A few days ago a video was shared on Nayib Bukele twitter page. For those that dont know, Nayib Bukele is the presidente of El Salvador that a few years ago brought forth the adoption of BTC as legal tender in his country.
He was widely praised by the crypto community for doing so. By doing that, an objectively insignificant country in world affairs, brought significant attention to itself.
We can discuss if that was a good or bad move economically by El Salvador but the fact remains that this was a very bold and definitely a historically significant move.
The video that was shared is the following.
https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1629165213600849920
- nayibbukele
The people shown in the video are apparently, according to statements by El Salvador, the worst of the worst. Murderers, drug dealers, gang members. If true, no one should have any love for them.
I cant even say that I have a big problem with the contents of the video.
The video is propaganda intended to project power. The way the inmates are treated is obviously not necessary and simply plays into the power projection narrative. Are these human rights violations? I really cant say.
The main issue I have with the video is not the actual video itself but rather the response from the BTC maxis.
When criticism of the video was presented by some members of the wider community the maxis were very eager to come to the defense.
A group of people that will attack repressive actions by their government has somehow become a defender of a government that's significantly less democratic and more corrupt than the governments of the countries most of these maxis originate from.
And that is where the slippery slope is hidden. The video has nothing to do with BTC and is entirely a internal matter of El Salvador. Why so eager?
What if the video did depict more obvious human rights violations? Would they defend Nayib then?
"Of course they wouldnt!"
You might say that but remember that there is a non-zero number of crypto users supporting the atrocious Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What happens if the governments of North Korea, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, etc. adopt #BTC?
Are the maxis going to go on a PR campaign for those regimes? Do they become regime apologists?
This is a very dangerous trap we can fall into. A community that is supposed to be global in nature, nationally unaligned suddenly starts showing favoritism towards certain governments.
As the crypto community grows, and it will, the benefit for adoption will outweigh the cost.
Imagine if a small marginalized country can garner a significant support from the western world, as it would from the crypto community, and all it had to do was adopt BTC. Once the crypto community is a significant player in world affairs.
Regimes use things like sports for their promotion. Newcastle in the Premiere League for example. You think the Saudi prince bought the club because he was a big football fan and no better investment opportunities existed? No. He bought it in part because murdering Khashoggi and chopping him up was a Saudi PR nightmare.
BTC adoption will definitely be used in the same manner.
To make a note in the end, nothing as written above has happened yet but eventually we might find ourselves in a situation where it could.
The point im trying to make is that its very important to remember that the crypto community does not owe allegiance to any government regardless of BTC being or not being adopted as "legal tender" or whatever position that government might take in regards to BTC.