Don't trust him.
Don't trust him.
Elon Musk–backed ‘freedom truckers’ in Canada get Bitcoin lifeline after GoFundMe freezes millions in donations
Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you. Online fundraising platform GoFundMe announced last week that it was removing from its website the donation campaign for the trucker protest group “Freedom Convoy” that is currently winding its way through Canada.
The convoy protests, now in their second week, began in late January after a loosely organized group of truckers banded together to drive from the westernmost Canadian province of British Columbia to Ottawa, Ontario—the national capital—to voice their opposition against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border.
Following a “review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials,” GoFundMe found that the fundraiser for the trucker convoy was in violation of its terms of service, which “prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment,” the company said in an official statement. The funds from the donation campaign—nearly $8 million—will be automatically refunded to donors.
But the convoy protesters have now found another donation lifeline: a group of Canadian libertarian Bitcoin evangelists who go by the moniker “HonkHonkHodl.” On Twitter, the group described themselves as an initiative to “orange pill Canadian truckers.” The term is a play on the red pill and blue pill concept from the 1999 movie The Matrix—“red-pilling” in recent years has also been adopted by alt-right communities who claim to know the “real” truth about society. Taking the “orange pill” refers to people who buy Bitcoin, which evangelists say represents financial freedom and monetary sovereignty.
“HonkHonkHodl” is a group of four—Greg Booth, Jeff Foss, and two men who go by online pseudonyms “Nobody Cariboo” and “BTC Sessions,” according to Canadian publication The Star—who created a crypto crowdfunding campaign on the platform Tallycoin as an alternative funding portal for the “Freedom Convoy.”
“Legacy financial infrastructure…can be politicized and clamped down upon,” the group wrote on their Tallycoin fundraising page. “Bitcoin is truly censorship-resistant. Don’t allow your voices to be silenced.”
HonkHonkHodl and GoFundMe didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The crypto fundraiser, which launched a few days before GoFundMe froze the trucker donation page on its platform, gained more prominence after the GoFundMe shutdown and major donations from well-known members of the crypto community. Jesse Powell, cofounder and CEO of Kraken, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, donated approximately $43,592 to HonkHonkHodl. Powell voiced his support for the Freedom Convoy on Tallycoin: “Fix the money, fix the world. Mandates are immoral. End the madness. Honk Honk! #FreedomConvoy2022,” he wrote. https://fortune.com/2022/02/08/freedom-truckers-canada-bitcoin-lifeline-after-gofundme-freezes-donations/
Elon Musk–backed ‘freedom truckers’ in Canada get Bitcoin lifeline after GoFundMe freezes millions in donations
Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you.
Online fundraising platform GoFundMe announced last week that it was removing from its website the donation campaign for the trucker protest group “Freedom Convoy” that is currently winding its way through Canada.
The convoy protests, now in their second week, began in late January after a loosely organized group of truckers banded together to drive from the westernmost Canadian province of British Columbia to Ottawa, Ontario—the national capital—to voice their opposition against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border.
Following a “review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials,” GoFundMe found that the fundraiser for the trucker convoy was in violation of its terms of service, which “prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment,” the company said in an official statement. The funds from the donation campaign—nearly $8 million—will be automatically refunded to donors.
But the convoy protesters have now found another donation lifeline: a group of Canadian libertarian Bitcoin evangelists who go by the moniker “HonkHonkHodl.” On Twitter, the group described themselves as an initiative to “orange pill Canadian truckers.” The term is a play on the red pill and blue pill concept from the 1999 movie The Matrix—“red-pilling” in recent years has also been adopted by alt-right communities who claim to know the “real” truth about society. Taking the “orange pill” refers to people who buy Bitcoin, which evangelists say represents financial freedom and monetary sovereignty.
“HonkHonkHodl” is a group of four—Greg Booth, Jeff Foss, and two men who go by online pseudonyms “Nobody Cariboo” and “BTC Sessions,” according to Canadian publication The Star—who created a crypto crowdfunding campaign on the platform Tallycoin as an alternative funding portal for the “Freedom Convoy.”
“Legacy financial infrastructure…can be politicized and clamped down upon,” the group wrote on their Tallycoin fundraising page. “Bitcoin is truly censorship-resistant. Don’t allow your voices to be silenced.”
HonkHonkHodl and GoFundMe didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The crypto fundraiser, which launched a few days before GoFundMe froze the trucker donation page on its platform, gained more prominence after the GoFundMe shutdown and major donations from well-known members of the crypto community. Jesse Powell, cofounder and CEO of Kraken, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, donated approximately $43,592 to HonkHonkHodl. Powell voiced his support for the Freedom Convoy on Tallycoin: “Fix the money, fix the world. Mandates are immoral. End the madness. Honk Honk! #FreedomConvoy2022,” he wrote.
https://fortune.com/2022/02/08/freedom-truckers-canada-bitcoin-lifeline-after-gofundme-freezes-donations/
(post is archived)