---
author: TED
date: '2026-10-05'
guest: ''
layout: post.njk
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCNO3k4QL5M
speaker: TED
tags:
- authoritarianism
- decentralization
- freedom-of-speech
- sovereign-ai
- mesh-network
title: 重构自由的数字钥匙：用去中心化科技对抗威权统治
summary: 委内瑞拉反对派领袖莱奥波尔多·洛佩斯结合自身牢狱与流亡经历，阐述了威权体制如何层层剥夺公民自由。他指出中心化守门人机制是数字时代极权统治的帮凶，并展示了比特币、稳定币、Nostr、BitChat及主权AI等去中心化技术如何成为全球反抗极权、守护自由的硬核数字工具。
insight: ''
draft: true
series: ''
category: politics-society
area: society-thinking
project: []
people: []
companies_orgs:
- World Liberty Congress
products_models:
- Bitcoin
- Nostr
- BitChat
- Starlink
media_books: []
status: evergreen
---
### 独裁枷锁：从实体牢狱到数字时代的极权围捕
四个月前，委内瑞拉政权的特工突袭搜查了我的住所。他们砸毁了墙壁和天花板，甚至杀死了我的爱犬。在此之后，他们剥夺了我的委内瑞拉国籍——而这在委内瑞拉宪法中是明令禁止的。引发这一切的导火索，是我公开发表的一项声明，支持针对**尼古拉斯·马杜罗**（Nicolás Maduro）并促成其在1月3日被捕的执法与军事行动；或许还因为我的住处与委内瑞拉临时独裁者德尔西·罗德里格斯（Delcy Rodríguez）的宅邸仅相隔数条街区。
对我以及我的家人而言，这段遭受政治迫害的历程漫长而痛苦。我曾连任两届共八年的加拉加斯市长，此后便被当局剥夺了竞选公职的资格。我曾遭遇过三次暗杀图谋；2014年当马杜罗首次窃取大选成果时，我们号召民众走上街头进行和平抗议。数以万计的人民响应号召，而马杜罗则直接下令对我实施逮捕。在转入地下隐匿期间，我面临三种抉择：继续藏匿、流亡国外，或是自首。最终我选择自首，并由此沦为长达七年的政治犯。
在单独禁闭的牢房里，印刻在我记忆深处的声音并非撕心裂肺的尖叫，而是门锁扣合的声音：一道锁、又一道锁、再一道锁，整整九道沉重的门锁。身处极端禁闭之中，锁的存在感无处不在，它也成了我反思自由本质的认知框架——而自由正是我身陷囹圄的根本原因。我开始意识到，当一切权利被剥夺时，本质上就是一道道加诸其上的枷锁：言论被剥夺，是言论自由被上了锁；行动受限，是人身自由被上了锁；剥夺正当合法的审判权利，是正义体系被上了锁；强占我的家宅，是对私人财产上了锁；剥夺我的国籍，则是对身份认同上了锁。由此，我将“枷锁”视作问题的核心，而将“钥匙”确立为唯一的解法。
Original English Source
Four months ago, my house was raided by the agents of the Venezuelan regime. They destroyed the walls, the ceilings and even killed my dogs. After that, they decided to take away my Venezuelan nationality, something that is prohibited by the Venezuelan Constitution. What sparked this was a public statement I made supporting the law enforcement and military buildup against Nicolás Maduro that led to his capture on January 3. And maybe the fact that my house was only blocks away from Delcy Rodríguez’s, interim dictator of Venezuela.
For my family and I, the journey of persecution has been very long. I was elected mayor of Caracas for eight years. After that, I was banned to run for office. I had three assassination attempts, and in the year 2014, when Maduro stole his first election, we called for protests, peaceful protests. People came out by the thousands, and Maduro called for my arrest. I went into hiding, and I had three choices. I could stay in hiding. I could leave the country. Or I could turn myself in. So I decided to turn myself in. And I became a political prisoner for seven years.
In solitary confinement, the sound I remember most is not screaming. It's the locks. One lock, then another, then another. Nine locks in total. I was in complete confinement, so locks became very present to me, and they became the framework through which I started to think about freedom, which was the reason I was in prison. I started to think about locks and the framework as the things were taken away from me. My speech was taken away from me, a lock on my freedom of speech. My freedom to mobility, a lock on my mobility. The freedom to have a free and fair trial, a lock on my freedom and justice. When they took my home, a lock on my property. When they took my nationality, a lock on my identity. So I started to think about locks as the problem and keys as the solution.
