2024 US election: A Kennedy presidency? Trump again? Will it be rigged?

Adobe said:

RFK Jr. makes Bitcoin vow ​

"The US presidential hopeful says he intends to tie the dollar to the cryptocurrency"

"Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he will support the US dollar with the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin if his White House bid is successful in 2024."

"Speaking on Wednesday at an online forum hosted by Heal the Divide, a super-PAC with links to firebrand Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kennedy announced he intends to back the dollar with “hard assets” such as gold, silver, platinum, or Bitcoin."

"Additionally, Kennedy said that under his administration, conversions of Bitcoin to dollars would be exempt from capital gains tax – measures he argued would fulfil his goal of “making America the global hub of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin.”
www.rt.com

RFK Jr. makes Bitcoin vow

US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to integrate Bitcoin into the national economy if elected in 2024
www.rt.com www.rt.com
Click to expand...
I saw that during my nightly news round... not sure how I feel about it to be honest, the bitcoin part that is, tying a currency to a tangible item is a good idea in my opinion, though it would mean the end of a lot of the lavish lifestyle that Americans enjoy with all their credit.

But the bitcoin, not sure about his rationale for it.
 
Adobe said:
"Additionally, Kennedy said that under his administration, conversions of Bitcoin to dollars would be exempt from capital gains tax – measures he argued would fulfil his goal of “making America the global hub of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin.”
Click to expand...

Alejo said:
... not sure how I feel about it to be honest,
Click to expand...

Agree. It kind of sounds hegemonic.
 
My understanding of economics is a bit foggy. I understand what they taught us in school: income, out-go, balance, profit-loss etc. but when we come to “today” I get lost in the terminologies. So, here’s some of my convoluted thoughts on the matter of crypto, CBDC, fiat, etc.

Fiat (what we use today) = bad, as it is back by nothing thus doomed.

Crypto (also used today) = bad, as it is worse than Fiat because it can be gone at-any-minute because of a sun discharge, war bombs, hacking, or the gov just switches it off on us (or on me personally)

But crypto (there are several types of crypto and Bitcoin is just one of them) are JUST ANOTHER TYPE OF CURRENCY, thus just a tool to move funds.

CBDC = devastation, as it has the possibility of total control of everything.

Are the cryptos like a software that can be used, and the CBDC is the computer-system that can accept the software/crypto as a tool to control all of all. That is to say CBDC is the evil potential, and cryptos are just tools?

So, when Kennedy says he’s ok with using crypto, he is not saying let’s go to CBDC…Right?

However, using crypto in a major way, would put us one micro-step from the CBDC system.

Is this a reasonable understanding?
 
Adobe said:
Fiat (what we use today) = bad, as it is back by nothing thus doomed.
Click to expand...
It's not really fiat that's bad per se, but rather the uncontrolled inflation of fiat, ie. "money printing". And fiat is backed by several qualities that a physical item like gold doesn't have: large-scale portability, higher fungibility (divisibility), and supply flexibility.

The view that currency that is physical is "better" is simplistic. At the end of the day, what backs any form of currency is really the faith that the currency will be accepted as a means of exchange. Without that, gold and silver are no different to copper, tin or iron, economically-speaking.

Adobe said:
Crypto (also used today) = bad, as it is worse than Fiat because it can be gone at-any-minute because of a sun discharge, war bombs, hacking, or the gov just switches it off on us (or on me personally)
Click to expand...
How are any of those situations different for any other form of money? What if a government declares a former currency no longer legal tender and issues a new one? What if someone steals your gold? Or a government outlaws holding gold, such as the US did in 1933?

Adobe said:
CBDC = devastation, as it has the possibility of total control of everything.
Click to expand...
"Muh CBDC!!!!!"

Adobe said:
However, using crypto in a major way, would put us one micro-step from the CBDC system.
Click to expand...
We already have a de facto CBDC system. Protestors and political dissidents are being unbanked without needing any CBDC. Just look at what happened to the Canadian Trucker Protest organisers, independent journalist Maria Zee in Australia, or Nigel Farage's latest woes.

And Russia and China are already rolling out CBDCs. The US is actually way behind. Crypto is a parallel system and always has been.

Adobe said:
Is this a reasonable understanding?
Click to expand...
I find RFK Jr's understanding of crypto to be more in line with mine. 😉 His "crypto hub" idea is just "MAGA for crypto", and I think he probably knows this, too.

And speaking of RFK, I've been finding his campaign strategy to be extraordinarily entertaining and refreshing. If by some miracle he actually wins the Democrat primary, I look forward to whatever shenanigans will be used to call off the 2024 election so the deep state can finally dispense with the pretence of democracy and move into the iron-fisted autocracy stage that they seem sooooooo eager to embark upon. This is probably going to happen anyway, but it's almost certainly guaranteed if we end up with Trump vs RFK, or so I think.
 
Ryan said:
It's not really fiat that's bad per se, but rather the uncontrolled inflation of fiat, ie. "money printing". And fiat is backed by several qualities that a physical item like gold doesn't have: large-scale portability, higher fungibility (divisibility), and supply flexibility.

