“Every single country right now can weaponize data. Every single citizen can be easily weaponized — through their travel data, communication, and financial data. This must be fixed immediately.” urged Lyudmyla Kozlovska. The President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, explained how digital currency is becoming a key tool for humanitarian support and survival for victims of repression and the financially excluded.
The interview took place during the Bitcoin Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., in June 2025, shortly after a hearing in the U.S. Congress, where Lyudmyla Kozlovska testified at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. She spoke as a witness on the issue of transnational financial repression and violations of the human right to financial freedom.
In her conversation with Frank Corva, the President of ODF sheds new light on Bitcoin’s role, far beyond its economic function. As Kozlovska emphasizes, Bitcoin is primarily a tool for defending human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, and ensuring survival in the face of political persecution.
She highlighted, referencing her own experience with international financial repression by Kazakhstan, that even U.S. citizens and entities can become targets of such persecution, and that their personal data may be shared with authoritarian regimes. For this reason, she explains, the mission of her organization and the BTC Coalition is to combat the negative perception of Bitcoin and other privacy-preserving payment tools.
“What we see right now with the recommendations — which are, in fact, regulations — from the Financial Action Task Force is that they claim all of these tools are used only by terrorists, extremists, or political activists. This immediately discourages people from investing in or using them. Regulators keep adding more and more regulatory complexity,” notes Kozlovska. She adds: “We want to have a neutral language. We want to have clear procedures that explain why this technology is labeled in this way. We need an appeal process and solutions that demonstrate that privacy is not a bad thing. It is, in fact, a fundamental right — and that right must be protected. Bitcoin, as a key component of privacy, must also be protected.” She emphasizes that abuse of the FATF’s AML/CFT rules and cybersecurity laws is a threat to the national security and financial integrity of the United States.
How are negotiations with American policymakers progressing on this issue? Do the values represented by the Bitcoin and peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction community clash with American ideas of freedom and national security? How can individuals protect their privacy? We encourage you to watch the full interview:
Read also:
See other interviews:
- Your Financial Data Can Be Weaponized Against You – interview with Lyudmyla Kozlovska (June 13, 2025)
- Interview: Lyudmyla Kozlovska – Human Rights, Crypto, & Policy (May 31, 2024)
- TPB80 – Bitcoin Rights are Human Rights with Lyudmyla Kozlovska (March 26, 2024)
- Championing Financial Freedom: Lyudmyla Kozlovska on Bitcoin’s Role in Human Rights (February 29, 2024)
- Interview with Lyudmyla Kozlovska: her story, her struggles, and her achievements (February 23, 2024)
- Lugano’s Plan ₿. Defending Human Rights with Bitcoin: Interview with Lyudmyla Kozlovska (December 28, 2023)
- How Bitcoin became a tool for NGOs — an interview with Lyudmyla Kozlovska (October 6, 2023)
- TABConf2023: Bitcoin against transnational persecution (September 25, 2023)
Cover photo: YT/Bitcoin Magazine
