I guess this is another answer to "What is Bitcoin good for?" It's good when (quoting the article) your country's central bank suspends electronic cash transfers, suspends the foreign exchange market, limits cash withdrawals, and prohibits the issuance of foreign currency from retail bank accounts, because you're being invaded by Russia and your government has imposed martial law. Also apparently fighting-age Ukrainian men are prohibited from leaving Ukraine right now.

Also https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/25/4point1-million-in-cryptocur... says, "$4.1 million in cryptocurrency funneled to Ukrainian military since Russia invaded," by which it means "nongovernmental organizations and volunteer groups," aka militias or paramilitary troops, because the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense does not "use other payment systems ('Webmoney,' 'Bitcoin,' 'PayPal,' etc.)." (Though apparently some of the money is being used to buy materiel to give to the regular army.) So I guess Bitcoin is also good for sending funding to paramilitary militias in countries that are being invaded by much stronger armies.

Interestingly the article omits to mention that the most prominent volunteer groups like the Azov Battalion are neo-Nazis, even according to anti-Russian sources like https://crimethinc.com/2022/02/15/war-and-anarchists-anti-au....

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30447749 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30435383