 300.000 young men and sent them mostly unprepared to the front for his cruel war. That's what military strategists call "
cannon fodder".
Many Russians were trying to leave the country but were stopped by Russian guards at the border. They have been imprisoned and sent to the front.
It's truly a shame what Putin is doing there: he has started the biggest land war since WW2, when Hitler launched an attack against Poland and later several other countries. It's completely justified to call Putin "Putler" because he's standing in the tradition of Hitler's actions of WW2.
People are suffering because maniac Putin wants to create Soviet Union 2.0 and re-establish his communist shit hole.
How can Bitcoin help to get rid of Putin's dictatorship? As Alex Gladstein described in his article
Currency of last resort how Bitcoin is helping people suffering from Putin's bloody war, it would be interesting to evaluate how Bitcoin can help us to get rid of Putin's dictatorship or at least weaken his position that he needs to make concessions.
Sure, it's not easy and Bitcoin alone can't stop Putin from invading Ukraine but Bitcoin can be a part of the solution to send Putin's regime literally to the Gulag
How Bitcoin can contribute:- Russians should disapprove Putin's war by using Bitcoin. As we all know, Putin is afraid of losing his power. He's a dictator and can't be removed democratically, therefore people need to reclaim democratic decision-making. Bitcoin is such a democratic tool and he can't ban it if people decide to use it instead of his Ruble.
- We, as allies of Ukraine, should help to undermine the Russian Ruble, national currency of Russia. It would weaken the Russian Ruble, national currency of Russia. And a fragile Ruble would weaken Putin's ability to buy or manufacture more weapons = less people will be killed in Ukraine from Russian missiles and Ukraine can push the Russian troops back out of Ukraine.
- If Putin keeps to govern in an authoritarian way, Russians should refuse to pay taxes as paying taxes in countries where no fair and free elections have been taken place should be optional. By doing so, people could force a democratic election and vote Putin out of power. Eastern Germany collapsed in a similar way.
- Bitcoin can help us to send aid to Ukraine as initiatives from icopress or JohnnyUA have proven.
A while ago I wrote the topic
Bitcoin can help a bit to reduce spreading of coronavirus. There was a small aid that Bitcoin could bring, by not using physical money, which could carry the virus.
There is now another aid which Bitcoin can bring: help people from Ukraine, which maybe can not receive fiat donations, but Bitcon is unstoppable. G7 countries sanctioned Russia but it was not enough for shaking their currency too much; Bitcoin may help here as well.
It's not much but is something! And, by using Bitcoin more and more we all make it more powerful and its powers are coming back to help us. It's not much but, at least, we all can do something for helping Ukraine through Bitcoin.
So help Bitcoin help Ukraine!Topic is self-moderated for avoiding spam.
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