Honk, Honk, HODL: How Bitcoin Fueled The Freedom Convoy And Defied Government Crackdown

Among the chaos of the Freedom Convoy and Canada's authoritarian reaction, Bitcoin proved itself to beryllium a sovereign fiscal obstruction for fueling protests.

This nonfiction primitively appeared successful Bitcoin Magazine's "Censorship Resistant Issue." To get a copy, visit our store.

The Freedom Convoy, a sweeping protestation prompted by COVID-19 vaccine mandates for Canadian truckers, saw authorities enactment extracurricular of established laws to quell demonstrations and artifact fiscal support. Among the chaos, Bitcoin proved itself to beryllium a sovereign fiscal obstruction arsenic hundreds of thousands of dollars successful BTC reached protestors successful spite of authorities efforts to artifact donations.

On January 22, a convoy of Canadian long-haul trucks near the larboard metropolis of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and arrived successful adjacent Prince George. The adjacent day, different radical of trucks traveled from Delta, British Columbia, to a conception of the Trans-Canada Highway. By the extremity of the month, immoderate 3,000 trucks and different vehicles, accompanied by much than 15,000 protesters, had converged connected the country’s superior of Ottawa, blocking its streets and calling itself the Freedom Convoy.

The city’s constabulary promptly launched a transgression probe into their assembly.

The protestors were initially motivated by COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border motortruck drivers implemented by the Canadian authorities connected January 15. On February 7 and for respective days afterward, protestors intermittently blocked Ambassador Bridge, the busiest planetary crossing successful North America, which sees $323 cardinal worthy of goods transverse daily. Ottawa businesses were damaged and blocked from operating, with Canadian economist Armine Yalnizyan aboriginal estimating that section workers’ suffered $208 cardinal successful mislaid wages.

The protestors were astir instantly palmy successful disrupting concern arsenic accustomed and attracting media attraction and connected February 11, Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a authorities of emergency. On February 14, the Canadian authorities took unprecedented extralegal measures by invoking the Emergencies Act for the archetypal clip since it was enacted much than 30 years ago, giving authorities the impermanent powerfulness to scope beyond the scope of existing instrumentality to quell the protest. Later that month, akin protests were organized successful much than 30 different countries, including the U.S., Argentina and New Zealand.

And done it all, the Freedom Convoy rapidly became 1 of the astir high-profile trial cases for the usage of Bitcoin arsenic a permissionless and censorship-resistant mode of transacting worth to whomever, wherever, whenever.

“This volition beryllium a humanities infinitesimal for Bitcoin,” explained B.J. Dichter, a Toronto nonmigratory calved and raised successful Canada, who was a long-haul trucker himself earlier becoming a spokesperson for the Freedom Convoy. “Because we ever talked astir this hypothetical, the authorities tyranny of blocking your slope accounts, stealing your wealth and whatever… Well, present they conscionable did. So, it proved everything. Everything that radical said astir Bitcoin like, ‘Oh, that’s hyperbolic. That’s ne'er gonna happen.’ Well, conjecture what? Yesterday’s conspiracy is today’s reality. And I deliberation successful the future, radical are going to see, that was the infinitesimal that regular radical and everybody understood that the authorities can’t way it, can’t artifact it, and shouldn’t beryllium capable to.”

Pushed To Protest

In 2018, Canada’s trucking manufacture pulled successful astir $31.5 billion, moving much than 63 cardinal shipments, according to Statista. From 2009 to 2018, it generated $277.1 cardinal successful all. For galore Canadians implicit the past fewer years, moving arsenic a long-haul trucker was seen arsenic an accidental to gain a flexible and dependable income.

“I got my licence earlier the regulations changed successful Canada that made it precise restrictive to get a trucking license,” Dichter explained. “My member thought it would beryllium bully erstwhile helium retires that possibly we’ll commencement doing a concern unneurotic and helium wanted to spell into trucking… So, I got my licence and was getting a small spot of experience, portion clip erstwhile I had days off… Trucking became a broadside hustle.”

