Dear Bankless Nation,
Canada invoked the Emergency Act this week in response to protests.
A first in Canadian history.
The law grants Trudeau’s administration the power to prohibit public assembly, travel, and the use of specific property for 30 days. The specific property includes access to one’s money in a Canadian bank.
This means that the Canadian government now has the ability to freeze its citizens’ bank accounts without due process or court order. And they’re doing it.
This goes beyond stopping banks from transferring funds to protest organizations.
The order says that banks and financials services providers including credit unions, loan companies, crowdfunding platforms, and crypto exchanges must stop “providing any financial or related services” to people associated with the protest.
If you’re involved in the protest they can:
Freeze your life savings.
Strand your money.
Cancel your credit card.
Stop your mortgage application.
Eliminate you from the banking system.
It’s not just the banks either. They’re targeting crypto wallets too. 😱
Wait…isn’t crypto unstoppable?
While they can’t stop peer-to-peer transactions on Bitcoin and DeFi on Ethereum, they can prohibit centralized crypto exchanges from interacting with a blacklisted set of Bitcoin and Ethereum accounts. Centralized custodians are the chokepoint.
Who gets this treatment?
Canadian Finance Minster Chrystia Freeland said she wouldn't get into the "specifics of whose accounts are being frozen" but “the consequences are real and they will bite.” No oversight or accountability. Who gets targeted is at the sole discretion of government authorities and Canada’s financial surveillance department FINTRAC.
“This ain’t my protest”
Let me be clear: this isn’t about us taking sides on the protest. This is us calling out the precedent this sets.
Whether or not you care about this protest, you have to ask yourself:
What happens if it’s a protest for something I care about?
What if it’s inflation? Or rising energy costs? Or social injustice?
This time it’s their protest.
Next time it’s yours.
How free do you feel when they can eliminate you from the economy with a mouse click?
This is why we need crypto. This is why we need DeFi. This is why we go bankless.
The banking system should not be a weapon used by governments on their people.
We need to be able to lend, borrow, trade without centralized institutions. We need DeFi built on a decentralized, censorship-resistant protocols. We need strong digital property rights in 21st century and we can’t rely on our governments to provide them.
This week caused a lot of Canadians to consider taking their money out of the banks. Where do you think that money goes?
When you erode trust in the neutrality of the banking system people move their money. As for the fate of these legacy institutions I think Minster Chrystia Freeland summed it up well—"the consequences are real and they will bite."
Here’s what’s lined up for next week:
- Tetranode teaching us how to become a crypto whale (early access)
- David is dropping a timely article on why crypto is here to set you free
- We’re dropping the “how to get started in DeFi (2022 edition)” guide.
Have a ✊ weekend.
- RSA
P.S. Check out Green Pill, a new Bankless podcast from Kevin Owocki! Crypto is here to fix the world, Kevin is here to tell the story on how and why.