Blockchain is primarily thought of as an emerging technology used to support outrageous tokens like Dogecoin and unfathomable sales of jpegs for millions of dollars as NFTs. However, what is less well known is blockchain’s influential power of accessibility for communities in crisis as they battle oppression and violence. Using many of the innovative tools it has to offer which are available to anyone with an internet connection, blockchain is becoming a key tool to financially combat oppression, store data and memory that oppressors are trying to erase, and promote action on the web across international borders. Recently, Ukraine has used cryptocurrency as a mode to receive over $60 million in donations from around the world, giving people a way to show their support for Ukraine. Aside from the most prevalent example in the news, there are also important initiatives to support blockchain in crisis such as The ZeFi Foundation which is being launched by Karam Alhamad, a student at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and aims to increase access to blockchain in affected areas such as Syria.
There are a few important key blockchain terms to understand in its use by those in crisis that are both integral to blockchain as a whole and more specifically to its use in affected areas. It is first important to understand how users buy, sell, hold, and transfer cryptocurrency to each other around the world as that is one of the central ways people can financially support each other in the blockchain world. Every person who physically owns cryptocurrency has a cryptocurrency wallet. This wallet is defined by a specific cryptographic address, represented as a long string of randomized numbers and letters, and only the owner of the wallet with the password can access the cryptocurrency in it. When a user buys cryptocurrency, they send it to this specific wallet address that belongs to them, giving them power over what to do with it. When a user wants to give cryptocurrency to another user they simply transfer the cryptocurrency in their wallet address to the wallet address of the recipient they are paying. Because a specific amount of money is going from one unique address to another, the transaction information is stored on a public ledger that is the record of the transaction. Once you press send, the money arrives in the other person’s wallet in a matter of seconds no matter where they are in the world or who they are, making the transaction fast, borderless, and secure, unlike banking transactions which are slow and problematic over international lines. This money sending system is perfect for those in crisis who might not have access to a bank account due to their government’s restrictions but are able to provide their cryptocurrency wallet address to ask for financial support. Additionally, some people might prefer to give money to causes anonymously which they can do with crypto wallets but is impossible with usual bank accounts.
Crypto wallets and addresses have been a useful tool for Ukraine in their recent fight against the violence of the Russian invasion. On Twitter, blockchain’s favorite social media, Ukraine shared a post with two of their cryptocurrency addresses, one for accepting ETH and USDT and a second for BTC. By providing these two addresses, Ukraine covered the three most used crypto coins and gave crypto users an easy, quick, and secure way of donating directly to the Ukrainian government. The result was over $50 million in crypto donated to Ukraine in only a few weeks after the addresses were posted. Still, many people argue that using crypto in a place of crisis like Ukraine is too risky despite the over $60 million Ukraine has been able to raise through crypto. While there is some merit to the riskiness of crypto due to hacks of exchanges in the past, sending money through wallet addresses is equally, if not even more, secure than traditional banking transactions because there is a public ledger keeping track of transactions to make sure no money is misplaced (ledgers have been used to find and give back stolen crypto from hacks in the past) and that donations are being put to work for the right causes. Even more, simply sending money via crypto simply scrapes the surface of the multitude of blockchain tools that can be used in a crisis, something traditional forms of monetary movement do not offer.
One of these other lesser-known blockchain tools that those in affected areas are using is the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to store important files such as records or familial stories. IPFS is a protocol that is built on the blockchain to efficiently and securely store large files. These files can be easily shared with others on the blockchain through peer-to-peer interactions on the distributed file system which is shared by multiple servers around the world. IPFS accomplishes the storing of large files by using cryptographic hash functions which take an arbitrary amount of data as input and produce a fixed-size output of encoded text which essentially represents the input data. Since no one except the user who created the hash by storing the data can access the data the hash represents, no other party can erase or alter the data on the blockchain which is essential for those living under regimes that suppress free speech and produce untrue propaganda. Consequently, sending large amounts of data becomes easy because the data’s owner can simply share the fixed-size cryptographic hash across the blockchain to another user. IPFS is incredibly powerful because it can protect data of any size from being erased and altered while also allowing for the easy sharing of it across borders. For those who are living in crisis where oppressors are trying to silence them and erase their history, IPFS can be used to preserve history, stories, data, and accounts. Additionally, the ease of sharing these files opens a pathway for suppressed voices to be amplified and for records to be restored after destruction. Although IPFS is lesser-known and not used as often, the ZeFi foundation is making learning about IPFS a priority as it looks to increase the number of voices coming from Syria as well as preserve records that are being destroyed.
ZeFi’s overarching goal is to broaden accessibility to blockchain technology with a specific focus on bringing blockchain to people living in crisis-affected areas. By providing a gamified (objective-based) platform to learn about all things blockchain no matter one’s experience or location, if they have an internet connection they will be able to start using tools like IPFS and crypto wallets to combat oppression and violence. Even more, with more people familiar with blockchain technology by learning through ZeFi’s initiative, there are many more important tools not mentioned in this article that they will be able to put to use. Blockchain is an innovative technology that is applauded for its creativity, and that creativity can be used for good to help people fight back and be resilient in crisis.