Source: TheLastAmericanVagabond.com
As U.S. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appealed to the Bitcoin community for votes, the right-leaning Big Tech bro’s sunk their claws further into the once potentially revolutionary project.
Former President Donald Trump and Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr courted voters at the BTC Nashville Conference this past weekend. Both men made promises to change the Biden administration’s policy of criminalizing elements of the cryptocurrency industry.
Kennedy said as president he would sign an executive order directing the Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals to “transfer the approximately 200k Bitcoin held by the U.S. government to the U.S. Treasury where it shall be held as a strategic asset”. Kennedy said he would also direct the U.S. Treasury to purchase 550 Bitcoin daily in an effort to put the U.S. in a “position of dominance that no other country will be able to challenge.”
Trump received a roar of applause and cheers when he called for the firing of Gary Gensler, Chair of the The former president proposed creating a national Bitcoin “stockpile” that he would “transform” into a “permanent national asset to benefit all Americans”.
The irony of both Trump and Kennedy’s proposals is that the U.S. government’s current Bitcoin reserves have come from arrests of individuals involved in the Bitcoin space. Trump acknowledged this fact, stating, “Most of the Bitcoin currently held by the United States government was obtained through law enforcement action.”
This includes Ross Ulbricht, a libertarian and hero to the Bitcoin community who has spent the last 13 years of his life behind bars after being sentenced for allegedly running the Silk Road dark web marketplace. Trump and RFK Jr. have promised to commute Ulbricht’s multiple life sentences.
While Trump pledged to ease law enforcement actions, commute Ulbricht, and fire Gensler, he also appeared ill informed of how Bitcoin and blockchain technology function. The one-time crypto skeptic seemed ignorant of the original intention of Bitcoin as “digital cash” that could help individuals avoid government and big banks.
“Those who say that Bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have the story exactly backwards,” Trump stated. “I believe it is exactly backwards. Bitcoin is not threatening the dollar. The behavior of the current US government is really threatening the dollar.”
Trump is correct that the U.S. government is a threat to the future of Bitcoin as a potentially revolutionary financial tool, but he is mistaken when he says Bitcoin is not a threat to the dollar.
For many of the “cypherpunks” who helped elevate Bitcoin in its early years, the growth of Bitcoin has carried the disappointment that the vast majority of new users do not seem to understand the radical libertarian vision of cryptocurrency as a tool for ending central banks, and liberating money from the hands of tyrannical governments.
This is what makes Trump’s statements and his recent wave of support from right-leaning Big Tech bro’s — who also are embracing Bitcoin — all the more worrisome.
Is Donald Trump’s support for Bitcoin due to him realizing the potential for the underlying technology? Is he simply an opportunist trying to cash in on the hype around Bitcoin? Has he had a change of heart and is now a burgeoning cypherpunk? Or, is there a financial and political incentive for Trump and the billionaires backing him to further entrench themselves into the Bitcoin ecosystem?
How Big Tech Bro’s Turned Trump into the “Crypto President”
As recently as June 2021, Donald Trump said that Bitcoin “seems like a scam” and “takes the edge off of the dollar and the importance of the dollar”. So how (and why) did Trump begin to promote the idea of Bitcoin being held by the U.S. treasury?
Trump’s transformation from a critic of cryptocurrency to a champion of the technology was not a natural progression from ignorance to informed of the ins and outs of the industry. Rather, Trump’s alleged change of heart is the result of an injection of millions of dollars into his campaign by billionaires who are tied to the crypto industry in one form or another. Of course, these billionaires are not promoting the cypherpunk vision of a currency freed of government surveillance, but instead are advocating for the idea that Bitcoin is “digital gold” to be held as a long-term investment.
In June, big tech venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted a fundraiser for Trump at Sacks’ home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. The meeting netted the Trump campaign $12 million after Trump reportedly said he would be “the crypto president”.
David Sacks is most well-known for his involvement in the early days of PayPal, serving as the Chief Operating Officer. Sacks is also a member of the so-called “PayPal Mafia”, a name given to the founders of PayPal who later founded numerous tech companies, including Tesla, LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, YouTube, and Yelp.
Other crypto investors in attendance included twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, founders of crypto exchange Gemini.
Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir and managing partner of the firm 8VC, has also donated $1 million to America PAC in support of a 2nd Trump administration.
Rolling Stone also reported on donations from other tech firms, including Shaun Maguire of VC firm Sequoia Capital, donating $300,000 to Trump, and Ken Howery of VC firm Founders Fund giving $1 million. Howery is considered a member of the PayPal Mafia due to his involvement in the early days of the company.
Howery co-founded the Founders Fund with Peter Thiel, another infamous big tech giant who is a member of the PayPal Mafia and has long been connected to intelligence networks via Palantir. Palantir also played a major role in COVID-19 surveillance. Thiel has recently gained well-deserved scrutiny for his role in financing the rise of Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential pick, J.D. Vance.
J.D. Vance, the 39-year old Ohio Senator, was in attendance at David Sacks’ June fundraiser for Donald Trump. In fact, according to “two people with knowledge of the exchange”, during the event Trump “informally polled the room” regarding who he should choose for his Vice Presidential running mate. David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, and others all told Trump he should choose Vance. Elon Musk also reportedly encouraged Trump to pick Vance. A few weeks later at the Republican National Convention that’s exactly what Donald Trump did.
J.D. Vance claims that after hearing Peter Thiel deliver a speech at Yale Law School in 2011 he was inspired to pursue a career in big tech firms. Vance briefly worked at biotechnology firm Circuit Therapeutics, a move which then-CEO Frederic Moll told the NY Times was a “favor to Peter.”
In 2019, Vance would found his own venture firm, Narya Capital, with financial backing from the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the billionaire investor Marc Andreessen, and Peter Thiel.
Informed readers will recall that both Peter Thiel and Eric Schmidt are steering committee members of the secretive and infamous Bilderberg Group. This fact is all the more intriguing when considering that Schmidt tends to donate to Democratic Party candidates and Thiel’s network is embracing the Republican Party presidential candidate. No matter which party wins, they will have one of the Bilderberg Group’s steering committee members to thank….