#19 Quantifying Bitcoin's benefit to humanity
Til now we’ve written mostly about environmental impact. This week we look at Bitcoin’s social and humanitarian benefit, and start the difficult yet critical task of quantifying just how many people Bitcoin is already helping, and to what degree.
It’s the first result from a big new chunk of research I’ve begun, and as a newsletter subscriber you’re first to be seeing it.
Main Story
Few if any have done a better job of debunking the myth “Bitcoin has no value to humanity” than Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. If you’re unaware of his work, this summary at this year’s Bitcoin conference is a must watch.
Alex and I caught up a little while ago to see if I could add some data around these stories. Why? Because I get a lot of messages like this one.
A lot of people who hear the real stories about Bitcoin’s utility in Africa and other places still believe that these examples you cite are occasional, incidental, or replaceable (by some stablecoin). They don’t get that these benefits are widespread, life-changing, and in many cases only achievable through Bitcoin.
Alex liked the idea of quantifying the benefits to humanity, while adding the cautionary note “It’s not easy!” (He was right). So I started the next step.
It’s a big project. There are more than 18 humanitarian benefits to Bitcoin, each one of which needs different strategies to gather meaningful data on. So I asked “which of the 18 should we start with?”
Bitcoin and Refugees
A while ago I was read a story of Fadey who fled Ukraine for Poland with $2000 of Bitcoin on a USB drive. Because of that, he was able to re-establish a life for him and his family. He also avoided being one of the 50% of refugees who live below the poverty line. He had no other way to withdraw money. As the Russian invasion proceeded, ATMs across Ukraine quickly ran out of cash, with many people standing in line for hours only to face a $33 limit per transaction.
Like most refugees, his entire life savings was effectively lost. Once he left his home nation without his savings, he was unable to withdraw it at all.
I wondered, “how many refugees just like Fadey are there?”
And so my first research question was born: how many refugees can set up a new life thanks to owning Bitcoin?
This was a perfect candidate for a first research assignment, because the number was measurable and potentially large, and the number could be estimated using existing and robust datasets.
It’s also a subject close to my heart. For 20 years, I’ve been a volunteer for the Art of Living Foundation, who’s sister organization IAHV does trauma relief programs for refugees around the world. The girl in the newsletter main photo, is a participant in one of IAHV’s programs.
Step 1: Quantify the number of refugees each year
According to the UN Refugee Agency, 1 in every 69 people is forcibly displaced every year, a huge number when you think about it.
UNHCR also gives a granular breakdown of refugees by country of origin, and by year. Next, I cross-matched this with the crypto-ownership rates for each country.