Financial Freedom Report #96
Good morning, readers!
In Cuba, independent media outlet El Toque is again under pressure for publishing data on the informal exchange rates for the Cuban peso. The tool tracks the growing divergence between the government’s official rate and the street rate and provides Cubans with the real market value of the collapsing peso.
In Tanzania, patently unfree and unfair elections on Oct. 29 were followed by a nationwide internet blackout, electricity outages, and a curfew in the capital, Dar es Salaam. International human rights groups reported that security forces used excessive force against protesters, leaving many dead or injured. Internet access remained limited through Nov. 5, hampering people’s abilities to communicate, access up-to-date information, and use mobile financial services.
On the freedom tech front, the non-custodial Lightning wallet Phoenix released an update that improves the efficiency and privacy of Lightning transactions. Phoenix’s commitment to privacy makes it a good choice of wallet for human rights activists and dissidents in authoritarian countries.
In a new episode of the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast, HRF’s Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein explains how Bitcoin protects civil society from dictators who devalue currencies, freeze bank accounts, monitor financial activity, and employ myriad other forms of financial repression.
Now, let’s dive in.
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GLOBAL NEWS
Cuba | Independent Media Outlet Blamed for Inflation
Independent outlet El Toque is again facing pressure for publishing its Representative Currency Exchange Rate, which tracks the real market value of the Cuban peso. El Toque’s data highlights the gap between the government’s official rate of 1 US dollar to 120 Cuban pesos and the informal market rate, which now exceeds 400 pesos per dollar. It is one of the few reliable indicators of the financial realities Cubans face. Last year, state media led a campaign accusing El Toque of “financial terrorism,” as the regime seeks to deflect blame for Cuba’s worsening financial crisis after decades of currency collapse, censorship, and financial repression.
Indonesia | Central Bank Expands Oversight with New CBDC-Linked Stablecoin
Indonesia’s central bank announced plans to issue digital securities backed by government bonds. The initiative introduces a “national stablecoin” tied to the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupiah. As a centralized system, it would evidently increase the government’s capacity to surveil and regulate financial activity through more programmable payments and increased oversight. Indonesia’s rupiah hit a record low earlier this year.
In Context: Initiatives like the Indonesia Bitcoin Conference help Indonesians explore open, censorship-resistant financial tools to preserve their financial freedom.
Tanzania | Internet Blackout and Curfew Follow Unfree and Unfair Elections
Nationwide internet and electricity blackouts, a citywide curfew in Dar es Salaam, and harsh crackdowns on protesters followed Tanzania’s Oct. 29 patently unfree and unfair elections. Internet access remained limited through Nov. 5, hampering people’s abilities to communicate, access up-to-date information, and use mobile financial services.
In Context: Tanzania’s electoral commission declared that incumbent Samia Suluhu Hassan won the presidency with 98% of the vote in a contest from which two major opposition figures were barred from running. International observers stated that the conduct of the election fell short of democratic standards. The results were rejected by the main opposition party, Chadema, whose leader remains jailed on treason charges.
Iran | State Bank Merger Highlights Politicized Finances
Iran’s state-owned Bank Melli Iran (BMI) merged with the private Bank Ayandeh to absorb over 5,000 trillion rials ($4.6 billion) in liabilities. This includes 1,400 trillion rials ($1.3 billion) in non-performing loans, some of which were linked to overvalued assets. Ayandeh’s founder, Ali Ansari, offered to raise 2,000 trillion rials ($1.8 billion) in new capital, but senior officials declined to restructure the bank. The merger highlights the extent of corruption and mismanagement in the Iranian banking sector.
Kyrgyzstan | Regime Launches Stablecoin and CBDC with Binance
Kyrgyzstan launched a national stablecoin and legally recognized its CBDC, the digital som, as part of an expanding partnership with Binance. The new stablecoin, KGST, is pegged 1:1 to the Kyrgyz som and will be used for government-related payments alongside the digital som pilot. President Sadyr Japarov also announced the creation of a national cryptocurrency reserve holding Binance’s BNB token.
In Context: Ahead of November’s parliamentary snap elections, Japarov continues to consolidate power and restrict dissent in what was once one of Central Asia’s most democratic nations.
RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Bitcoin and the End of Financial Repression with Alex Gladstein
In this episode of the What Bitcoin Did podcast, HRF’s Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein shares how Bitcoin shields individuals and activists from the surveillance, censorship, and financial control of dictators. He discusses his new Journal of Democracy essay, reframing Bitcoin as a human rights revolution and contrasting its liberating potential with the state power reinforced by stablecoins and CBDCs.
