(…) This compliance bottleneck can also paralyze global human rights groups. Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, says her organisation experienced this when platforms like PayPal, GoFundMe and Wise blocked their fundraising appeals for Ukraine during the critical first months of the 2022 Russian invasion. Using bitcoin, the foundation was able to bypass these traditional delays and deliver emergency humanitarian aid on the second day of the war.
Charities, aid organisations and technology companies have wrestled with the problem of reaching people who cannot access the financial system for years. A growing number of developers argue that the existing model relies on too many intermediaries, particularly when funds must cross borders or reach people in restricted jurisdictions.
(…) Sami’s experience is not unique because the underlying problem is not unique. Around the world, activists, journalists and humanitarian organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to move legitimate funds across borders as financial regulation becomes more complex and sanctions affect entire jurisdictions rather than the governments they were designed to target.
(…) Lyudmyla warns that this issue extends beyond administrative friction to active “transnational financial repression,” where regimes weaponize global AML/CFT rules to strip dissidents of banking access, even in Western countries.
She referenced a landmark July 2026 resolution by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly that recognised transnational financial repression as a systemic threat and called for greater protection of donor privacy and privacy preserving digital tools. Lyudmyla told me that bitcoin payment tools are becoming a necessary lifeline for targeted donors and activists. (…)
Read the full article: forbes.com
See also:
