A couple of days ago, even the most well-known figure in the crypto world, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, wanted to express his views on the upcoming presidential elections to be held in November in the USA.
Buterin has not openly sided with any of the candidates, but he wanted to warn voters that truly supporting the crypto world does not just mean making propaganda in favor.
Vitalik Buterin comments on the candidates in the USA elections: Trump under veiled scrutiny
Vitalik Buterin has published a long post on his blog titled “Against choosing your political alliances based on who is pro-crypto”.
Against choosing your political allegiances based on who is "pro-crypto"https://t.co/rEbRjZYtFB
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 17, 2024
The implicit reference is to those US politicians who, for purely electoral reasons, seek consensus by declaring themselves in favor of the crypto world.
In the post, Donald Trump is never mentioned, but it seems evident that Buterin was really referring to him.
Trump is now widely in favor of cryptocurrencies, also because he has earned a lot of ETH by selling NFTs, and apparently he is willing to sell more of them.
However, when he was President, and in particular in 2019, he said he would ban Bitcoin if it reached the price of $100,000.
Indeed, according to what was stated by the CEO of Block, Mike Brock, in 2020 Trump actually tried to ban Bitcoin, but was then stopped by Steve Mnuchin and a group of people from his administration who did not follow his wishes, in order to preserve American competitiveness and innovation.
Trump tried to ban Bitcoin in 2020, until Steve Mnuchin and a group of people in the administration slow-walked his wishes, to preserve American competitiveness and innovation. I know. I was invited to the meeting. And yes, I’m violating the confidence of those conversations.
— Mike Brock
(@brockm) July 18, 2024
Brock claims that he was present at the meeting where these things were discussed.
The reasoning of Buterin
In his post Buterin states that in the last two years cryptocurrencies have become an increasingly important topic in politics, and not only in the USA.
He also says he considers many of the laws that have already been approved, or are under study, regarding the crypto world to be reasonable, but notes that within the sector there is a growing push to become more politically active and favor political parties and candidates based on whether or not they are willing to be lenient and friendly with crypto.
Buterin states that he is against this trend, because he argues that making decisions in this way involves a high risk of going against the values that in the first place drive people to enter the world of cryptocurrencies.
The famous co-founder of Ethereum explicitly cites the cypherpunk movement within which years ago the decentralization projects based on blockchain began to take shape, and which in fact had the objective of challenging the control of centralized authorities such as States.
The suggestion
It is a sort of return to the origins, that is, a recovery of the original reasons that pushed on one side some technicians to develop decentralized systems based on blockchain, and on the other millions of citizens to embrace them.
Furthermore, he adds that the game of politics is much more complicated than a simple “who wins the next elections”.
For these reasons, it is suggested not to vote for pro-crypto candidates just because they are pro-crypto, as otherwise, there is a risk of giving incentives to politicians who might limit themselves to trying to get votes by saying they support the crypto world.
Adds:
“It doesn’t matter if they also support the ban on encrypted messages, if they are narcissists seeking power, or if they push for bills that make it even harder for your Chinese or Indian friend to attend the next cryptocurrency conference: all politicians need to do is ensure that it’s easy for you to trade coins.”
So it encourages considering other characteristics to evaluate the candidates, saying that there are much more honorable incentive gradients that one could help create.
Politics in the USA during elections and cryptocurrencies according to Vitalik Buterin
Buterin also suggests asking oneself, in the case of candidates who claim to be pro-crypto, if they are doing it for the right reasons, and not just to gain momentary approval.
Being truly pro-crypto, according to Buterin, also means having a vision of how technology, politics, and the economy should progress in the 21st century, and having a good positive outlook that goes beyond short-term concerns.
The fact remains that it highlights the difference between politics and politicians, meaning by “politics” the governmental activity, and by “politicians” those who in democratic countries run for elections with the precise (and often sole) purpose of winning them.
It therefore suggests to voters to go beyond the words of politicians, often deceitful because they are pure propaganda, and to reason about what can realistically be expected from the real political action of future bull.
The thought of Vitalik Buterin
To understand the concerns of the famous co-founder of Ethereum, it is useful to also consider some contextual information about him.
Vitaliy Dmitrievič Buterin, known as Vitalik, was born in Russia in 1994.
At the age of six, he emigrated to Canada with his parents, so much so that he is now a Canadian citizen.
So he observes US politics relatively from afar, even though inevitably it affects his fortunes since the USA is by far the largest crypto market in the world. Buterin will not vote in the US presidential elections in November.
In recent years, he has often spoken very negatively about the politics of his home country, Russia, probably also due to his libertarian nature which makes him dislike authoritarian regimes like the current Russian one.
It is easy to imagine that even a figure like Donald Trump, who presents himself with clear authoritarian traits, is not much liked, even if it does not seem that he supports the rival Biden.
His concerns about the American elections actually seem to go far beyond the aspects more exquisitely related to the crypto sector, also because Buterin is a very informed person who has very broad and complex ideas regarding the entire human society, and not just the world of cryptocurrencies.
