Antifa Threatened With Extremist Status: No Longer Thinks Bitcoin Is an Alt-Right Currency Antifa and BLM Will Make Bitcoin Edgy Again

News and Analysis
05.07.2020

Why neo-nazis love Bitcoin? Two years ago, this question was raised and promptly answered by The Guardian. In the atmosphere where right-wing or religious extremist groups were largely de-platformed, defunded, and shunned by both businesses and the public, it all boiled down to a single realization.

“For extremists, deregulated cryptocurrencies are a potent political statement as much as a means to fund their activities,” suggested The Guardian.

Times have changed and today certain forms of extremism are being perceived as a just cause by many online influencers. Riots are being quietly supported by many, from Hollywood actors to actual high ranking politicians. Yet the government is still adamant to crackdown on dissent.

As the new rebellion is openly supported by so may, we may be soon witnessing a sudden cultural shift that will forever change how Bitcoin is perceived by mainstream opinion-makers in the US and the rest of the western world. Why? Read on.

Bitcoin Is Not a Right-Wing Pet Project

Due to the circumstances of Bitcoin’s early development and its philosophical background, the common sentiment has always been that the crypto-industry is a space dominated by anarcho-capitalists and laissez-faire libertarians. Many influential far-left organizations and activists even went as far as designating Bitcoin as the “alt-right currency.”

Yet this myth was soundly debunked on many occasions. According to Coindesk’s two years old research, it turned out that close to 40% of cryptocurrency supporters were left-leaning liberals or even actual socialists. And these numbers have likely increased today.

“The right-leaning pioneers of pre-2017 crypto are faced with leftist migrants to their tech territory. As adoption grows, this trend will most likely continue and decrease the representation of right-wingers in crypto, especially of those at the far end,” concluded Coindesk’s researchers.

Today we can see the left’s smear campaigns against Bitcoin subsiding as radical leftists end up being targetted by the state themselves.

Viva la Revolution

Following weeks of rioting, looting, and violence across the country, Antifa—the self-proclaimed far-left anti-fascist movement—is facing risk to be designated a domestic terrorist organization.

The full-scale crackdown on leftist radicals started with the threat of denying them all kinds of centralized financial services and freezing their accounts. The tweet by Matt Gaetz (R-FL) where he urged the authorities to “freeze their money” went viral overnight.

Antifa is now joining the company of assorted enemies of the state and will likely be tackled according to the very same tactics. Just like violent right-wing groups and Wikileaks were smothered by financial services providers, Antifa will have to brace itself for the same fate.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s vow to outlaw Antifa, progressive media outlets like Forbes have been giving the far-left some ideas on how to stay afloat. Curiously enough, these ideas are exactly the same as those far-right organizations, Wikileaks and other outliers had to adopt years ago. And one of the cornerstones of financial survival for these organizations was Bitcoin.

BLM Will Adopt Bitcoin Too

Mirroring the broader leftist uprising, the black activist community is courting Bitcoin as well. Many believe that Bitcoin could help the black community in many ways beyond what taking to the streets may ever achieve.

The author of “Bitcoin & Black America,” Isaiah Jackson believes that black people should not deposit money in banks under any circumstances as the banking system does not work in black people’s best interests anyway, and turn to crypto for financial empowerment and emancipation instead.

“Our ancestors had no way to predict that one day we could have sovereign money that doesn’t require permission. Like, I can almost guarantee they would use bitcoin if given the chance to 80 years ago,” Jackson argues, “We should let bitcoin and cryptocurrency be our economic language and force other businesses to get down or lay down.”

Can They Shut Bitcoin Down?

Bitcoin separates the money from the state, which is a huge boon for upholding political freedom. But given the current socio-political situation in the US that may draw more unneeded attention to Bitcoin. And given the President of the US was not a fan of Bitcoin to begin with, this development may trigger a personal vendetta against the crypto community.

As Satoshi Nakamoto himself noted years ago: “WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”

Antifa is about to kick that nest once more.

This raised the question of whether it was actually possible for the US government to expropriate Bitcoin, similar to how President Roosevelt forced gold out of the pockets of citizens back in 1933.

According to Forbes, “it would be nearly impossible to censor Bitcoin transactions without creating a sweeping internet censorship program akin to CCP’s Great Firewall.” This is not an entirely unfeasible scenario (especially as long as the majority of crypto assets are amassed on centralized exchanges) but definitely not a possibility in the nearest few years.

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