John,

We fight for the Internet and digital rights because the potential of technology built for good is truly endless. But as you know, Big Tech and ill-informed legislators are the biggest threats to that potential.

A better future for our digital spaces is possible. Through a lot of careful research and deliberation, our team has decided that blockchain technology and cryptocurrency could help us get there. If you’re already with us, great. Contact your representative now to tell them to defend cryptocurrency from ill-informed and stifling legislation. But if you aren’t, read on and hear us out?

Blockchain, which powers cryptocurrency, works by distributing the digital spaces it supports among a vast network of individuals and organizations (i.e. “decentralization”). This could mean an Internet where no one company, government, or individual can ever control or censor our online experiences. Blockchain technology has the potential to end mass online surveillance. It could make political repression and de-platforming impossible. If we get this right, it could mean an Internet and digital world that is people-powered and human rights-centered, not built to exploit people and maximize the profits of Big Tech.

Now, getting it right is a BIG if. And that’s part of why we’re getting involved in this space—with the goal of protecting the people trying to create alternatives to Big Tech and Big Banks. We also want to hold people doing bad things with cryptocurrency accountable.

Earlier this month, we took our biggest stand since the height of the fight for Net Neutrality and drove over 40,000 calls to the Senate. We’re reaching out to you now because this fight is continuing in the House. We’re trying to stop a dangerous provision in the Infrastructure Bill that could kill the decentralization potential cryptocurrency offers. Contact your representative now to tell them: support an amendment that doesn’t kill cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain technology, at its most basic, is a list of transactions that anyone can view and verify. Cryptocurrency is powered by blockchain, and therefore offers a decentralized alternative to big banks, credit card companies and services like Venmo or PayPal. These major players have consistently oppressed marginalized communities and political dissenters all around the world, from pro-democracy leaders in Hong Kong¹, to anti-police brutality activists in Nigeria², to sex workers and sex worker activists³. Through Blockchain, every single cryptocurrency transaction is published publicly and verified by thousands of miners, leaving no room for manipulation of transactions or denying services to important activists or movements.

As it’s written now, the provision in the Infrastructure Bill purports to be addressing “tax avoidance”, but in reality it would require mass surveillance of the cryptocurrency industry and puts many fundamental cryptocurrency participants in an impossible position: to either collect information that they structurally cannot get access to, or to operate outside the US.

The Senate has unfortunately already failed to change the language of the provision in any way. Now the bill has passed to the House, and it’s up to our Representatives to protect the future of a decentralized Internet.

Send a message to your Representatives now, asking them to fight this ill-informed provision through an amendment that protects cryptocurrencies.

We are building allies in the House on cryptocurrency for the first time, and we’re doing it because people like you are reaching out to their legislators. Nothing will stop this dangerous provision unless our Representatives hear from us – hundreds of us.

TAKE ACTION

Thank you for hearing us out and for all your support on our other issue areas. We’re still fighting for those, too.

For the dismantling of surveillance capitalism and a people-centered Internet,

Lia and the Team at ❤️Fight

Footnotes:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/07/exiled-hong-kong-legislator-calls-for-inquiry-after-hsbc-freezes-bank-account

[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8e3m/nigerias-endsars-protestors-still-face-frozen-bank-accounts-and-jail-time

[3] https://www.engadget.com/2015-12-02-paypal-square-and-big-bankings-war-on-the-sex-industry.html

Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.