Lex Fridman Podcast

#231 – Alex Gladstein: Bitcoin, Authoritarianism, and Human Rights

10.16.2021 - By Lex FridmanPlay

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Alex Gladstein is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation and the Oslo Freedom Forum. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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The Little Bitcoin Book: https://littlebitcoinbook.com/

Human Rights Foundation: https://hrf.org/

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OUTLINE:

Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) - Introduction

(08:36) - Universal human rights

(22:35) - Authoritarianism

(32:46) - AIs impact on civil liberties

(44:09) - Edward Snowden and government surveillance

(47:48) - Money

(52:01) - Bitcoin

(1:07:48) - Government response to Bitcoin

(1:18:19) - The blockchain

(1:23:42) - Can Bitcoin fail?

(1:26:33) - Bitcoin scams

(1:30:17) - Patriotism

(1:32:41) - Human Rights Foundation

(1:37:15) - Conflict with China

(1:40:05) - Corporate accountability

(1:55:27) - Garry Kasparov and the HRF

(2:00:36) - Journalism, conversations, and truth

(2:07:50) - Alex's book recommendations

(2:15:56) - Attacks on Bitcoin

(2:17:35) - The future of humanity

(2:21:57) - Advice for young people

(2:33:13) - Meaning of life

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