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23 May 2023, PRESIDENTIAL REALITY SHOW® 2024 – May 23 2023

RFK JR. ENDORSES BITCOIN AS AN ESSENTIAL WAY TO PROTECT POLITICAL FREEDOMS

May 23, 2023May 23, 2023
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RFK JR. ENDORSES BITCOIN AS AN ESSENTIAL WAY TO PROTECT POLITICAL FREEDOMS

It turns out the Canadian Truckers Convoy protest against vaccine mandates did more than presage how the U.S. led West would attempt to weaponize the financial system and the dollar against Russia.

It also convinced current U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that bitcoin had censorship resistant features that were important to free expression of dissident opinions.

RFK Jr. delivered a blistering defense of political freedoms and how cryptos like bitcoin have become a technology supporting those freedoms, in his keynote speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Miami.

“The trucker demonstration was peaceful,” RFK Jr. pointed out in his speech, adding:

“None of these lawful and peaceful protestors had violated any law… But suddenly, they found that they could not access their money, their bank accounts to pay their mortgages or feed their families. When I witnessed this … devastating use of government repression, I realized for the first time how free money is as important as free expression.”

Concerning the future of bitcoin if he were elected President, RFK Jr. was crystal clear: “As president, your right to own Bitcoin shall be inviolable. The government has no right to be inside your wallet.”

He told an enthusiastic gathering his policies would center around several pillars:

“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.”

That last proclamation will no doubt galvanize the entire crypto sector, whose innovations have been increasingly suppressed and assailed over the course of the Biden Administration, via litigations against important decentralized projects like LBRY and Filecoin, and sweeping SEC actions against centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.

Notably, the SEC did not take action against FTX during the 2022 election cycle, as CEO Sam Bankman-Fried spread some 40 million to Democrat party candidates.

Bankman-Fried has since been arrested after the exchange collapsed, and its behind the scenes financial abuses became impossible to keep secret. 

Bitcoin Freedom, Crypto Sector Unleashed?

RFK Jr.’s bold endorsement of bitcoin as a tool not only of economic, but political freedom, sets him apart from both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

The Biden Administration’s “chokepoint” policies have made it harder for Americans to acquire cryptos and exchange them for fiat. At the same time, the administration has moved unmistakably in the direction of introducing a Central Bank Digital Currency, or “digital dollar” that would likely contain granular surveillance and financial and social control abilities.

Under Biden, the Federal reserve has tested a CBDC, and also introduced a FedNow instant payments system run by the Federal Reserve, which competes with systems offered by banks and companies like VISA and Mastercard.

Biden allies like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have likened Bitcoin to “buying air,” while pushing hard for CBDCs. (See “WARREN SAYS BITCOIN LIKE ‘BUYING AIR’,” 4 Apr 2022.)

Donald Trump has expressed anti-bitcoin sentiments, notably in 2019, when he opined “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump tweeted in July 2019. “Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.” (“Trump Is All Wrong about Bitcoin,” 20 Jul 2019, eff.org.)

In 2021, Trump also said Bitcoin was a “scam,” and represented a threat to the dollar:

“The currency of this world should be the dollar. And I don’t think we should have all of the Bitcoins of the world out there. I think they should regulate them very, very high. It takes the edge off of the dollar and the importance of the dollar.”

(“Trump: Bitcoin’s a scam, US dollar should dominate,” 7 Jun 2021.)

In 2022, Trump did warm up to the entrepreneurial potentials of crypto technology as represented by NFTs, releasing collections under his brand. And more recently, he hinted at a more favorable bitcoin and crypto stance, according to investing.com. (“Will Donald Trump as the US President in 2024 Favor Bitcoin?” 22 Nov 2022.)

RFK, Jr., meanwhile, is emphasizing how bitcoin has been used to help dissidents resist censorship and oppression.

“We are now living in this age of turnkey totalitarianism… and our job is to try and build and fortify democratic institutions at the same rate,” he told the Bitcoin Conference. “The biggest, most important one on the horizon is Bitcoin, because it can’t be manipulated.”

RFK Jr. also held out the possibility of examining cases against persons connected with crypto-tied services cast by authorities as primarily conduits for illegal activities. He specifically mentioned the harsh double life sentence on Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road “darknet” platform which facilitated crypto payments for goods and services.

Alexey Pertsev, an engineer who developed the decentralized Tornado Cash app to help anonymize bitcoin transactions, has also been languishing in jail since 2022. (See “THEY CAN’T STOP DECENTRALIZED TECH, BUT THEY CAN ARREST ENGINEERS,” 16 Aug 2022.)

As reported by Bitcoin Magazine, Kennedy said at the conference that he is not invested in bitcoin personally, but announced that his presidential campaign would be the first in history to take bitcoin donations via the Lightning Network. (“ROBERT KENNEDY JR. MAKES CAMPAIGN DEBUT AT BITCOIN 2023: ‘FREE MONEY IS AS IMPORTANT AS FREE EXPRESSION’,” 19 May 2023.)

The Trends Journal has long forecast the growing importance of bitcoin as a censorship resistant tool against increasing authoritarianism across the globe.

We have focused on these political aspects of bitcoin more than almost any other news outlet.

  • We alerted readers concerning the crucial differences between CBDCs, permissioned blockchains and permissionless crypto technologies like Bitcoin.
  • We forecast how cryptos would likely become a growing focal point of political freedoms, as well as economic wealth preservation
  • We forecast in 2021 that the U.S. had a historic moment of opportunity to enlarge economic advantage and enhance freedom worldwide by embracing the crypto sector, but that if it didn’t, it would reap the dystopian results as innovation and freedom flowed elsewhere
  • We noted in February 2022 that the draconian response to the Truckers Convoy protest would only make more people see the political importance of cryptos like Bitcoin that were not tied to the state
  • In March 2022—long before most others were saying that U.S. sanctions to Russia would damage the dollar—we predicted the U.S. weaponization of the financial system would hurt the dollar and only make cryptos like bitcoin more attractive. (See “THE NEW NEUTRAL.”)

For touchstone articles on our coverage and predictions, see:

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