Written by: Ben Schiller, CoinDesk
Translated by: Mensh, ChainCatcher
This year, the crypto industry finally has its 'friend', and his name is Donald Trump. For years, this industry has been struggling to find a political spokesperson, someone who could liberate its thoughts and bring its ideas to a wider audience. Now, that person is Trump.
He stood on the stage of the Nashville Bitcoin conference, expressing how much he liked the people in the crypto industry. He announced the establishment of a Bitcoin strategic reserve. He promised to release Ross Ulbricht. He handed out hamburgers at PubKey in New York. He even launched his own DeFi project -- World Liberty Financial, and developed a set of internal governance models (what better way to demonstrate his loyalty to cryptocurrency?).
Trump said what people wanted to hear about cryptocurrency and did what he wanted to do with it, attracting millions of dollars in donations as a result. Big mouths cheered for him, while culture warriors expressed hatred in the performance. He occupied the political space that the Biden administration and the Harris campaign could have occupied if they weren't so submissive to the Warren wing. What he said is all right because Trump always says what people want him to say. He completely aligns with the goals of the crypto party because his politics can adapt to any situation, and the crypto party desperately needs a friend.
I have to admit that all of this makes me personally uncomfortable, not because I have any fondness for Harris, but because Trump has long been an unreasonable friend. He could easily take a completely opposite view on cryptocurrency if it served his interests, and he has done so. I'm very concerned about Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency because I find it hard to believe that Trump's principles align with those that attract me to cryptocurrency.
So, what are the three reasons we should be wary as an industry?
Trump may not deliver on his promises
Many White House officials during Trump's first term talked about his unprincipled nature. His former chief of staff John Kelly said he fits the definition of a fascist: someone willing to overturn constitutional norms to achieve their own goals.
Here’s what a former Trump White House official said this morning:
John Mitnick stated: Trump is reckless, irritable, vengeful, narcissistic, and disrespects the Constitution and the rule of law; Trump is not a conservative; he is more like a dictator and fascist driven by personal interests. He doesn’t care about you and your family as he claims; he only cares about himself.
Seriously, shouldn't we be worried about this? Aligning the crypto movement with an unreliable person, isn't that strange? Crypto is supposed to abhor single points of failure, yet it joins a cult of personality; isn't that odd?
Trump must view the issue of cryptocurrency as his own if he is to become the politician for cryptocurrency. Harris and her team have occasionally engaged with cryptocurrency over the past few months, indicating that they might play nice on this issue. This summer, Trump made it clear to participants in the crypto dance that he would not deal with Democrats. Why?
Because Trump has to be that person: he won't share this issue with Democrats. That's how it is in Nashville. Elon Musk was expected to have a conversation with Trump at the Bitcoin conference. However, according to an insider and CoinDesk's tracking of Musk's private jet, he turned around and left when Trump was unwilling to share the stage with him. Trump needs to be that person.
It is certain that Democrats have abandoned cryptocurrency themselves. This starts with mining; after the industry returned to the U.S., all new facilities went to red states. Democrats began to view Bitcoin mining as a harmful environmental illegal activity, while Texas and other states regarded it as part of their grid flexibility program. Personally, I fully support treating mining as part of the grid; it is foolish for Democrats to ban mining and lose this industry.
But the interesting question is, how would Trump react if Democrats really started to seriously support cryptocurrency?
Alienating outsiders
In the pursuit of power and relevance, cryptocurrency has allied itself with the Republican Party. It often does not say so openly, but it has done so. Those managing its campaign teams are all Republicans. Most of the lower-tier candidates it favors are Republicans. When organizations like Stand With Crypto urge people to vote, you know they are not supporting voting for Senator Elizabeth Warren.
These campaign groups do not always explicitly state their preferences. But their allies do, and the effect is often exclusionary. For example, here’s former Messari Ryan Selkis discussing his feelings about today’s liberal white women.
This is a free country, and Selkis can say whatever he wants. He might even think that saying so is brave. But seriously, does this benefit cryptocurrency? Is such language consistent with the goal of making cryptocurrency mainstream? Wouldn't liberal white women, and other groups that Ryan has been defaming around the clock for the past six months, be offended? Wouldn't they think cryptocurrency is made up of big bad guys like Selkis? If you want to build a broad crypto movement, you certainly don’t want to be at odds with women.
Cryptocurrency will be linked to policies unrelated to cryptocurrency
Earlier this year, when I first heard the term 'single-issue voter' associated with cryptocurrency, I immediately thought 'BS'. How can you support a candidate or party on a single issue? Electoral politics doesn’t work that way. When you support someone like Trump, you are implicitly supporting a broad policy agenda.
Thus, when crypto offered Trump $10 million to reinterpret the 'Howey Test', it was in support of (not in order of importance, just selecting a few of Trump's policies) a 'peace agreement' on the Ukraine issue (also known as surrender), mass deportation, and opposition to abortion and transgender rights. From a cultural and social perspective, is this the outcome cryptocurrency wants?
Caution is the mother of safety. The Biden administration and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's opposition to cryptocurrency over the past three years has been detrimental to the crypto industry, which must respond. However, if this election aligns with a person named Trump, it could bring a whole new set of unforeseen downsides.