In my previous article, I wrote about the ongoing protests in Canada against the vaccine mandates imposed by Trudeau's government towards truckers.
The situation has been unfolding for months with truckers descending into the center Ottawa, the capital of the country and essentially paralysing it by blocking and occupying it.
To cripple the wave of support that the truckers have generated in Canada and the US, first through government intervention their GoFundMe Campaign was frozen. Then, once they moved to other fundraising platforms the bank accounts of those involved with the protests were frozen. This raised a lot of eyebrows because to many it was an act of financial dictatorship.
If a government can freeze the bank accounts and exclude from the financial system its people with such ease, what makes you think it cares about you?
To circumvent the ban, the protesters started accepting donations in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. One of the main groups was organized under Honk Honk Hold and included a number of vocal Bitcoiners. Now, in an unprecedented move, the Canadian government has called to also block the Bitcoin wallets where the funds were being collected.
For someone who has always portrayed himself as a liberal and progressive politician, these moves by Justing Trudeau go against whatever image he has been curating for years.
But can Justin Trudeau stop Bitcoin?
Let's be honest. No matter how much a leader can act up authoritarian he cannot. Not at least Bitcoin in its truest form, because it is permission-less, immutable, decentralized, and peer 2 peer money.
What the Canadian government is doing is giving a list of Crypto wallets associated with the protesters (including that of the HonkHonk Hold wallet) to Crypto Exchanges to blacklist them and never allow for that money to be converted into fiat.
Yes, the government of Canada can act up tough and go after the Centralized Exchanges like Kraken, Gemini, and Binance US.
Similarly it can go after Crypto donations platforms (if those are not decentralized) but if Bitcoin is in your non-custodial wallet, where you and only you have the keys to it, then they can
not do anything to stop you.
Furthermore, if the government of Canada goes hard after the Centralized Exchanges this will awaken even more people to the problematic nature of such institutions. Their clients will see that their crypto is not theirs and can be arbitrarily confiscated. This in turn will influence more people to move towards Decentralized Exchanges and DeFi protocols.
Last, the whole crypto sphere is growing wary of the Canadian government's attack towards the freedom that Bitcoin and the blockchain espouse. In the end the resistance to such authoritarian and arbitrary decisions will only grow. Even the CEO of Kraken donated 1 Bitcoin to the Honk Honk Hodl campaign. When normal Canadians realize that their government cannot stop Crypto, more will flock to Bitcoin looking to preserve their financial freedom.
