The Canadian Government Couldn't Stop Bitcoin

Honk Honk HODL raised more than $1 million of bitcoin for the Canadian truckers. About two-thirds of it got to them.

Financial censorship, or cutting off access to the global banking system, is one of the most powerful tools that governments have for punishing people.

The U.S. Department of Justice used it in 2013 through a program known as Operation Choke Point. It went after firearms dealers, payday lenders, and sex workers by pressuring banks to cut off their access to financial services.

The federal government blocks marijuana businesses that are legal under state law from opening bank accounts.

And the U.S. Department of the Treasury financially censors other governments around the world that commit human rights abuses or senselessly attack other nations, most recently Russia for invading Ukraine.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau financially censored the Canadian truckers occupying the country's capital city, Ottawa.

It's clear that governments can use financial censorship to squeeze worthy and unworthy targets alike for the time being, but it's less clear if governments can maintain this power for much longer. The moment raises a pressing question for cryptocurrency enthusiasts: Does bitcoin solve this?

Does a global, decentralized monetary system that nobody can manipulate or control take away the power of the state to use financial censorship as a weapon, for good or for ill?

A surprisingly successful bitcoin-based crowdfunding campaign called "Honk Honk HODL," which raised more than $1 million worth of bitcoin for the Canadian truckers, shed some additional light on that question. And the answer appears to be, "eventually, maybe, but there's more work to be done."

Nick, who goes by @NobodyCaribou on Twitter, started talking with Canadian truckers in early February, teaching them about bitcoin, raising small amounts to hand out, and eventually partnered with a pro-bitcoin YouTuber to launch Honk Honk HODL on the bitcoin-based crowdfunding site Tallycoin.

"My idea was like, if we get to a thousand or 2,000 dollars, and I can go around and give a hundred bucks to different truckers, that would be amazing. It would be a cool experiment to do. So why not do it?" says Caribou.

Then crypto investors Jeff Booth and Greg Foss jumped in to lend their names and credibility—as did the popular Canadian YouTuber and streamer Ben Perrin, who goes by "BTC Sessions."

"So things just started snowballing a lot quicker than anticipated," says Perrin. "My initial thought was, 'Oh, maybe we'll get a few thousand dollars and some people can buy some gas cards and some food or something.'"

But the fundraiser took off after GoFundMe was pressured into canceling a fundraiser that had accumulated $10 million for the Canadian truckers, and then a judge blocked the distribution of $9 million from another crowdfunding platform. And when the Canadian government announced it would be freezing truckers' bank accounts, some supporters of the movement began to turn to cryptocurrency.

The Honk Honk HODL fundraiser eventually surpassed $1 million U.S. dollars' worth of bitcoin.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Graphics by Nodehaus. 

Photos: Normand Blouin/Polaris/Newscom; CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Newscom; Lin Wei / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Arindam Shivaani/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Richard B. Levine/Newscom; Marco Verch; Nazareth College