Honk, Honk, HODL: How Bitcoin Fueled The Freedom Convoy And Defied Government Crackdown

This article originally appeared in Bitcoin Magazines “Censorship Resistant Issue.” To get a copy, visit our store.The Freedom Convoy, a sweeping demonstration prompted by COVID-19 vaccine requireds for Canadian truckers, saw authorities work beyond established laws to stop demonstrations and block financial backing. Amongst the chaos, Bitcoin proved itself to be a sovereign financial rail as hundreds of thousands of dollars in BTC reached protestors in spite of government efforts to obstruct donations.On January 22, a convoy of Canadian long-haul trucks left the port city of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and arrived in nearby Prince George. The next day, another group of trucks traveled from Delta, British Columbia, to a section of the Trans-Canada Highway. By the end of the month, some 3,000 trucks and other automobiles, accompanied by more than 15,000 protesters, had converged on the nations capital of Ottawa, blocking its streets and calling itself the Freedom Convoy. The citys police immediately released a criminal investigation into their assembly.The protestors were initially motivated by COVID-19 vaccine requireds for cross-border truck chauffeurs implemented by the Canadian government on January 15. On February 7 and for a number of days later, protestors periodically blocked Ambassador Bridge, the busiest worldwide crossing in North America, which sees $323 million worth of products cross daily. Ottawa organizations were harmed and obstructed from operating, with Canadian economist Armine Yalnizyan later approximating that local workers suffered $208 million in lost wages.The protestors were nearly instantly successful in disrupting business as normal and bring in limelights and on February 11, Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency. On February 14, the Canadian government took unmatched extralegal procedures by invoking the Emergencies Act for the very first time because it was enacted more than 30 years back, providing authorities the short-term power to reach beyond the scope of existing law to stop the protest. Later on that month, comparable demonstrations were organized in more than 30 other countries, consisting of the U.S., Argentina and New Zealand. And through it all, the Freedom Convoy rapidly became one of the most high-profile test cases for making use of Bitcoin as a permissionless and censorship-resistant way of negotiating value to whomever, wherever, whenever.” This will be a historic moment for Bitcoin,” discussed B.J. Dichter, a Toronto citizen born and raised in Canada, who was a long-haul trucker himself before becoming a spokesperson for the Freedom Convoy. “Because we always spoke about this theoretical, the government tyranny of blocking your bank accounts, taking your cash and whatever … Well, now they simply did. So, it showed everything. Everything that people stated about Bitcoin like, Oh, thats hyperbolic. Thats never gon na happen. Well, think what? The other days conspiracy is todays truth. And I think in the future, individuals are going to see, that was the minute that regular individuals and everyone comprehended that the government cant track it, cant block it, and shouldnt be able to.” Pushed To ProtestIn 2018, Canadas trucking industry drew in about $31.5 billion, moving more than 63 million shipments, according to Statista. From 2009 to 2018, it produced $277.1 billion in all. For numerous Canadians over the last few years, working as a long-haul trucker was viewed as an opportunity to earn a reliable and flexible income.” I got my license prior to the guidelines changed in Canada that made it very restrictive to get a trucking license,” Dichter described. “My brother thought it would be excellent when he retires that possibly well start doing a service together and he wished to go into trucking … So, I got my license and was getting a bit of experience, part time when I had day of rests … Trucking ended up being a side hustle.” Dichter recalled his function in the Freedom Convoy while being in the halls of the Miami Beach Convention Center throughout the Bitcoin 2022 conference in April, where he had been invited to speak about the function that Bitcoin played in sustaining the protest. He described himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” who has actually worked as a geologist and diamond grader, in the motorcycle market, as a podcast producer and more. His own interest in Bitcoin was ignited in 2015 and he initially invested in bitcoin the year after. He stated that strict policies enforced on Canadian truck motorists had been a longstanding point of contention in between motorists and regulators given that well before the Freedom Convoy was arranged. In 2019, for example, 150 truckers from Alberta took a four-day convoy drive to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, calling themselves the United We Roll convoy. According to local news coverage at the time, the truckers were protesting a variety of federal government impositions, including oil and gas taxes. Dichter called this years vaccine mandates the “straw that broke the camels back” for Canadian truckers. “Most of us are vaccinated,” he discussed. “It was the mandates, the lack of choice. That was the issue.” Dichter explained an individual experience that occurred simply days prior to the convoy occupation of Ottawa; border agents had tracked his vaccine status by surveilling his phone within a certain vicinity of the U.S. border as he drove back home. To him and lots of other Canadians, this level of federal government monitoring was a sign of a growing desire by government officials to track personal information about their people without permission. “If thats