Author | Five Fireballs Master
Produced by｜Baihua Blockchain
Recently, Trump attended the 2024 Bitcoin Conference as a top guest. Under the spotlight, he made a series of promises that crypto enthusiasts considered "sweet words", expressing his "love" for Bitcoin almost without reservation. Trump said that the market value of Bitcoin will exceed that of gold, and that he will force the crypto-unfriendly SEC chairman to step down after being elected, and will also retain the government-pledged Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, etc. He was just short of saying "Let the United States ALL in Bitcoin", and the audience responded enthusiastically with thunderous applause. Due to the attendance of Trump and others, this conference has also become the highest-level Bitcoin summit in history.
"ETF, SEC, interest rate hike, election..." When we find that these issues that have a huge impact on the crypto market are all concentrated in the United States, the United States has become the dominant force in the crypto market and has almost mastered the "pricing power" of crypto assets such as Bitcoin. The upcoming US election will have a far-reaching impact on the crypto market, so the crypto community has been paying close attention to the US election recently.
Many people think that Trump's frequent overtures to crypto assets are good news, while others think that this is just a "play" to win votes. After becoming president, he will "pull up his pants and leave" or even "burn the bridge after crossing the river". So how credible are Trump's sweet words? Who is right and who is wrong? Everything has to start with the propositions and values of the two major camps of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in the United States...
01. Why is Bitcoin favored by Trump and the Republican Party?
Many people believe that in the context of the confrontation between the Republicans and the Democrats in the election year: Bitcoin crypto users and voters are suppressed by the Democratic Party-dominated authorities, and Trump's show of goodwill is conducive to winning more votes and generous donations, paving the way for the next election. This logic makes perfect sense, but in this way, there is no guarantee that the Republicans and Trump will "abandon" after winning the election. There are many similar examples in history.
In fact, there is no need to worry about this. Many people only know one side of the story and not the other. Another very important background is the traditional propositions and values of the Republican Party to which Trump belongs.
Simply put, the values of the Republican Party, including Trump, determine the route and main direction of their future policy making. In fact, the Republican Party and Trump have always advocated: economic policies that support free markets and personal freedom, conservative social concepts, and a certain degree of right-wing conservatism. At the same time, Trump has proposed policies that support technological innovation, advocate personal privacy and security, and oppose overly concentrated monetary control and financial supervision. In general, people on the right may be more inclined to support and participate in technological innovation and market freedom.
It is not difficult to see that Bitcoin's core concept of returning financial power to individuals is completely in line with the Republican Party and Trump's values of personal freedom and market freedom. At the same time, Bitcoin is also more favored and supported as an emerging technology and investment opportunity supported by them.
This can also be seen from Musk, who also supports the value concept of Bitcoin. In a recent interview, Musk said that he is an admirer of American values. He has supported the Democratic Party in history and now supports the Republican Party. He is just looking for which party is more in line with the American values in his mind. At present, the Republican Party is more in line with his advocated principles of maintaining talent and not abusing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which is a typical left-wing value) and advocating basic American principles such as personal freedom, so he now supports the Republican Party.
Of course, Trump’s speech at the Bitcoin conference was still a bit corny, and his promises are likely to be discounted. After all, his purpose now is more about winning votes, but when he is really in a high position, he will need to weigh all the pros and cons. The implementation of the new policy is likely to cause controversy again.
Finally, just look at the lukewarm reaction of the Bitcoin market after Trump’s speech and we will know that everyone knows that we cannot listen to what he says, but must see what he will really do at that time.
02. Why do Democrats not like Bitcoin so much?
As the leader of the current US government, we have long witnessed what the Democratic Party has done in recent years. Although their attitude has softened as the election approaches, in fact, almost all Democratic leaders, including Biden, the SEC Chairman, and the current presidential candidate Harris, do not seem to like Bitcoin.
It is still a question of values. As Musk mentioned above, the Democrats' positions and policy proposals are obviously left-leaning, and some people have even criticized them as "extreme left". The Democratic Party's propositions, including environmental impact and sustainability, financial inequality and social justice, and stronger supervision, reflect its values of weakening individual freedom and power and emphasizing public and collective interests.
Obviously, under the left-leaning values, the core concept of Bitcoin is not so harmonious, so the left-wing Democrats including Biden and Harris do not actually like Bitcoin that much.
03. No matter who is elected, the wheel of history cannot be changed
1) There are also many supporters within the Democratic Party
Although the Democratic Party leans to the left, not all of its members are "extreme left". Most of them are rational and stick to the facts. The Democratic Party has previously made it clear that they will move closer to the centrists and away from the extreme left on issues of market and financial regulation.
Previously, in the vote on the bill SAB 121 to ban crypto-unfriendly cryptocurrency accounting policies, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed it by a vote of 228-182, and the Democratic-led Senate passed the resolution by a vote of 60 to 38. Although it was ultimately vetoed by Biden, it shows that a considerable number of Democrats also support Bitcoin. It is believed that with the internationalization and mainstreaming of crypto assets, more progress will be made in the future.
2) American Core Values
For so many years, people have always believed that Bitcoin is one of the main challengers to the dollar hegemony and should have been blocked long ago. Even if the United States cannot completely block it, it has the ability to marginalize it. But in fact, this is not the case. It is not only because of Bitcoin’s own anti-fragility, but also one of the reasons behind it is that it is difficult for Americans to violate the core values of the United States.
In the history of the United States, individuals were once prohibited from holding gold. However, some people believed that this ban violated the principle of personal freedom and was seen as an infringement on personal freedom and property rights. The abolition of the ban in 1974 was seen as a restoration of economic freedom and personal rights. Although the ban played a role in responding to the Great Depression, in the long run, it was regarded by most people as a failed policy because it restricted personal freedom and failed to fundamentally solve economic problems.
Americans now know that it is difficult to ban private ownership of Bitcoin like they did in the past. First, there are previous failures. Second, compared with physical gold, Bitcoin is just a string of characters and cannot be enforced by snooping and monitoring the personal privacy of every American.
If we start with Bitcoin, whose core values are freedom and personal power, and Americans do not even have the power to hold a string of characters, then we have to overthrow the Statue of Liberty. In fact, no matter how much the Democrats and Republicans disagree, it is impossible for anyone to stand up and overthrow the Statue of Liberty, which symbolizes freedom, democracy, and the American dream. These core values can be said to be the foundation of the United States.
04. Summary
In the debate, crypto assets such as Bitcoin have also gained soil for growth and spiraled upward. No matter who is elected in the end, it cannot change the wheel of history. If you don’t believe it, just look at it. Bitcoin only has a thin window paper left to become a reserve asset...
