#4 - Bitcoin Protects Human Rights with Alex Gladstein
Jan 6, 2026
About this episode
Bitcoin is freedom technology. Alex Gladstein joins the podcast to discuss how the developing world is using the currency of the network to escape the currency of the state. Alex and Balaji cover how fiat devaluation is global taxation, why the IMF and World Bank aren’t what you think they are, and why Bitcoin is the critical tool for individual freedom.
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OUTLINE
0:12Check Your Financial Privilege book
5:16Stablecoins legalized
8:12Bitcoin is freedom technology
22:15Alex's book Hidden Repression
30:16The West has the greatest business model of all time
51:22When people say 'bitcoin saved my life'
REFERENCES
I. Books
•Check Your Financial Privilege: https://www.amazon.com/Check-Your-Financial-P...
•Hidden Repression: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Repression-Expl...
•Broken Money: https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Money-Financial...
•The Bitcoin Dollar: https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Dollar-Economi...
II. Studies and Articles
•Stablecoin Legislation of USA (GENIUS Act): https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12553
•Stablecoin issuers become the largest buyers of US debt : https://www.theglobaltreasurer.com/2025/06/25...
•Malawi’s currency devalued by 44% overnight: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-6736798...
•FDR suspends the gold standard for US currency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order...
•Thailand launches Crypto to Baht conversion: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/th...
•External debt history of Bangladesh: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3930...
•Bretton Woods System: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economic...
•Marshall Plan: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-195...
•IMF approves $3 billion bailout to Egypt: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/12/...
•$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Rec...
•Singrauli, India, still suffering years after World Bank coal investments: https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/wp-conten...
•Nostr Protocol: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostr
SOCIALS
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