the case, then we have actually a totally tracked and surveilled society, like this is crazy where were going, weve got to stop this now, and all of us saw it,” he stated. “It was these last limitations of Papers please, to cross the border into your own nation that was simply enough.” About a week before protestors left for Ottawa, Dichter was contacted by Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich, a longtime pal who has arranged various protest movements in her native Canada. She was arrested on February 17 for her function in the Freedom Convoy and, as of this writing, is lawfully disallowed from returning to Ontario except for court-related reasons. Lich asked Dichter for help with media relations.” I love these truckers, Im good friends with them, but none of them have any media experience or any media training whatsoever,” Lich informed Ditcher, as he recalled. “Can you be the representative, help with the press releases, all that sort of things?” Liberty Convoy organizers released a fundraiser on central donations processor GoFundMe in January 2022, wishing to raise about $20,000 for fuel and other standard materials needed to sustain their protest. To their surprise, by the end of January they had actually raised about $4 million from more than 100,000 donors and GoFundMe had distributed about $800,000 to the organizers.But in early February, GoFundMe paused the distributions over issues that the charity event was not in compliance with its regards to service, that include restrictions on “user material that promotes or reflects behavior in support of violence.”” Recent events in Ottawa, Canada, have created widespread conversation about the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser on GoFundMe,” according to a business statement from February 2. “As part of our info event process, we likewise asked for more information from the organizer concerning the usage of funds to ensure the fundraiser is still certified with our Terms of Service. We may put a time out on contributions as we did in this case when we do not get required information.” Thats when the Canadian government began getting straight involved in the transmission of funds from donors to protestors.On February 3, a committee from the Canadian House of Commons asked GoFundMe officials to affirm over security concerns about where the contributed funds were originating from and where they might be going. Members of Parliament likewise asked the Financial Reports and transactions Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to testify. The next day, GoFundMe eliminated the campaign.Several other central fundraising platforms started collecting funds for the Freedom Convoy, however it was clear that the Canadian federal government had actually drawn a line in the sand. Charity events on Christian-focused contributions platform GiveSendGo had actually collected more than $8.5 million for the protestors, but the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved a court order to freeze the funds. By late February, Canada had actually invoked the Emergencies Act and had actually frozen more than 75 bank accounts linked to the protests.” Three years earlier, if you had asked me whats the possibility that Canada would freeze people checking account … I d find it truly hard to believe it was 20%,” stated Greg Foss, an outspoken Bitcoin supporter and fifth-generation Canadian. “And 3 years later on, its 100% … It was not a good idea for flexibility.” A Permissionless AvenueAs Dichter and others organizing the Freedom Convoy battled with centralized charity events, Bitcoiners who had been supporting the movement throughout took it upon themselves to raise BTC donations through Tallycoin, a bitcoin-based fundraising platform.” The Bitcoin community was remarkable,” stated Dichter. “Of all the things I had to handle– these little groups infighting and people, you know, attempting to do their own interview– the one community that I could depend upon was the Bitcoin community, since they had all their ducks lined up. They were excellent, they simply type of kept me as much as date.” Tallycoin allows donations straight to a charity events Bitcoin wallet and provides the alternative to note an extended public secret so that each specific Bitcoin payment creates a distinct address. This is an important personal privacy best practice that makes it more difficult for observers to associate these payments together. The platform also offers Lightning Network donations for fundraisers that use Bitcoin payment processors or by directly linking their own Lightning nodes.Using Tallycoin, a Bitcoiner named Nicholas St. Louis, who used the pseudonym NobodyCaribou, spun up a fundraising campaign called “HonkHonk Hodl,” receiving its very first donation on February 1. As the Freedom Convoys fiat charity events were shut down and frozen, this Bitcoin-based project announced that it had exceeded its 5 BTC goal, worth about $213,000 at the time, on the very same day that the Canadian federal government invoked the Emergencies Act.But getting the bitcoin from HonkHonk Hodls Tallycoin addresses into the hands of objecting truckers, a number of whom knew extremely little about the innovation, would be a challenge. St. Louis teamed with J.W. Weatherman, a Bitcoin designer and donor, to develop a strategy and they published a lengthy, public Google Doc called “Step-By-Step Guide For Distributing Bitcoin.” The guide described a process of producing envelope bundles to be distributed to opposing truckers directly via a “phone wallet that is correctly supported on paper.” At the time of this writing, the Google Doc appears to have actually been deserted, with a number of products left unfinalized, however it detailed a process in which organizers used the