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Financial Freedom Webinar: Bitcoin for Nonprofits
HRF will host a free, three-part webinar from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST on Dec. 15-17, guiding human rights defenders and nonprofits on how to use Bitcoin to resist state censorship and financial repression. Sessions are designed for all experience levels. The training will be co-led by Bitcoin educator Ben Perrin (BTC Sessions) and Anna Chekhovich, financial director at the Anti-Corruption Foundation, who will share practical tools for receiving donations, securing funds, and sustaining activism when bank accounts are frozen or surveilled.
JOIN HERE
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Democratic Decentralized Resistance Event November 12
The World Liberty Congress is hosting Democratic Decentralized Resistance, an event exploring how open technologies like Bitcoin, AI, and Nostr empower freedom in authoritarian contexts. Designed by Venezuelan democracy advocate Leopoldo López and supported by HRF, this event on November 12 will bring together 50 activists and technologists from around the world for a day of talks, hands-on sessions, and exchange. Registration is open for educators, tech builders, and active community members who want to engage directly with activists from some of the world’s most repressive environments.
REGISTER HERE
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BITCOIN AND FREEDOM TECH NEWS
Phoenix | Phoenix Wallet Launches Taproot Channels and Multi-Wallet Support
Phoenix, a Bitcoin Lightning wallet, launched an update introducing Taproot channels, which reduce on-chain costs, and make Lightning activity indistinguishable from standard transactions when channels remain open. The release includes full Taproot support with splicing and automatic migration for existing users. Taproot improves transaction confidentiality and efficiency, making it harder for external observers to trace payments or link identities. Phoenix has also added multi-wallet functionality to allow users to manage separate wallets, each with its own seed, and within the same app. This lets human rights defenders separate funds for personal use, donations, or organizational activities, reducing risk if one wallet is compromised.
Bitkey | Introduces Chain Code Delegation for Enhanced Privacy
Bitkey launched its new privacy feature, Chain Code Delegation, for all users this week. The upgrade eliminates a long-standing trade-off between security and privacy in collaborative multisignature wallets. Traditional multisignature setups allow each party to see a wallet’s complete transaction history and balance, which can introduce privacy risks for activists and other sensitive users. Chain Code Delegation addresses this by allowing one party to share a delegated chain code rather than their full extended public key (xpub). With a delegated chain code, other participants generate only the specific addresses needed for receiving funds without gaining the ability to monitor unrelated transactions.
In Context: For human rights organizations using collaborative multisig setups, this would limit the amount of financial activity that service providers (the companies that act as co-signers or coordinators in those multisig arrangements) can observe.
Cashu | Update Adds Mint Discovery and Web-of-Trust Ratings
The open-source ecash wallet Cashu.me rolled out an update that makes private Bitcoin payments more social and resilient. The new version introduces automatic seed restoration and recovery for mints (custodians of ecash) for smoother onboarding. The update also adds a web-of-trust discovery system powered by the decentralized Nostr protocol, letting users find and rate trusted mints through their established social connections.
In Context: Blending ecash’s privacy with Nostr’s decentralized protocol strengthens civil society groups’ ability to transact securely and support one another under surveillance, making it as easy to move censorship-resistant money as it is to send a message online.
Bull Bitcoin x Coinkite | Wallet Partnership Expands Self-Custody Options
Canadian Bitcoin companies Bull Bitcoin and Coinkite have announced a partnership integrating the COLDCARD Q hardware wallet with the new BULL Wallet. It enables users to purchase bitcoin directly into cold storage and spend using Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBTs) without exposing private keys. The integration allows for a more streamlined setup via QR code and supports non-custodial interoperability across compatible wallets, enhancing security and accessibility for human rights defenders who manage their own bitcoin holdings.
bitcoin++ | Upcoming ‘Local Edition’ Developer Conference in Durham
bitcoin++, a global developer conference series focusing on the technical side of Bitcoin and open source software, is hosting its first ‘local edition’ in Durham, N.C., on November 15. The event will feature leading Bitcoin developers, workshops, and freedom tech enthusiasts focused on building and experimenting with Bitcoin and open protocols. This edition aims to spotlight grassroots Bitcoin innovation, connecting global development talent with regional communities of builders, miners, and open-source contributors driving Bitcoin’s technical progress and advancing freedom tech for human rights.
RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Spark and Ark: A Look At Our Newest Bitcoin Layer Twos by Seth for Privacy
In a guest post for Bitcoin Magazine, privacy advocate Seth for Privacy explores two emerging Bitcoin Layer 2 protocols, Spark and Ark, that could redefine transaction privacy and efficiency with Bitcoin. Together, these protocols represent a new wave of innovation aimed at making Bitcoin payments faster, cheaper, and more accessible without sacrificing user sovereignty.
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