4 Progressives Working To Change The Narrative Around Bitcoin - Mikal Koss
Bitcoin is often associated with right leaning politics, but that characterization is quickly changing. There is a growing cohort of progressive minded bitcoiners who are beginning to make their voices heard in the space.
The truth is that bitcoin is apolitical, a permissionless protocol, free for anyone to use. Whether it is utilized for greater financial inclusion or achieving climate goals, there are many reasons why progressive minded individuals would choose to support bitcoin.
The following four progressive bitcoiners are a few of the most vocal who are striving to educate the political left and change the narrative on bitcoin.
Margot Paez
Margot Paez is a PhD candidate and fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a role she earned through her writings about bitcoin’s positive impact on climate change. She found bitcoin relatively early, but it took her 7 years to realize its importance.
In our interview, Paez equated bitcoin to a continuation of the occupy movement. She views bitcoin as an important payment rail to mitigate de-platforming and reign in big banks. Paez ultimately stuck around because of the climate impacts, a characteristic of bitcoin discussed in one of my previous articles.
“Bitcoin promotes a philosophy of grassroots, bottom-up solutions,” Paez said in our interview. She emphasized bitcoin mining making renewable energy more profitable as an example. Through free market incentives, bitcoin can help move the ball forward on progressive goals without the need for government intervention
Paez also noted the growing circular economies in the global south, especially in South America as an inspiration to her. Her hope is that over time, bitcoin can “subvert the incentives of big banks” which, in her eyes, led to the 2008 Financial Crisis and have delayed progressive climate goals.
Trey Walsh
Trey Walsh is a progressive, bitcoiner and advocate for young adults facing uncertainty in today’s world. He is the senior director for youth programs at the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board in Somerville, Massachusetts, a nonprofit whose mission is to develop partnerships and advocate for workforce solutions that result in meaningful career pathways and quality employment for residents. Walsh says he sees bitcoin as a solution for disenfranchised communities.
Wash said in an interview that inflation affects poorer communities the most. Many do not own any appreciating assets, so their wealth is slowly devalued. He thinks that by saving in a fixed supply money like bitcoin, it can help protect those community’s purchasing power from inflation.
Walsh also sees bitcoin assisting the immigrant community who experience roadblocks when trying to open bank accounts by eliminating that need. He also said that it allows them to bypass expensive money transmitting services, making remittances much less expensive. Walsh is actively trying to change the bitcoin narrative through his Bitcoin Magazine articles and podcast interviews.
Jason Maier
Jason Maier is a high school math teacher who left a math Ph.D. program to pursue teaching opportunities. He gained an interest in bitcoin from his computer science and coding hobbies.
Maier recently published a book, A Progressive’s Case For Bitcoin. “I wrote the book because I was an educator that knew there was an audience out there that would be unreachable without different resources,” Maier said about his motivation.
Maier posits that the culture surrounding bitcoin provides a barrier to learning for those who align with the political left, ultimately preventing them from diving deeper. He suggests that it is a mistake, and sought to address those blind spots through this book.
“Ultimately Bitcoin is a monetary technology. As any good monetary technology, it doesn't and shouldn't have a political bias,” Maier said about bitcoin’s perceived politicization. He hopes that his book can help educate those on the political left who remain skeptical of the nascent technoStephany
Mark Stephany
Mark Stephany is a hospital physician who has practiced medicine for 10 years. He discovered bitcoin in 2017 while reading the Harvard Business Review. He experienced some financial pain in the crypto space’s initial coin offering craze, which ultimately led him back to focusing exclusively on bitcoin.
Stephany started The Progressive Bitcoiner in December 2021 as a result of his research. He told me that financial security underpins a lot of what left leaning voters care about, and that bitcoin can be a solution.
“The very people that progressives espouse to support are the ones that have found bitcoin most useful,” Stephany said in our interview. He cited financial stability concerns and the ability to save in a currency that does not inflate as an example. Stephany said he felt an obligation to start covering bitcoin through a progressive lens because of this realization.
The Progressive Bitcoiner podcast received over 30,000 downloads before ultimately ending in December 2022. Stephany and the others interviewed remain hopeful that over time, more left leaning voters will begin to understand the benefits of bitcoin. In doing so, they think bitcoin will rise above the right-left political narratives and begin to affect some meaningful change.
4 Progressives Working To Change The Narrative Around Bitcoin
Mikal Koss