security-focused Tails running system, then the Electrum Bitcoin wallet to produce personal keys, which would be handwritten in pen on 2 different pieces of paper. These papers would then be sealed in an envelope, labeled as “trucker 1– seed 1,” for example, then sealed inside another envelope, along with written instructions for how to import the seed into a protected phone wallet and, ultimately, invest the donated bitcoin.On February 15 via Twitter, St. Louis informed donors that he prepared to disperse the bitcoin to 200 opposing truckers in a “verifiable way” by handing out paper bitcoin wallets including seed words pre-loaded with 10,000,021 satoshis, along with guidelines for how they might protect and use the funds.On February 17, St. Louis tweeted an upgrade that he and a partner had dispersed 14.6 BTC to about 90 truckers in a 24-hour period, walking taxi to cab and personally handing them out.” Theres eight grand in bitcoin in there,” St. Louis informs a trucker in one video published to Twitter on February 18, as he hands the trucker an envelope covered in sparkly sticker labels. “Basically, open it up, theres guidelines. All you do is a recovery code, its going to tell you to download BlueWallet, which is what the healing code is for … Boot it up, its yours, thanks for your service.” The video then shows the chauffeur and St. Louis shake hands through the trucks cab window prior to St. Louis walks on.” I just fulfilled that person a couple, I dont understand, a week earlier, and he had a Bitcoin toque on,” the driver discussed after turning back to the camera. “I said, Whats up with that? He stated, Actually, if you dont mind … So I let him sit in the truck or whatever, and we downloaded his wallet or whatever and he stated theres some huge, freedom loving people who enjoy Bitcoin and stuff like that, so he said were probably going to get some huge donors in the future, so whatever. And obviously theres eight grand of bitcoin in here … I ensure its legit … Thats certainly one of the craziest things thats occurred in the last 2 weeks.” A quick documentary released by Reasons Zach Weissmueller suggested that the HonkHonk Hodl charity event raised more than $1 million worth of bitcoin before it was closed down by St. Louis, which it delivered more than $600,000 into the hands of protestors.A Central Point Of FailureOn February 16, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) released an order to all FINTRAC-regulated entities, demanding that they stop negotiating with a list of 29 bitcoin addresses that it had actually connected with the protest.On February 17, the very same day that St. Louis revealed that he and a partner had personally dispersed more than 14 BTC to objecting truckers, a personal class action lawsuit targeting Freedom Convoy participants got a judicial order, understood as a “Mareva injunction.” It approved a freeze on the cryptocurrency associated with a group of listed offenders and limited them from moving that cryptocurrency into savings account and wallet addresses called in the suit.Defendants in the suit included Lich, Dichter and St. Louis. It ordered TallyCoin and other digital asset platforms to freeze any transactions related to the identified wallets. The match was started by a group of Ottawa homeowners who declared that they were required to close their organizations or lost work as a result of the protest. This was the first time in Canadas history that such an injunction was utilized to freeze cryptocurrency and the legal representative representing the plaintiffs supposedly hired a personal investigator to track down the Freedom Convoy organizers.” The velocity with which the Canadian federal government had the ability to freeze the flow and target of cash speaks volumes about just how much power depends on the liberty of negotiating,” stated Econoalchemist, a pseudonymous Bitcoin personal privacy expert who releases guides online concentrated on how to build up and protect BTC while obscuring your real-world identity. “This is where Bitcoin shines, a decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Without any central authority to deny transactions based upon some floating moral requirement, peers within the Bitcoin network can transact devoid of anybodys authorization. No government blacklist or class action claim can stop a Bitcoin transaction from going through.” As proof of Bitcoins capability to enable transactions despite federal government regulations, HonkHonkWallets.GitHub.io, a website run by convoy fundraisers to immediately scan the Bitcoin blockchain, indicates that 59 of 100 wallets dispersed to truckers had actually been declared and that 29 of those had seen a minimum of one extra deal, as of block 732,726. Much of this activity happened well after the Mareva injunction was granted. Bitcoin is pseudonymous, rather than anonymous, and all transactions are recorded on Bitcoins immutable and public ledger, meaning that every transaction is subject to analysis in eternity. Bitcoin might have proven to be a powerful method for circumventing centralized fundraising events for the Freedom Convoy, however it demonstrated its current constraints.” The restrictions of transacting with Bitcoin are primarily from connecting external information to on-chain activity,” Econoalchemist discussed. “For example, utilizing on/off ramps that need KYC information. This is where authorization and censorship creep into the Bitcoin ecosystem.” By March 18, Canadian cops had handled to freeze almost 6 BTC raised for objecting truckers.” Though the RCMP wont discuss the case, it issued a statement to CBC News saying it has the capability to take and recuperate digital currency properties, pointing to past cases where the Crown successfully prosecuted crypto crooks,” according to