'Not in reality': Expert says Trump's major 'made in USA' promise all but impossible
A technology expert on Thursday took aim at one of President-elect Donald Trump’s many campaign promises for when he sweeps back into office next month: his vow that all remaining Bitcoin be “made in the U.S.A.”
But ensuring that the United States is the world leader in the multibillion-dollar Bitcoin industry that is decentralized is a tall order for Trump to achieve – if not “near impossible,” Bloomberg reported.
“It is a Trump-like comment but it is definitely not in reality,” Ethan Vera, chief operating officer at Luxor Technology, which provides software and services to miners, told the publication.
That’s because blockchains “are decentralized networks in which no one controls or can be banned from participating in the process,” Bloomberg added in its Friday report.
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While Trump's comment, which he made in a Truth Social post in June, is mostly viewed as a symbolic pledge of support, "on a practical basis, the sector is becoming increasingly competitive as large-scale operations pop up across the world to get a slice of the tens of billions of dollars in revenue generated each year by the industry,” the report said.
More than 95 percent of the 21 million Bitcoin that will ever be created “have already been minted, though the hard cap on production isn’t expected to be met for about 100 years,” Bloomberg noted.
Russian oligarchs, Dubai royal families and Chinese businessmen in Africa are some of the newest competitors in the market in the “lucrative but energy-intensive process,” the report said.
“President Trump campaigned on a vision for America to remain the world leader in the next frontiers of technology, from cryptocurrency to AI,” Trump-Vance transition spokesman Kush Desai told Bloomberg. “The Trump-Vance administration will work with industry titans and unleash our talent and resources to ensure American leadership and innovation in every facet of the cryptocurrency industry, from mining to end-use solutions.”