09-28, 12:30–13:00 (Europe/Berlin), Main Stage
Lyudmyla Kozlovska, president of Open Dialogue Foundation and a Ukrainian human rights defender, and Bota Jardemalie, a New York lawyer, Kazakh human rights defender, and Belgian political refugee, will discuss how the misuse of AML and CFT laws and the weaponization of banking data lead to political repression and financial exclusion, and how activists worldwide turn to P2P Bitcoin transactions, self-hosted wallets, mixers, and other privacy payment instruments to protect human rights. What strategies do we have to defend the Lightning Network and privacy tools from escalating regulatory attacks? Why do we need to protect Bitcoin mining alongside privacy instruments to safeguard the entire Bitcoin ecosystem?
Bota Jardemalie is a NY attorney, Kazakh human rights defender, and political refugee in the EU. She has defended activists and torture victims and worked on issues related to Interpol reform, personal sanctions, and the misuse of mutual legal cooperation. Bota has been advocating for regulators to address financial exclusion and the abuse of anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) laws, and fighting against the weaponization of the banking system. She defends Bitcoin, PoW, and privacy instruments.
Lyudmyla Kozlovska, Bitcoin advocate & human rights defender, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation
Lyudmyla is the president of the Open Dialog Foundation and a human rights defender from Ukraine. Being the initiator and leader of the Building True Change Coalition (BTC Coalition), Lyudmyla has been advocating regulators to address financial exclusion, political oppression and the delivery of humanitarian aid (promoting the vital role of Bitcoin). Since 2021, she has been leading the campaign to prevent the abuse of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws by malign state actors. Previously, Lyudmyla initiated the reform of INTERPOL to fight its misuse as a tool of political prosecution worldwide.