Dichter recalled his relation successful the Freedom Convoy portion sitting successful the halls of the Miami Beach Convention Center during the Bitcoin 2022 league successful April, wherever helium had been invited to talk astir the relation that Bitcoin played successful sustaining the protest. He described himself arsenic a “serial entrepreneur,” who has worked arsenic a geologist and diamond grader, successful the motorcycle industry, arsenic a podcast shaper and more. His ain involvement successful Bitcoin was piqued successful 2015 and helium archetypal invested successful bitcoin the twelvemonth after.

He said that stringent regulations imposed connected Canadian motortruck drivers had been a longstanding constituent of contention betwixt drivers and regulators since good earlier the Freedom Convoy was organized. In 2019, for instance, 150 truckers from Alberta took a four-day convoy thrust to Parliament Hill successful Ottawa, calling themselves the United We Roll convoy. According to local quality sum astatine the time, the truckers were protesting a slew of authorities impositions, including lipid and state taxes.

Dichter called this year’s vaccine mandates the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for Canadian truckers.

“Most of america are vaccinated,” helium explained. “It was the mandates, the deficiency of choice. That was the problem.”

Dichter described a idiosyncratic acquisition that took spot conscionable days earlier the convoy concern of Ottawa; borderline agents had tracked his vaccine presumption by surveilling his telephone wrong a definite vicinity of the U.S. borderline arsenic helium drove backmost home. To him and galore different Canadians, this level of authorities monitoring was indicative of a increasing willingness by authorities officials to way idiosyncratic details astir their citizens without permission.

“If that’s the case, past we person a wholly tracked and surveilled society, similar this is brainsick wherever we’re going, we’ve got to halt this now, and each of america saw it,” helium said. “It was these last restrictions of ‘Papers please,’ to transverse the borderline into your ain state that was conscionable enough.”

About a week earlier protestors near for Ottawa, Dichter was contacted by Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich, a longtime person who has organized galore protestation movements successful her autochthonal Canada. She was arrested connected February 17 for her relation successful the Freedom Convoy and, arsenic of this writing, is legally barred from returning to Ontario but for court-related reasons. Lich asked Dichter for assistance with media relations.

“I emotion these truckers, I’m friends with them, but nary of them person immoderate media acquisition oregon immoderate media grooming whatsoever,” Lich told Ditcher, arsenic helium recalled. “Can you beryllium the spokesperson, assistance with the property releases, each that benignant of stuff?”

Freedom Convoy organizers launched a fundraiser connected centralized donations processor GoFundMe successful January 2022, hoping to rise astir $20,000 for substance and different basal supplies needed to prolong their protest. To their surprise, by the extremity of January they had raised astir $4 cardinal from much than 100,000 donors and GoFundMe had distributed astir $800,000 to the organizers.

But successful aboriginal February, GoFundMe paused the distributions implicit concerns that the fundraiser was not successful compliance with its presumption of service, which see prohibitions connected “user contented that reflects oregon promotes behaviour successful enactment of violence.”

“Recent events successful Ottawa, Canada, person generated wide treatment astir the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser connected GoFundMe,” according to a company statement from February 2. “As portion of our accusation gathering process, we besides requested much accusation from the organizer regarding the usage of funds to guarantee the fundraiser is inactive compliant with our Terms of Service. When we bash not person required information, we whitethorn enactment a intermission connected donations arsenic we did successful this case.”

That’s erstwhile the Canadian authorities started getting straight progressive successful the transmission of funds from donors to protestors.

On February 3, a committee from the Canadian House of Commons asked GoFundMe officials to attest implicit information concerns astir wherever the donated funds were coming from and wherever they mightiness beryllium going. Members of Parliament besides asked the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to testify. The adjacent day, GoFundMe removed the campaign.

Several different centralized fundraising platforms started collecting funds for the Freedom Convoy, but it was wide that the Canadian authorities had drawn a enactment successful the sand. Fundraisers connected Christian-focused donations level GiveSendGo had collected much than $8.5 cardinal for the protestors, but the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted a tribunal bid to frost the funds. By precocious February, Canada had invoked the Emergencies Act and had frozen much than 75 slope accounts linked to the protests.

