Canadian Truckers Turn to BTC Donations
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A group of truck drivers protesting Canadian travel restrictions have turned to Bitcoin to raise funds for their cause.
The “Freedom Convoy”, a coalition of Canadian truckers protesting COVID vaccine related mandates in Canada, has turned to other means of raising funds as the fundraising platform GoFundMe froze their account funds on Friday. The platform froze about $7.8 million in funding that was pledged to the truck driver’s cause, opting to to manage how the funds are disbursed and only permit the sending of funds to “credible and established charities” chosen by the Freedom Convoy 2022 organizers and verified by GoFundMe.
A major part of GoFundMe’s reasoning behind the suspension was their claim of “evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration had become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”
The trucking group has since turned to alternative means of raising funds to support their cause, including accepting bitcoin donations. Their new Bitcoin donation page shows that the Freedom Convoy has raised over 8.89 BTC in a matter of days, equating to a value of $388,937 USD at Bitcoin’s currently price of $43,750 per bitcoin.
While the funding pales in comparison to the $7.8 million raised on GoFundMe for the time being, the utilization of the Bitcoin network to transmit funding for organizations provides a much stronger sense of security in the fact that no one can prevent or halt Bitcoin transactions. The Bitcoin network’s level of decentralization means that there is no single group, organization, or person in control of payment transactions. Unlike GoFundMe, Bitcoin cannot freeze an account associated with a person, group, or belief. Banks, payment providers, and in this case fundraising platforms can all halt transactions and freeze accounts due to disagreements over ideological beliefs or pressure from governing bodies. In this situation Bitcoin is functioning exactly as intended by it’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto, where the network facilitates the peer-to-peer transmission of electronic cash without requiring a financial institution to permit the transaction.