Fifty-two million Americans, for reasons ranging from investing to decentralizing economic control, own a cryptocurrency. While only a small fraction of these are voters who mark their ballots primarily on cryptocurrency issues, those voters do exist. Those who put cryptocurrencies first in importance may live in states where margins of election victory may number in the tens of thousands of votes. All of this means that Donald Trump’s modified stance on crypto could matter in 2024.
Earlier in July, Trump announced that he would be speaking at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference. The event is located in Tennessee, but the convention attracts attendees who vote and influence others in all states. Trump’s appearance at the Bitcoin conference boosts crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a political-economic force, says writer George Kaloudis. Following Trump’s brush with assassination, an update was published to Coindesk assuring readers of Trump’s continued intent to address the gathering. (READ MORE: The Bloodless Coup of Joe Biden Will Not Work Out Well for Democrats)
The evolution of Trump from a critic of Bitcoin to an apparent adopter of cryptocurrency is marked. Previously, Trump suggested that cryptocurrencies compete against the U.S. dollar and fail to benefit the majority of Americans holding more traditional investments.
Twenty-eight percent of Republicans use cryptocurrencies and they tend to be slightly more interested in investing in them than Democrats. At first, Trump was arguably outpaced on currency transaction issues by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former Democrat and current independent presidential candidate who recognized cryptocurrencies to be a 21st-century investment in American freedoms.
Since cryptocurrencies first emerged in the late 00s, they have been seen as something of a pro-outsider 21st-century “revenge of the nerds” with a particularly sharp bite, as they allowed a wide range of people outside of the corporate, banking, military, government, and establishment investment sectors to gain wealth and mint money. Essentially tied only to the mathematical and technological performance of the crypto mines and digital wallets themselves, cryptocurrencies seemed to be an untameable new alternative with almost unlimited upside.
Cryptocurrency investors see the “web 3.0” blockchain, a central nervous system for digital financial technology, as equal in importance to the future economy as industrial revolution technologies were to the last few hundred years. For central banks and government regulators to steer cryptocurrency to a future under their economic reins, taxation is one of their few major tools. (READ MORE: Google’s Report on AI Abuse Isn’t Comforting)
Cryptocurrencies were first taxed by the Internal Revenue Service in 2020 after years of examining NFTs and issuing guidance. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a change to the SEC’s guidance on cryptocurrency accounting that would favor individual owners, but Biden, urged on by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, vetoed to keep the SEC status quo.
The Biden-Harris administration has also proposed a tax of up to 30 percent on cryptocurrency mining, which would be a potentially lethal blow to the independent cryptocurrency economy in the U.S. NFT investors are looking for opposing candidates to present alternatives. Trump has signaled a friendlier climate for American NFT mining.
Central banks may also assume the power to issue their own digital currencies. Central Bank Digital Currencies could impersonate the original innovations of cryptocurrency but could be more easily turned towards government interests in controlling, corralling, tracking, regulating, and, of course, taxing people more frequently.
Researchers have argued that launching a CBDC and reserving the capability to regulate its use in purchasing and contracts would be an end-run around the Constitution’s supreme laws keeping Americans free from eyes prying into their papers and effects. To hold onto liberty-minded voters, candidates must show their interest in preserving financial freedom. State legislatures such as North Carolina and governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, eying potential federal CBDC’s, have taken preventative actions.
Debate over the constitutionality of a central bank has raged in America since its founding. To finance war debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank’s historical publication, a central bank was created in the U.S. in 1791. The bank was found unconstitutional and allowed to expire in 1811. Then, the War of 1812 kicked up more war debt, and Congress created another central bank in 1816. Andrew Jackson ended the bank in 1836, ushering in the “free banking” era. “Panic” once again put pressure on lawmakers to recreate a central bank, resulting in the post-Civil War “National Bank” system and then the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which has delivered us the last 111 years record of unprecedented inflation, government intrusion into citizens’ affairs, and a seemingly forever state of war criticized by cryptocurrency supporter JD Vance, who is Trump’s running mate. (READ MORE: We’re Missing the Plot When It Comes to AI)
If CBDC’s would increase centralized control over the people, then Bitcoin, the giant of crypto, points to a freer path. Privacy coins like Monero use technology to even further align with the underlying principles of the 4th Amendment.
There may be more to learn about crypto than any previous economic technology. If voters know nothing else about cryptocurrency, the history of banking shows that financial policy is legislatively fluid and tied to human opportunity, peace, war, and massive turns of events. Aspiring leaders of Americans ought to have something to say on the range of cryptocurrency policy options, and should lean towards principled freedom and peace.
Per an announcement, Donald Trump plans his speech at 2 p.m. on July 27 at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville. Robert Kennedy Jr. and Vivek Ramaswamy are also among the speakers.
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