“Three years ago, if you had asked maine what’s the accidental that Canada would frost individuals’ slope accounts… I’d find it truly hard to judge it was 20%,” said Greg Foss, an outspoken Bitcoin advocator and fifth-generation Canadian. “And 3 years later, it’s 100%... It was not a bully happening for freedom.”

A Permissionless Avenue

As Dichter and others organizing the Freedom Convoy wrestled with centralized fundraisers, Bitcoiners who had been supporting the question passim took it upon themselves to rise BTC donations done Tallycoin, a bitcoin-based fundraising platform.

“The Bitcoin assemblage was awesome,” said Dichter. “Of each the things I had to woody with — these small groups infighting and people, you know, trying to bash their ain property conferences — the 1 assemblage that I could beryllium connected was the Bitcoin community, due to the fact that they had each their ducks lined up. They were great, they conscionable benignant of kept maine up to date.”

Tallycoin enables donations straight to a fundraiser’s Bitcoin wallet and offers the enactment to database an extended nationalist cardinal truthful that each idiosyncratic Bitcoin outgo generates a unsocial address. This is simply a captious privateness champion signifier that makes it much hard for observers to subordinate these payments together. The level besides offers Lightning Network donations for fundraisers that usage Bitcoin outgo processors oregon by straight connecting their ain Lightning nodes.

Using Tallycoin, a Bitcoiner named Nicholas St. Louis, who utilized the pseudonym NobodyCaribou, spun up a fundraising run called “HonkHonk Hodl,” receiving its archetypal donation connected February 1. As the Freedom Convoy’s fiat fundraisers were unopen down and frozen, this Bitcoin-based run announced that it had surpassed its 5 BTC goal, worthy astir $213,000 astatine the time, connected the aforesaid time that the Canadian authorities invoked the Emergencies Act.

But getting the bitcoin from HonkHonk Hodl’s Tallycoin addresses into the hands of protesting truckers, galore of whom knew precise small astir the technology, would beryllium a challenge. St. Louis teamed with J.W. Weatherman, a Bitcoin developer and donor, to found a program and they published a lengthy, nationalist Google Doc called “Step-By-Step Guide For Distributing Bitcoin.”

The usher described a process of creating envelope packages to beryllium handed retired to protesting truckers straight via a “phone wallet that is decently backed up connected paper.” At the clip of this writing, the Google Doc appears to person been abandoned, with respective items near unfinalized, but it outlined a process successful which organizers utilized the security-focused Tails operating system, past the Electrum Bitcoin wallet to make backstage keys, which would beryllium handwritten successful pen connected 2 abstracted pieces of paper. These papers would past beryllium sealed successful an envelope, labeled arsenic “trucker 1 — effect 1,” for instance, past sealed wrong different envelope, alongside written directions for however to import the effect into a unafraid telephone wallet and, ultimately, walk the donated bitcoin.

On February 15 via Twitter, St. Louis informed donors that helium planned to administer the bitcoin to 200 protesting truckers successful a “verifiable way” by handing retired insubstantial bitcoin wallets containing effect words pre-loaded with 10,000,021 satoshis, on with instructions for however they could unafraid and utilize the funds.

On February 17, St. Louis tweeted an update that helium and a spouse had distributed 14.6 BTC to astir 90 truckers successful a 24-hour span, walking cab to cab and personally handing them out.

“There’s 8 expansive successful bitcoin successful there,” St. Louis tells a trucker successful 1 video posted to Twitter connected February 18, arsenic helium hands the trucker an envelope covered successful sparkly stickers. “Basically, unfastened it up, there’s instructions. All you bash is simply a betterment code, it’s going to archer you to download BlueWallet, which is what the betterment codification is for… Boot it up, it’s yours, acknowledgment for your service.”

The video past shows the operator and St. Louis shingle hands done the truck’s cab model earlier St. Louis walks on.

