Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his first public look as a presidential candidate on the Bitcoin 2023 convention at the moment, sharing his personal experiences with Bitcoin, warning about how expertise is enabling authorities totalitarianism around the globe and describing how he would shield the rights of Bitcoiners if elected president.
“As president, I’ll make it possible for your proper to carry and use bitcoin is inviolable,” Kennedy mentioned. “I’m an ardent defender and lifelong defender of civil liberties and Bitcoin is each an train and a assure of these freedoms.”
Kennedy advised the gang that he was first impressed by Bitcoin as a crucial freedom expertise after studying about the way it was used to bypass monetary restrictions throughout the Canadian trucker protest final 12 months.
“None of those lawful and peaceable protestors had violated any regulation… However abruptly, they discovered that they may not entry their cash, their financial institution accounts to pay their mortgages or feed their households,” he recalled. “Once I witnessed this … devastating use of presidency repression, I spotted for the primary time how free cash is as vital as free expression.”
Kennedy has publicly expressed his help for Bitcoin since Might 2023, acknowledging its separation from different cryptocurrencies and indicating that legislators ought to help its improvement relatively than hinder it, as with laws just like the Biden administration’s proposed tax on power utilized by miners. On stage, he bolstered his distaste for such laws and he outlined the steps his administration would take to drive Bitcoin innovation within the U.S.
“First, I’ll defend the correct of self custody of bitcoin and different digital property,” he mentioned. “Second, I’ll uphold the correct to run a node at dwelling… Third, I’ll defend use-neutral, industry-neutral regulation of power… Fourth, I’ll make it possible for america stays the worldwide hub of Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies… I’ll reverse the federal government’s rising hostility towards this {industry}.”
Lastly, he mentioned that he would look carefully at “whether or not people like Ross Ulbricht,” the founding father of darknet, bitcoin-based market Silk Highway who acquired a double life sentence in 2013, have been prosecuted “for precise crimes, or as a method to crackdown on crypto.”
“I’ll think about pardoning them and I’ll act in a short time to take action,” Kennedy added.
Kennedy launched his Democratic major bid shortly earlier than signaling help for the Bitcoin {industry} on Twitter and asserting his Bitcoin 2023 look. His public stances on points like vaccine mandates and local weather change have contradicted these of most mainstream Democrats and he has positioned himself as a celebration outsider. As of this writing, he sits in second place, although trailing by a big margin, to Joe Biden in nationwide polling common.
At Bitcoin 2023, Kennedy clarified that he’s not personally invested in bitcoin and introduced that his presidential marketing campaign can be the primary in historical past to simply accept donations by way of the Lightning Community.
“We at the moment are residing on this age of turnkey totalitarianism … and our job is to attempt to construct and fortify democratic establishments on the identical price,” he concluded. “The largest, most vital one on the horizon is Bitcoin, as a result of it might probably’t be manipulated.”
Supply: Bitcoin Journal