### 暗室抗争与流亡启蒙：技术革命与自由的交汇点
即便身处单独禁闭之中，我也设法摸索出与其他狱友沟通的渠道。我唯一能见到其他囚犯的时刻是在弥撒仪式上。当时两名警卫紧贴着我坐着，唯一的空隙出现在所有人起立互致平安拥抱的瞬间。每逢此刻，我便站起身，向那些并肩抗争的囚犯低语：“愿平安与你同在，我的兄弟。请转告你的妻子，让她联系我的妻子。”依靠这种方式，我们逐步在监狱内部构建起一套隐秘的通信协议。这耗费了漫长的时间与反复的迭代，但历经六个月的运作，我们最终找到了夺取监狱控制权的方法。在协议建立一年后，一个契机爆发了，我们启动了通信网络，并在长达12个小时内完全接管了整座监狱。
暴动平息后，我面临的是更为严酷的孤立与折磨。我绝食抗议了28天，体重骤降14公斤；狱方剥夺了我的一切物品，甚至包括作为我精神宇宙的书籍。在彻骨的孤独中，我顿悟到一件事：他们唯一无法夺走的，是我的心灵与灵魂，是我的感知方式与思想体系。这正是通往我内心自由的终极钥匙。直到2020年底，我被迫跨越多道关卡，最终渡河进入哥伦比亚，逃离了委内瑞拉——流亡是另一种形式的监禁。
当我走出牢狱时，外部世界已发生了翻天覆地的剧变。我不仅迎面撞上了新冠疫情，更踏入了一个技术脱节的全新时代：我入狱时携带的还是黑莓（BlackBerry）手机，重见天日时面对的却是智能手机、语音留言、视频通话与加密货币的世界，这些事物此前完全脱离了我的生命经验。数月后，我在斯坦福大学担任访问学者，一位好友直言不讳地告诉我：“老兄，在你离开期间，世界上发生的最重要的事情就是**比特币**（Bitcoin: 一种基于密码学且完全开源、去中心化的数字货币协议）与人工智能。”比特币的核心在于它是去中心化、开源的货币，只要掌握私钥，资产就完全归你掌控；而AI则将彻底颠覆信息处理与使用的方式。虽然我一生从未写过一行代码，甚至不懂何谓开源或去中心化，但我立即敏锐地捕捉到了技术与自由抗争之间的交汇点。
Original English Source
While in prison, in solitary confinement, I figured out a way to speak to other prisoners. The only moment I could see other prisoners was when I was able to go to mass. So when I was in mass with two details sitting next to me, there was only one moment when we stood up and gave the hug of peace. And when that happened, I would stand up and tell those prisoners that I knew that were with me, I would tell them, "Peace be with you, my brother. Please tell your wife to find my wife." And in that way, we developed a protocol to communicate within prison. It took time, a lot of iterations. But over six months, we were able to figure out a way to take control of the prison. A year after we started, there was a spark. And that spark led to the activation of the protocol. And for 12 hours, we took complete control of that prison.
After that, things became even more lonely and more difficult. I went [on] a hunger strike for 28 days. I lost 14 kilograms, and then they took everything away from me. Even my books, which were my universe. So I was in complete loneliness. And in that complete loneliness, I understood that the one thing they were not able to take away from me was my heart and my soul. The way I felt and the way I thought. It was a key to my own internal freedom.
By the end of 2020, I was able to escape Venezuela -- something I never wanted to do. We had to cross several checkpoints, and finally I crossed a river and went into Colombia. And I began exile. Exile is another form of imprisonment. And I came out into a very different world. I came out into a world of COVID, and I also came out into a very different world in terms of technology. I had gone into prison with a BlackBerry. (Laughter) And I came out into the world of smartphones, voice notes, video calls and cryptocurrency. None of that was part of my existence before. It was shocking.
Some months after that, I was a visiting fellow at Stanford, and I made a very good friend and he told me, "Listen, man, the most important thing that happened while you were away was Bitcoin and AI. Bitcoin, because it's open-source, decentralized money that you can hold by having your own keys. And AI, because it's going to revolutionize everything, the way we use [and] process information. So I became very interested, not about the technology itself, because I've never written a line of code in my life. I didn't know what open-source or decentralized technology was, but I became interested in the intersection between technology and freedom.