a March 21 CBC News report.Perhaps led there by on-chain security approaches, authorities raided St. Louis home in late February and, according to him, took 0.28 bitcoin kept in a wallet that he controlled in addition to Lich and Freedom Convoy organizer Chris Barber.” Officers forcibly removed me from my house and took me to an unmarked police car,” St. Louis told the Financial Post, per a short article released in March. “Police desired the seed phrases for my crypto wallets. Under cops obsession, I offered my seed expressions.” When Bitcoin Magazine reached St. Louis in mid-April, he declined to comment for this article, explaining that he was still subject to the Mareva injunction and was worried that further legal troubles might put an extra 7.5 in contributed BTC at risk of government seizure. “I would have used a Bitcoin contribution tool that creates a brand-new address for every donor,” Econoalchemist said about how he might have run the Freedom Convoy fundraiser differently in hindsight, while acknowledging that these privacy steps would disrupt openness about how the donations were dispersed. “I would have been sending all donations to [bitcoin blending service] Whirlpool at regular periods during the fundraising project … I would have asked the truckers for their deposit address instead of producing the wallets on their behalf … Then I would have sent them their bitcoin from the Whirlpool post-mix balance.” A Beacon Of FreedomOn February 17, the day that the Mareva injunction was given, police in Ottawa constructed a 12-foot high fence around the Parliament structure and established more than 100 checkpoints throughout the demonstration area. Barber and Lich, to name a few, were arrested. The next day, an authorities operation of horse-mounted officers, followed by coworkers on foot using high-visibility jackets, tactical teams in camouflage and armored lorries, jailed at least 100 more individuals and hauled 21 vehicles.By late afternoon on February 19, the final considerable group of protestors in the city was funneled to the corner of Bank and Sparks streets, progressing into a street party of a thousand people with an impromptu DJ by dusk. A line of cops officers deployed pepper spray to press the crowd one block south to Queen Street before the staying protestors started to disperse.Soon after, Freedom Convoy organizers advised participants to vacate the city. As of this writing, COVID-19 vaccination requirements are still in location for Canadian truckers.But despite the Freedom Convoys unceremonious end in Ottawa, the many ongoing lawsuits and inspired protests still being held in other parts of the world demonstrate that it was extremely successful in calling attention to the truckers cause, along with the growing pressures on personal flexibility in the Western world.” As a Canadian, enjoying protestors assemble on Ottawa from both sides of the nation, and the variety of individuals waving Canadian flags on the highway overpasses and along the sides of the roadway … Canada hasnt shown that much emotion given that we last won the gold medal in Olympic hockey against the USA,” Foss remembered. “This was a coming out, this was individuals who were voicing their flexibilities and waving the Canadian flag and I just dont see anything wrong with that. And I will never ever see anything incorrect with that. And it took a bunch of truckers to reignite the enthusiasm under Canadians.” And the legend acted as among the most prominent test cases for Bitcoin as a sovereign financial rail in its thirteen-year history. As Bitcoiners continue to promote the innovation as an off-ramp from undue censorship and surveillance, its usage as a system for getting numerous countless dollars in value straight into the hands of those who had been blacklisted by the Canadian government might be the most potent illustration of that power to date.Perhaps most significantly of all, it demonstrated on the world phase that fiat can only be used how governments choose, while Bitcoin is for liberty.” I love Bitcoin, though I actually enjoy my nation more,” stated Foss. “That being stated, its gon na be a tight horse race, due to the fact that my nations going in the incorrect instructions and Bitcoins going in the ideal instructions.”

Dichter recalled his role in the Freedom Convoy while sitting in the halls of the Miami Beach Convention Center throughout the Bitcoin 2022 conference in April, where he had been invited to speak about the role that Bitcoin played in sustaining the protest. His own interest in Bitcoin was stimulated in 2015 and he first invested in bitcoin the year after.” Tallycoin allows donations directly to a charity events Bitcoin wallet and uses the option to list a prolonged public key so that each individual Bitcoin payment produces a special address. St. Louis teamed with J.W. Weatherman, a Bitcoin designer and donor, to establish a plan and they released a lengthy, public Google Doc called “Step-By-Step Guide For Distributing Bitcoin. These documents would then be sealed in an envelope, labeled as “trucker 1– seed 1,” for circumstances, then sealed inside another envelope, along with composed instructions for how to import the seed into a safe and secure phone wallet and, eventually, spend the donated bitcoin.On February 15 by means of Twitter, St. Louis informed donors that he planned to distribute the bitcoin to 200 opposing truckers in a “proven way” by handing out paper bitcoin wallets consisting of seed words pre-loaded with 10,000,021 satoshis, along with directions for how they could protect and make use of the funds.On February 17, St. Louis tweeted an update that he and a partner had actually dispersed 14.6 BTC to about 90 truckers in a 24-hour period, strolling cab to cab and personally handing them out.