Financial Freedom Report #112
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- GLOBAL NEWS
- RECOMMENDED CONTENT
- BITCOIN AND FREEDOM TECH NEWS
- BITCOIN RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Good morning readers,
We begin this week’s edition in Cuba, where personal stories reveal the human toll of currency collapse under the communist regime. Amidst rolling electrical blackouts, even salaried professionals struggle to survive.
In Iran, millions remain cut off from the outside world as the clerical regime enforces sweeping internet blackouts amid unrest and continued air strikes, pushing many Iranians toward freedom technologies like Bitcoin and censorship-resistant messaging tools like Bitchat.
In Bitcoin news, asset manager Bitwise made a $233,000 donation to support open-source Bitcoin development. This fulfills a pledge to allocate 10% of annual profits from its Bitcoin ETF (an investment fund that tracks the price of bitcoin) to the developers that maintain the protocol.
We end with a Bitcoin Policy Institute report examining the monetary preferences of advanced AI models. Nearly half of those tested selected bitcoin as their preferred medium, suggesting many AI systems converge on open, permissionless digital money.
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GLOBAL NEWS
Cuba | Living on a State Salary Is Becoming Impossible
When Yunaika receives her monthly paycheck, she barely notices. The former pediatric nurse now earns more selling imported clothing in a single day than she did in an entire month on a state salary. Like many professionals, she left her government job after realizing that a monthly salary of roughly 5,000–7,000 Cuban pesos ($10–$14) no longer covers basic necessities. The consequences have ripple effects. At her son’s school, parents pool money to buy a new lock for the classroom door and repair desks themselves because a caretaker quit a job paying less than $6 per month. Some parents even quietly give small gifts to teachers (who earn roughly $10 a month) to discourage them from quitting mid-year.
In context: The Cuban regime has caused a collapse of more than 94% of the peso’s value in just a few years. Economists estimate that a basic food basket for two people now costs more than four times the average monthly salary. Families survive through informal work, international remittances, or by leaving the country, as the regime continues to stockpile foreign currency at the expense of the people.
Iran | Blackouts, War, and a Turn Toward Freedom Tech
In late December 2025, Iran’s dictatorship imposed sweeping internet shutdowns as pro-democracy demonstrations erupted over the country’s currency collapse. Now, millions of Iranians once again face near-zero connectivity, as the regime cuts them off from the outside world. These restrictions follow the death of Iran’s dictator, Ali Khamenei, in US and Israeli air strikes. Iranian police have reportedly warned users that bypassing the blackout could lead to prosecution and arrest. Consequently, many Iranians are turning to freedom technologies. The messaging app Bitchat reported that downloads of its offline messaging app surged during the shutdown. Others in Iran have purchased bitcoin and moved funds into self-custody to protect their savings from state control.
Turkey | Crackdown on Currency Exchange
Turkish officials have stepped up their enforcement of unregistered foreign currency exchanges in major cities and tourist areas. Since 2018, officials have suspended the operations of 859 unlicensed businesses. The crackdown comes as many people in Turkey increasingly seek other currencies to protect their savings from inflation and the long-term decline of the Turkish lira.
Why this matters: Informal exchanges often emerge in countries facing currency instability, strict foreign exchange controls, or heavy financial regulation. In restricting activity to licensed institutions, the government limits how citizens access foreign currency and move value outside the formal banking system. Bitcoin is also a popular currency choice for Turks escaping their inflationary currency.
India | Internet Restrictions Disrupt Payments in Kashmir
Government-imposed restrictions on internet and mobile data speeds in Kashmir are disrupting financial transactions across the region. Officials said they introduced the measures to curb the spread of misinformation following the death of Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei. However, the slowdown has rendered mobile banking apps and India’s state-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) so slow as to be nonfunctional. The incident demonstrates how state control over internet infrastructure can quickly paralyze everyday economic activity.
Russia | First Public Transaction with CBDC Completed
Russia announced the completion of its first real-world payment using its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital ruble. According to financial officials, a private citizen used the CBDC system to pay a 1,500-ruble administrative fine (approximately $16) in a pilot transaction. Russia’s central bank now says it is exploring additional state payments that can be conducted through the digital ruble. This follows earlier pilot tests that included making a salary payment to a member of parliament in the CBDC.
Why this matters: Authoritarian regimes often launch CBDCs for use with state payments like fines, taxes, or salaries. These tests allow officials to monitor and control everyday financial activity directly through central bank infrastructure, giving them power to restrict finances at the individual level.
Rwanda | Government Drafts Law Regulating Virtual Assets
Rwanda’s cabinet, chaired by dictator Paul Kagame, approved a draft law to regulate virtual assets. The draft law does not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal tender and states that they cannot be used for payments without central bank authorization. The draft law will now proceed through Rwanda’s parliamentary process before potential adoption. This limits the ability of advocates, journalists, and civil society groups to use digital assets as independent financial tools.
Why this matters: Rwanda’s highly centralized political system suppresses dissent. By requiring government authorization for digital payments, the regime places gatekeepers between citizens and open financial networks.
RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Pathways to Freedom
At a live event hosted at PubKey in Washington, former prisoners of conscience and human rights advocates discussed the challenges of life after release from authoritarian detention. The panel featured Russian dissidents Vladimir and Evgenia Kara-Murza, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, and Venezuelan activist Lilian Tintori. They were joined by Rwandan human rights advocate Anaïse Kanimba and Nicaraguan journalist and activist Berta Valle. Speakers shared personal accounts of detention, exile, and reintegration, while reflecting on how new freedom technologies can support dissidents confronting authoritarianism.
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Financial Freedom Webinar: Bitcoin for Nonprofits
HRF will host a free, three-day webinar from March 23–25 guiding human rights defenders and nonprofits on how to use Bitcoin to resist state censorship and financial repression. Sessions run daily from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT and are designed for all experience levels. The training will be co-led by Bitcoin educator Ben Perrin (BTC Sessions) and Anna Chekhovich, financial director at the Anti-Corruption Foundation, who will share practical tools for receiving donations, securing funds, and sustaining activism when bank accounts are frozen or surveilled.
RSVP
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BITCOIN AND FREEDOM TECH NEWS
Bitwise | $233,000 Donated to Bitcoin Open Source Development
Bitwise, a Bitcoin ETF provider and asset manager, announced it will donate $233,000 to support Bitcoin open-source development. The funds will be distributed through three nonprofit organizations: OpenSats, Bitcoin Brink, and HRF’s Bitcoin Development Fund. This fulfills Bitwise’s annual pledge to contribute 10% of gross profits from its Bitcoin ETF (a Bitcoin-tracking fund listed as BITB) to the developers who maintain and improve the protocol’s infrastructure.
Africa Bitcoin Conference | Fifth Edition Announced
The Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC), the region’s pioneering Bitcoin gathering, will return Dec. 2–5, 2026, for its fifth edition. This year, the event takes place in Blantyre, Malawi, where dozens of speakers, attendees, dissidents, developers, and regional industry leaders will convene to discuss Bitcoin’s potential to address monetary instability, financial exclusion, cross-border payments, and human freedom. As the largest Bitcoin gathering on the continent, ABC has become a central forum for advancing financial freedom across Africa, especially for those living under authoritarian rule.
AtlasPool | Bringing Bitcoin Solo Mining Infrastructure to South Africa
AtlasPool, a global service that helps solo Bitcoin miners operate independently, is expanding its infrastructure to Cape Town, South Africa. Its “solo mining” infrastructure will allow miners in the region to connect to its nearby server, reducing network latency and lowering barriers for African participants in neighboring autocratic countries to mine bitcoin and contribute to the global network.
Why this matters: Distributing the computing power dedicated to the Bitcoin network geographically makes it more censorship-resistant and permissionless.
Liquid | Blockstream Research Showcases Quantum-Proof Signatures
Researchers at Blockstream, a Bitcoin infrastructure company, have demonstrated a new method for protecting Liquid, a Bitcoin sidechain built for faster and more private transactions, against future quantum computer attacks. Using the Liquid Network, the team sent bitcoin transactions protected by new, “quantum-proof” security. The system uses Simplicity smart contracts to verify the new signatures, allowing users to voluntarily lock funds into quantum-safe spending conditions. While some components of the transactions remained classically encrypted (and thus vulnerable to quantum decryption), the experiment is a first step towards shielding funds from future quantum computers that could one day break today’s Bitcoin encryption without a full network upgrade.
Why this matters: If Bitcoin is to be a currency for human rights defenders 50 or 100 years from now, it must thrive in a post-quantum environment. Cutting-edge research like this helps make sure that Bitcoin users will, when that day comes, be ready.
BTCPay Server | New Plugin Enables Traditional Payment Methods
BTCPay Server, an open-source and self-hosted Bitcoin payment processor, now supports accepting fiat payments via an optional Stripe plugin. Stripe is a third-party payment processing platform and financial infrastructure provider. Now, merchants who value Bitcoin’s decentralized protocol can accommodate customers who prefer traditional payment options. This innovation gives added flexibility to Bitcoin-first companies and organizations.
BITCOIN RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Which Money Do AI Agents Prefer? By The Bitcoin Policy Institute
The Bitcoin Policy Institute recently published new research examining which money advanced AI models choose when given open-ended options. Across 9,072 controlled experiments involving 36 frontier models, 48.3% selected bitcoin, while 91% chose digitally native money (such as stablecoins or other digital assets) over fiat currency. The study suggests that many AI systems converge on open, permissionless digital money, with Bitcoin emerging as the preferred choice.
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Join Us at the 18th Annual Oslo Freedom Forum
Join HRF this year at the 18th annual Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF), hosted in Oslo, Norway, from June 1–3. This year’s OFF theme of “Dismantling Dictatorship” celebrates the activists, thinkers, technologists, and artists who take tyranny apart with ingenuity, creativity, and solidarity. Together, we celebrate stories of courage and explore bold ideas to advance freedom and unleash human potential through innovative solutions, including freedom tech.
Buy Tickets
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