Bitcoin and Politics
Math vs. Manipulation
Editor’s note: Click on images for articles, tweets and videos cited to access them.
Some of your may have heard that Donald Trump is now pro-crypto.
The fact that he’s showed no ability to discern between Bitcoin and crypto should prove to you that his pro-crypto stance is nothing more than a political play.
If you need some indication of how willing he is to flip flop in his views, let me remind you of what he said about Bitcoin and crypto just a few years ago.
Can people change their mind? Sure.
And con men change their mind all the time, especially when they see they can profit from it.
Please think carefully before supporting this man.
With that said, please think carefully before supporting President Warren Biden again, as well.
The Biden/Warren/Gensler regime has been atrocious for Bitcoin, and there is no chance I’ll be voting for it in November.
(RFK still has my vote for the upcoming election.)
And there are a number of people like me — pro-Bitcoin advocates who’ve distanced themselves from the Democratic party but who still consider themselves “progressive” in certain regards.
Progressive Bitcoiners
Speaking of which, I was recently a guest on The Progressive Bitcoiner podcast.
On the episode, I laid out some of my political views as well as how Bitcoin fits into them.
As I used to tell my students, please pay attention to what I said that resonates with you, and don’t be afraid to dig deeper into those points/topics.
Simply agreeing with what the political party with which you align tells you to believe is doing nothing more than drinking Kool Aid.
Politicians manipulate you to get you on their side, not necessarily empower you.
Any politician that is anti-Bitcoin is anti-personal empowerment. Bitcoin is a tool based on pure math that enables you to transact freely and preserve the value of your labor over longer periods of time.
Think about the motivations of someone who wouldn’t want you to have access to such a tool.
Bitcoin Used To Safeguard Presidential Election In Guatemala
Speaking of Bitcoin and politics, I’m excited to introduce to you Rafael Cordón, the creator of Simple Proof, a platform that employed the Bitcoin blockchain to safeguard the results of the most recent presidential election in Guatemala.
If you’re not familiar with this story, I highly suggest that you read this piece. Without Cordón’s efforts, it seems that the underdog candidate who won the election, Bernardo Arévalo, would have had the election stolen from him.
Hopefully, Simple Proof will become a more widely adopted technology in years to come.
Bitcoin Regulation in the United States
On the last political note for today, here’s a link to my interview with Jason Brett, a former US financial regulator who served during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2007-2008. He currently works as an advisor to the Bitcoin Policy Institute and advocates pro-Bitcoin policy in the US.
In the interview, we discussed what trade-offs might need to be made as Bitcoin-forward policy is crafted in the US.
Jason is incredibly well-versed in Bitcoin-related policy, and I recommend that you listen to what he has to say.
Breez CEO Talks Next Wave Of Bitcoin Adoption
This week, I published a piece on Roy Sheinfeld, CEO of Breez, a company that’s looking to help other (non-Bitcoin) companies enable Bitcoin payments in their apps.
Roy is an incredibly insightful and decent human being.
If you’re wondering how more people will begin to adopt Bitcoin, look no further than this article.
Spaces This Week
I hosted two X Spaces this week. Here are links to both if you’d like to listen:
Okay, that’s all. It’s super nice out in NYC and I’m about to go touch some grass.
Hope you all have a great week!
Best,
Frank
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(For more context for this tweet, check out this article.)