The view that currency that is physical is "better" is simplistic. At the end of the day, what backs any form of currency is really the faith that the currency will be accepted as a means of exchange. Without that, gold and silver are no different to copper, tin or iron, economically-speaking.
Click to expand...
How does Crypto prevent faith from being eroded? or from it being subject to "crypto printing"? It's an honest question, I do not know enough about crypto to answer those questions.

Ryan said:
I find RFK Jr's understanding of crypto to be more in line with mine. 😉 His "crypto hub" idea is just "MAGA for crypto", and I think he probably knows this, too.
Click to expand...
What is MAGA for crypto?
 
Alejo said:
How does Crypto prevent faith from being eroded? or from it being subject to "crypto printing"?
Click to expand...
For the first question, it can't. It's a problem inherent with all currencies, and is probably an aspect of materialistic thinking: believing that energy can be 'fixed' in perpetuity into 'something out there' for easy access later. For the second, it depends. For instance, Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million coins, and although this is just software, it does introduce a problem with changing the software if there's a disagreement about the upgrade - 51% of all the Bitcoin nodes need to agree with the new software. Many alternative blockchains don't have these sorts of limitations built in though, and are much more susceptible to supply inflation.

As a quick digression, there's actually a minority of Bitcoiners who think that the 21 million coin limit is a flaw in Bitcoin's design, and are pushing to inflate the supply. That perspective is a very, very small minority though.

Alejo said:
What is MAGA for crypto?
Click to expand...
US nationalism in the crypto space: ie. "Putting America first", similar to Trump's ideas for renegotiating trade deals with other countries. Crypto by nature doesn't recognise national borders, so ideas about "crypto hubs" and so forth have to be implemented at the political & material level: locations of servers, legislative incentives, interfaces with the existing financial system etc. China is doing a similar thing with Hong Kong at the moment. Bitcoin computing power ("hashrate") is becoming an increasingly political asset, and I expect that most of it will accumulate into 'blocs' in various jurisdictions that have an interest in preventing any country from taking unilateral control of the ledger. Note the BlackRock CEO's recent statements about Bitcoin being, "an international asset."

There's also a theory that's doing the rounds regarding Blackrock, Vangard, Fidelity et al's sudden rush to support Bitcoin: once the SEC implement Wall Street's rules, those companies will heavily fund Bitcoin development and attempt to push BTC in a centralised direction. Not an implausible scenario, but I think the timeframe for how long that would take makes it unlikely.

In any case, I think RFK Jr sees a possible broad political value of appealing to the US entrepreneurial spirit in an area of emerging technology like crypto; it could turn out to be a pretty savvy campaign strategy, osit.
 
Ryan said:
In any case, I think RFK Jr sees a possible broad political value of appealing to the US entrepreneurial spirit in an area of emerging technology like crypto; it could turn out to be a pretty savvy campaign strategy, osit.
Click to expand...
Got it, thanks.

But then, it would ultimately.. not behave any differently than any fiat currency today. it appeals to the people who think it will be decentralized and it's a way to get away from central banks and whatnot, but... in truth, it can be just as easily, if not easier since you can't stash it in your mattress, controlled and regulated as fiat is, yes?
 
Alejo said:
Got it, thanks.

But then, it would ultimately.. not behave any differently than any fiat currency today. it appeals to the people who think it will be decentralized and it's a way to get away from central banks and whatnot, but... in truth, it can be just as easily, if not easier since you can't stash it in your mattress, controlled and regulated as fiat is, yes?
Click to expand...
It could behave differently in the sense that if it behaves as designed, it will be deflationary, rather than inflationary, and thus have the US dollar gain in value if backed/tied to it somehow, rather than lose value progressively. Maybe he plans to do that and move away from the federal reserve? Im not sure that bitcoin itself would be possible to be controlled as easily as fiat, but if he uses this as a middle point to then establish a CBDC or other gov/fed controlled coin, which might be more arbitrary and easily controlled, then it could make sense as a bait-and-switch strategy. I understand it to some degree, but still not all the ways in which it could be exploited.
 
Alejo said:
in truth, it can be just as easily, if not easier since you can't stash it in your mattress, controlled and regulated as fiat is, yes?
Click to expand...
Yes and no. Again, we need to keep the distinction between CBDCs and crypto in mind. Control is circumscribed by the specific situation. If I run the central bank and want to inflate the supply of a CBDC, easily done. If I change the Bitcoin code to inflate the supply and pay myself 1 million BTC for doing the job, I need consensus from the entire network, which may be very difficult to obtain, perhaps impossible.
 

Putin signs law introducing digital ruble​

"The document implies an additional form of the Russian national currency, which will be issued along with existing forms of money"

"MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the introduction of the digital ruble and the creation of a corresponding electronic platform."

"It implies an additional form of the Russian national currency, which will be issued along with existing forms of money. That means that the Russian ruble will have three forms: cash, non-cash and digital."

tass.com

Putin signs law introducing digital ruble

The document implies an additional form of the Russian national currency, which will be issued along with existing forms of money
tass.com tass.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Trending content

Back
Top Bottom