The world has seen drastic advancements in cryptography and computing power over the last few decades and with this advancement has come a new form of currency, cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, developed in 2009, has become the vanguard of cryptocurrencies and is the most viable and most widely adopted to date. The technology operates through a distributed network of wallets and nodes and provides faster, cheaper, borderless transactions as well as complete anonymity if desired. The focus of prior research and attention has been on bitcoin’s ability to circumvent financial institutions in developed nations, however the uncertainty surrounding bitcoin’s future and its wild volatility have been major barriers to widespread adoption in the developed world. The focus of this paper is on the developing world, where countries with extractive political and economic institutions have been exploiting their citizens for centuries. In these countries a technology like bitcoin has the potential to disrupt financial and government systems and put power and financial autonomy into the hands of individuals.