Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared yesterday at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami to deliver the keynote address.
Via Decrypt:
Kennedy’s keynote opened with an explanation of how he became interested in Bitcoin, saying it was Canada’s decision to clamp down on truck drivers protesting COVID-19 restrictions by freezing bank accounts that drove his understanding of Bitcoin’s value.
“When I witnessed this cataclysm—this devastating use of government repression—I realized for the first time how free money is as important to freedom as free expression,” Kennedy said.
“Bitcoin is a bulwark against precisely this kind of government and corporate expansion and intrusion. As president, I will make sure that your right to hold and use Bitcoin is inviolable,” RFK Jr. pledged.
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He laid out policy ideas that he would institute to that end: “First, I will defend the right of self-custody of Bitcoin and other digital assets. Second, I will uphold the right to run a node at home. Third, I will defend use-neutral, industry-neutral regulation of energy. Fourth, I will make sure that the United States remains the global hub of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. I will reverse the government’s growing hostility toward this industry.”
As anyone who’s tried to buy or sell Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies on one of the major trading platforms knows, the government forces these platforms to require draconian and onerous amounts of information from traders so as to track them. You are typically required to submit your full name and your social security number and upload a document like a passport or driver’s license to gain access to their services.
Also, many platforms run on the “custodial” model, meaning that they hold the user’s public and private keys. In other words, they effectively control the wallet and can cut off access at any time that they or, more probably, the government, pleases.
As the saying goes in crypto circles, “not your keys, not your crypto.”
This guy gets the threat posed by the fiat central bank currencies in the present and the even worse totalitarian central bank digital currency in the future.
By design, decentralized public-ledger cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are beyond the reach of the government. Central bank digital currencies, on the other hand, are extremely susceptible to social engineering schemes.
No politician outside of RFK Jr. on either side of the partisan divide ever even mentions the freedom-enhancing benefits of cryptocurrency, much less demonstrates such a comprehensive understanding of why they are such powerful tools for countering central bank hegemony.
