Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his first public look as a presidential candidate on the Bitcoin 2023 convention at this time, sharing his personal experiences with Bitcoin, warning about how know-how is enabling authorities totalitarianism world wide and describing how he would shield the rights of Bitcoiners if elected president.
“As president, I’ll guarantee that 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 instructed the group that he was first impressed by Bitcoin as a vital freedom know-how after studying about the way it was used to bypass monetary restrictions during the Canadian trucker protest last year.
“None of those lawful and peaceable protestors had violated any regulation… However immediately, they discovered that they might 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 noticed for the primary time how free cash is as vital as free expression.”
Kennedy has publicly expressed his assist for Bitcoin since May 2023, acknowledging its separation from different cryptocurrencies and indicating that legislators ought to assist its growth quite than hinder it, as with rules just like the Biden administration’s proposed tax on energy used by miners. On stage, he strengthened his distaste for such rules and he outlined the steps his administration would take to drive Bitcoin innovation within the U.S.
“First, I’ll defend the proper of self custody of bitcoin and different digital belongings,” he mentioned. “Second, I’ll uphold the proper to run a node at residence… Third, I’ll defend use-neutral, industry-neutral regulation of vitality… Fourth, I’ll guarantee that the USA 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 marketplace Silk Road who obtained 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 primary bid shortly earlier than signaling support for the Bitcoin industry on Twitter and announcing his Bitcoin 2023 appearance. 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 party outsider. As of this writing, he sits in second place, although trailing by a big margin, to Joe Biden in national polling average.
At Bitcoin 2023, Kennedy clarified that he’s not personally invested in bitcoin and introduced that his presidential marketing campaign could be the primary in historical past to just accept donations by way of the Lightning Community.
“We at the moment are dwelling on this age of turnkey totalitarianism … and our job is to try to construct and fortify democratic establishments on the identical fee,” he concluded. “The most important, most vital one on the horizon is Bitcoin, as a result of it might probably’t be manipulated.”