### 去中心化技术实战：突破金融封锁与信息禁锢
在随后的时间里，我结识了许多经历相仿的战友——他们同样曾沦为政治犯、领导过本国的抗议运动并被迫流亡海外。尽管我们在肤色、宗教与语言上截然不同，但在追求自由的斗争中却同频共振。于是，我们联合创立了**世界自由大会**（World Liberty Congress），它已成长为涵盖全球60个国家的自由战士与民主捍卫者联盟。这使我有机会深入不同国家，见证全球各地一线斗士如何利用前沿技术对抗极权。
科技在抗争前线的首要体现是维系生命线。委内瑞拉护士玛丽亚在疫情期间月薪仅有3美元，我们为此设立了一项援助计划，旨在向医护人员每月发放100美元的津贴。然而，传统银行与金融体系早已被政权全面监控和霸占。我们转向使用**稳定币**（Stablecoins: 锚定法币价值的加密货币）与比特币，成功绕过了独裁政权的金融封锁，向超过7万名医生和护士直接发放了救命资金。这不仅仅是技术方案，更是在极端危机中保障基本生存的生命支持系统。
而在信息与通信战场上，中心化平台的脆弱性同样暴露无遗。记者阿尼安（Anyan）长期报道刚果、卢旺达至墨西哥的冲突前线，拥有上千名战地记者网络。他们面临的致命威胁在于：如何确保采写的核心信息不被第三方强制下架或抹除？为此他们采用了**Nostr**（Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays: 一种基于加密公私钥对的抗审查去中心化社交通信协议）。Nostr对通信的意义，正如比特币之于货币——它是一个无人拥有的开源协议，用户自主掌控私钥、关注者与内容发布权，任何中心化权威都无法篡改或删除你的发声。
Original English Source
And some months after that, I started to meet other people. Other people like myself that had been political prisoners, that had led protests in their own countries, that had been forced into exile. We were very different -- skin color, religion, languages -- but we were very similar in our struggle for freedom. So we decided to create the World Liberty Congress, which has become the largest global alliance of freedom fighters and democracy defenders. 60 countries are represented -- (Applause) 60 countries represented in the World Liberty Congress. And that gave me the opportunity to get to know a lot of people. It gave me the opportunity not just to go to different countries, but to share, with different people, about their experiences. And particularly about the way in which technology was being used to fight for freedom.
So rather than tell you about the technology, I want to tell you about some of the people that have been using this technology. Maria is a Venezuelan nurse. During COVID, she was earning $3 per month. So we figured out a program for nurses and doctors to get a $100 monthly support. But we had a problem. The financial system was taken by the regime. It was surveilled by the regime. So we turned to stablecoins and Bitcoin, and we were able to support more than 70,000 medical doctors and nurses without the intermediation of the regime. (Applause) It was not just technology, it was a life support. It was a way for them to survive in the moment of largest crisis.
Then another friend, Anyan. Anyan is a journalist. He's dedicated his career to following conflict zones, from Congo to Rwanda to Mexico. And today he has a network of over a thousand journalists. But they have a problem. How do they keep their own information without someone switching it off or deleting their information? So they turn to Nostr. Nostr is to communication what Bitcoin is to money. It's an open-source protocol that nobody owns, you can have your own information, you can have your own followers, you can publish your information, and no one can delete that information.
### 守门人困境与主权AI：夺回数字时代的主权钥匙
在应对国家级网络切断的极端情境中，去中心化通信更成为了维系抗争的关键。去年1月乌干达大选期间，反对派领袖、世界自由大会联合创始人博比·怀恩（Bobi Wine）胜券在握，但政权注定会操纵选举，其惯用手段便是切断全国互联网。为此，我们向他推荐了**BitChat**（基于蓝牙Mesh网状网络的去中心化离线点对点即时通信协议）。它无需依赖蜂窝基站或互联网接入，仅依靠设备间的**蓝牙网状网络**（Bluetooth Mesh Network: 通过设备间短距无线中继实现点对点自组网通信）建立连接。在选举前的21天里，博比持续呼吁民众部署，最终促成180万乌干达人下载该应用，使之在大选断网之日成为了不可阻断的民间通信骨干网。
然而，乌干达的另一场遭遇揭示了更残酷的现实：我们曾秘密走私了30多台**星链**（Starlink: 依靠低轨卫星星座提供宽带通信的服务网络）终端作为备份方案，但政权当局察觉后致函星链运营方要求断网，服务随即遭到屏蔽而瘫痪；与此同时，同周伊朗爆发抗议活动时，星链却保持开放，正如其在乌克兰前线的运作一样。这一反差彻底证明了：**技术本身并非症结所在，核心缺陷在于“守门人”的存在**。无论是政府、跨国公司还是商业银行，只要存在掌握断开开关的中间守门人，系统就注定存在单点脆弱性与极权渗透风险。
因此，摆脱枷锁的唯一途径，就是彻底拿回掌控自身的钥匙。在当前的人工智能浪潮中，悬在每个人头顶的根本命题同样是：究竟谁掌握着钥匙？你的思想与数据，究竟掌握在你自己手中，还是沦为科技巨头的数据资产？令人振奋的是，如同比特币之于财富、Nostr之于言论、BitChat之于网络连接，如今**主权AI**（Sovereign AI: 运行在本地私有设备上、完全由个人掌控隐私与权属的独立智能体）正在兴起。如今我便在自己的本地设备上运行着属于我个人的主权智能体，并正协助身处其他独裁国家的反抗者部署完全自主掌控的本地AI。
掌握钥匙绝非易事，它需要内心的绝对定力与自控。在服刑期间，我曾数次在睡梦中惊醒，面对黑洞洞突击步枪的枪口和牢房被翻箱倒柜砸碎的绝望，心跳狂飙失控。为了克服这种生理恐惧，我设计了一套高强度的自我心率训练：疯狂做俯卧撑、波比跳与开合跳，将心率逼至极限的80%至90%，随后立刻静坐闭息，以最快速度强行平复心率。后来搜查特工再度频繁闯入时，我已能从容掌控自身状态，因为我找到了通往内心自控与精神自由的钥匙。数字时代赋予了我们掌控数字主权钥匙的选择权，但钥匙必须依附于使命——多年来，我的使命始终是为委内瑞拉以及所有生活在专制极权统治下的人民争取自由。当每个人都能握紧属于自己的身份与自由之匙时，科技才能真正成为打破极权枷锁的解放力量。