“I conscionable met that feline a couple, I don’t know, a week ago, and helium had a Bitcoin toque on,” the operator explained aft turning backmost to the camera. “I said, ‘What’s up with that?’ He said, ‘Actually, if you don’t mind…’ So I fto him beryllium successful the motortruck oregon whatever, and we downloaded his wallet oregon immoderate and helium said there’s immoderate massive, state loving radical who emotion Bitcoin and worldly similar that, truthful helium said we’re astir apt going to get immoderate large donors successful the future, truthful whatever. And seemingly there’s 8 expansive of bitcoin successful here… I warrant it’s legit… That’s decidedly 1 of the craziest things that’s happened successful the past 2 weeks.”

A brief documentary released by Reason’s Zach Weissmueller indicated that the HonkHonk Hodl fundraiser raised much than $1 cardinal worthy of bitcoin earlier it was unopen down by St. Louis, and that it delivered much than $600,000 into the hands of protestors.

A Central Point Of Failure

On February 16, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued an bid to each FINTRAC-regulated entities, demanding that they cease transacting with a database of 29 bitcoin addresses that it had associated with the protest.

On February 17, the aforesaid time that St. Louis announced that helium and a spouse had personally distributed much than 14 BTC to protesting truckers, a backstage people enactment suit targeting Freedom Convoy participants received a judicial order, known arsenic a “Mareva injunction.” It granted a frost connected the cryptocurrency affiliated with a radical of listed defendants and restricted them from moving that cryptocurrency into slope accounts and wallet addresses named successful the suit.

Defendants successful the suit included Lich, Dichter and St. Louis. It ordered TallyCoin and different integer plus platforms to frost immoderate transactions related to the identified wallets. The suit was initiated by a radical of Ottawa residents who claimed that they were forced to adjacent their businesses oregon mislaid enactment arsenic a effect of the protest. This was the archetypal clip successful Canada’s history that specified an injunction was utilized to frost cryptocurrency and the lawyer representing the plaintiffs reportedly hired a backstage investigator to way down the Freedom Convoy organizers.

“The velocity with which the Canadian authorities was capable to people and frost the travel of wealth speaks volumes astir however overmuch powerfulness lies successful the state of transacting,” said Econoalchemist, a pseudonymous Bitcoin privateness adept who publishes guides online focused connected however to accumulate and support BTC portion obscuring your real-world identity. “This is wherever Bitcoin shines, a decentralized, peer-to-peer physics currency system. With nary cardinal authorization to contradict transactions based connected immoderate floating motivation standard, peers wrong the Bitcoin web tin transact escaped from anyone’s permission. No authorities blacklist oregon people enactment suit tin halt a Bitcoin transaction from going through.”

As grounds of Bitcoin’s quality to alteration transactions contempt authorities regulations, HonkHonkWallets.GitHub.io, a website tally by convoy fundraisers to automatically scan the Bitcoin blockchain, indicates that 59 of 100 wallets distributed to truckers had been claimed and that 29 of those had seen astatine slightest 1 further transaction, arsenic of artifact 732,726. Much of this enactment occurred good aft the Mareva injunction was granted.

But Bitcoin is pseudonymous, alternatively than anonymous, and each transactions are recorded connected Bitcoin’s nationalist and immutable ledger, meaning that each transaction is taxable to scrutiny successful perpetuity. Bitcoin whitethorn person proven to beryllium a almighty method for circumventing centralized fundraisers for the Freedom Convoy, but it demonstrated its existent limitations arsenic well.

“The limitations of transacting with Bitcoin are mostly from connecting outer accusation to on-chain activity,” Econoalchemist explained. “For example, utilizing on/off ramps that necessitate KYC information. This is wherever support and censorship creep into the Bitcoin ecosystem.”

By March 18, Canadian constabulary had managed to freeze astir 6 BTC raised for protesting truckers.

“Though the RCMP won’t remark connected the case, it issued a connection to CBC News saying it has the capableness to prehend and retrieve integer currency assets, pointing to past cases wherever the Crown successfully prosecuted crypto criminals,” according to a March 21 CBC News report.

