Financial inclusion: Using Bitcoin as social infrastructure in unbanked countries. Today, over 1.4 billion adults do not have a bank account. This is due to a variety of structural causes, including high costs, missing documents, distance from branches, distrust of institutions, political instability and, above all, the inconvenience of traditional banking. Bitcoin offers an alternative: an open, global infrastructure. All you need to access the network is a smartphone. There are no status requirements, geographical barriers or accounts to open. This enables 'bottom-up' financial inclusion. Data shows that 16 of the top 20 countries for the adoption of alternatives to state currencies are emerging economies. In sub-Saharan Africa, usage grew by 52% in one year, with over 8% of transactions being for amounts under $10,000 — indicating everyday, non-speculative use. Nigeria is a prime example: around 36% of adults are unbanked, yet the country is a world leader in Bitcoin adoption via peer-to-peer. For many citizens, Bitcoin is the only effective means of accessing tools such as savings, remittances and international payments. However, it is not a universal solution; digital infrastructure, financial literacy and complementary policies are also required. However, as noted in reports by the World Bank and the IMF, Bitcoin has introduced a new standard of accessibility, capable of including even those who have never had access to the formal system. True inclusion comes when barriers are reduced, not when intermediaries are added. #financial #inclusion #unbanked #infrastructure #countries #bitcoin #social #good #asset #account #network

From monopoly of trust to distributed trust: a cultural shift in the way we think about money. The traditional financial system is based on hierarchical trust; we rely on banks, central banks, and the state. This is a 'vertical' model in which a few institutions hold a monopoly on public trust. Bitcoin overturns this paradigm. The network operates according to mathematical rules and distributed verification, with each node independently checking the validity of transactions. Users do not have to trust the other party, but rather the cryptographic protocol. This is why we talk about a 'trustless' system: not because trust disappears, but because it is redistributed horizontally. Some studies define this phenomenon as 'trustless trust': a new social model in which guarantees come from a set of publicly verifiable software rules rather than a central authority. This raises an essential question: What does it mean to trust code rather than institutions? International institutions remind us that traditional trust remains a fundamental public good. At the same time, Bitcoin's popularity shows that distributed digital trust is already an operational reality, particularly in countries where financial institutions are not trusted. Understanding how trust works is key to understanding how our freedoms work. #freedom #trust #institution #bitcoin #trustless #model #public #financial #system #money