Original English Source
Last January, there was an election in Uganda. My very good friend Bobi Wine, founding member of the World Liberty Congress, was going to win the election. There was no doubt that he was going to win the election. But there was also no doubt that they were going to steal the election. And in order to steal the election, one of the things that the regime was going to do was to shut down the internet. So I told Bob, I said, "My friend, there is something called BitChat." BitChat is an open-source protocol that connect phones without internet, without cell towers, just by Bluetooth mesh network, you are able to connect people. So for 21 days, Bobi posted about BitChat. And by Election Day, 1.8 million people in Uganda had downloaded this protocol. And this protocol -- (Applause) And this protocol became their internet. It became the way for them to communicate. And it was very powerful.
But Uganda also showed me something else. We had a backup plan. So we had helped to smuggle more than 30 Starlinks into Uganda before the election. But the regime knew that something could happen. So they wrote to Starlink asking for the service to be blocked. And it was blocked. The service was blocked, and it was not able to be used. But that same week, that same week, in Iran, there were protesters. And Starlink was open, the same way it was in Ukraine. So what that showed me is that the technology is not the problem. The technology is there. Starlink can use, or any other technology. The problem was very clear. The problem was the gatekeeper. Whenever there is a gatekeeper, there is a problem. It doesn't matter if the gatekeeper is a government, if it's a bank, if it's a company. The problem is the gate itself.
So what we need to figure out is how we can have these keys and the elephant in the room in any conversation today about AI is: who holds the keys? Who holds the keys to your own information? [Do] you hold the information or [does] a corporation hold that information? Fortunately, in the same way that Bitcoin is working for money or Nostr for communication, or BitChat for connectivity, today there is sovereign AI. AI that you can hold in your own machine. AI that you can manage with your own privacy and that you can decide. Today hold my own sovereign agent, and I am working with other people for them in their autocratic countries to have their own agent that is completely sovereign.
But keys are hard to master. I remember when I was in prison, waking up to an assault rifle pointed [at] my head. And several men in the cell just tearing everything apart. I was very scared. And the way that fear felt was my heart was pounding. And they came back again every week, every other week. So I decided that I needed to do something about it. And what I decided to do was to figure out how I could control my heart. Not spiritually, not intellectually, but physically control my heart. So I decided to put together this drill. I would do push-ups, burpees, jumping jacks. I would take my heart rate to 80, 90 percent, and then I would sit down. Sit still, breathe and try to take my heart rate as low as I could, as fast as I could. The agents came back to my cell many times. But every time they came, I felt control. Because I had found my own internal key to self-control and to freedom. And [in] that same way I was able to find that self-control and my own internal key, you have the choice to have your keys to your sovereignty in the 21st century and in the digital age. (Applause)
But keys need a purpose. My purpose, for years, has been the freedom of my country, Venezuela. I hold my keys very closely, but I hold them with the purpose. And for me, the purpose is the freedom of my country, Venezuela, and the freedom of every country that today is living under autocratic regimes. And technology can be a source of freedom if everyone is able to find their own keys to identity, their own keys to their own freedom. Thank you very much. (Applause)