Bitcoin advocate, human rights activist María Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize

María Corina Machado, a quality rights activistic and governmental absorption person successful Venezuela who has called Bitcoin a “lifeline” for Venezuelans, received the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting ideology successful the South American country.

Machado praised Bitcoin (BTC) as a pro-freedom technology successful a 2024 interrogation with Alex Gladstein, main strategy serviceman astatine the nonprofit Human Rights Foundation. She said:

“Some Venezuelans recovered a lifeline successful Bitcoin during hyperinflation, utilizing it to support their wealthiness and to concern their escape. Today, Bitcoin bypasses government-imposed speech rates and helps galore of our people. It has evolved from a humanitarian instrumentality to a captious means of resistance.

The lone mode to assistance Venezuela’s poorest is by ensuring spot rights, debased inflation, adjacent entree to opportunity, and government,” she said. 

Source: Maria Corina Machado

Critics person said the Venezuelan absorption question is simply a instrumentality of overseas interests. Five Venezuelan absorption leaders met with US caput of authorities Marco Rubio successful May to sermon plans for authorities alteration successful the country, according to The New York Times.

Political activists, absorption movements and individuals facing hyperinflating section fiat currencies with strict currency controls proceed to presumption Bitcoin arsenic a lifeline, allowing these groups and individuals to sphere wealth and circumvent authorities currency controls. 

Related: Jack Dorsey urges tax-free presumption for ‘everyday’ Bitcoin payments

Peer-to-peer exertion arsenic a instrumentality of state

Peer-to-peer exertion is emerging arsenic a instrumentality for governmental absorption movements warring against the monopoly connected unit wielded by authorities governments.

The trucker convoy protesters who demonstrated against the Canadian government’s COVID-19 restrictions successful 2022 turned to Bitcoin aft the authorities froze their slope accounts and backing sources. A national justice ruled that the enactment was unconstitutional.

Canada’s authorities was besides capable to prehend astir 5 BTC sent to the protesters implicit centralized channels, according to CBC News.

However, the bulk of much than 20 BTC sent to the protesters was ne'er seized by Canadian authorities due to the fact that it was sent done decentralized, peer-to-peer methods, making the funds immune to confiscation.

Protestors successful Nepal overthrew the authorities pursuing a societal media prohibition successful the country. Source: Anonymous

In September, protesters successful Nepal turned to Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat application, a peer-to-peer encrypted messaging web that uses Bluetooth to signifier a connection mesh, amid a authorities shutdown of societal media.

Bitchat turns each telephone connected done the Bluetooth mesh web into a relay node for messages and does not trust connected the internet, meaning it tin relation during a implicit net blackout.

Magazine: Bitcoin is ‘funny net money’ during a crisis: Tezos co-founder