Perhaps led determination by on-chain surveillance methods, police raided St. Louis’ location successful precocious February and, according to him, seized 0.28 bitcoin stored successful a wallet that helium controlled on with Lich and Freedom Convoy organizer Chris Barber.

“Officers forcibly removed maine from my flat and took maine to an unmarked constabulary vehicle,” St. Louis told the Financial Post, per an nonfiction published successful March. “Police wanted the effect phrases for my crypto wallets. Under constabulary compulsion, I provided my effect phrases.”

When Bitcoin Magazine reached St. Louis successful mid-April, helium declined to remark for this article, explaining that helium was inactive taxable to the Mareva injunction and was acrophobic that further ineligible troubles could enactment an further 7.5 successful donated BTC astatine hazard of authorities seizure.

“I would person utilized a Bitcoin donation instrumentality that generates a caller code for each donor,” Econoalchemist said astir however helium mightiness person operated the Freedom Convoy fundraiser otherwise successful hindsight, portion acknowledging that these privateness measures would disrupt transparency astir however the donations were distributed. “I would person been sending each donations to [bitcoin mixing service] Whirlpool astatine periodic intervals during the fundraising campaign… I would person asked the truckers for their deposit code alternatively of creating the wallets connected their behalf… Then I would person sent them their bitcoin from the Whirlpool post-mix balance.”

A Beacon Of Freedom

On February 17, the time that the Mareva injunction was granted, constabulary successful Ottawa constructed a 12-foot precocious obstruction astir the Parliament gathering and established much than 100 checkpoints passim the protestation area. Barber and Lich, among others, were arrested. The adjacent day, a constabulary cognition of horse-mounted officers, followed by colleagues connected ft wearing high-visibility jackets, tactical teams successful camouflage and armored vehicles, arrested astatine slightest 100 much radical and towed 21 vehicles.

By precocious day connected February 19, the last important radical of protestors successful the metropolis was funneled to the country of Bank and Sparks streets, evolving into a thoroughfare enactment of a 1000 radical with an impromptu DJ by dusk. Then, a enactment of constabulary officers deployed capsicum spray to propulsion the assemblage 1 artifact southbound to Queen Street earlier the remaining protestors started to disperse.

Soon after, Freedom Convoy organizers instructed participants to vacate the city. As of this writing, COVID-19 vaccination requirements are inactive successful spot for Canadian truckers.

But contempt the Freedom Convoy’s unceremonious extremity successful Ottawa, the galore ongoing lawsuits and inspired protests inactive being held successful different parts of the satellite show that it was highly palmy successful calling attraction to the truckers’ cause, arsenic good arsenic the increasing pressures connected idiosyncratic state successful the Western world.

“As a Canadian, watching protestors converge connected Ottawa from some sides of the nation, and the fig of radical waving Canadian flags connected the road overpasses and on the sides of the road… Canada hasn’t shown that overmuch emotion since we past won the golden medal successful Olympic hockey against the USA,” Foss recalled. “This was a coming out, this was radical who were voicing their freedoms and waving the Canadian emblem and I conscionable don’t spot thing incorrect with that. And I volition ne'er spot thing incorrect with that. And it took a clump of truckers to reignite the passionateness nether Canadians.”

And the saga served arsenic 1 of the astir high-profile trial cases for Bitcoin arsenic a sovereign fiscal obstruction successful its thirteen-year history. As Bitcoiners proceed to tout the exertion arsenic an off-ramp from undue censorship and surveillance, its usage arsenic a strategy for getting hundreds of thousands of dollars successful worth straight into the hands of those who had been blacklisted by the Canadian authorities whitethorn beryllium the astir potent illustration of that powerfulness to date.

Perhaps astir importantly of all, it demonstrated connected the satellite signifier that fiat tin lone beryllium utilized however governments decide, portion Bitcoin is for freedom.

“I emotion Bitcoin, though I really emotion my state more,” said Foss. “That being said, it’s gonna beryllium a choky equine race, due to the fact that my country’s going successful the incorrect absorption and Bitcoin’s going successful the close direction.”