Is Trump Trashing Bitcoin Actually A Good Thing?
A few days ago our ever classy and composed president sent out a tweet slamming cryptocurrencies - specifically bitcoin and Facebook's new coin Libra - stating that if they want to become "new" banks, they will need to be submitted to all regulations and banking charters.
I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity... Similarly, Facebook Libra’s ‘virtual currency’ will have little standing or dependability. If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National... and International. We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar!
Normally this kind of "negative press" would be something to roll our eyes at - and perhaps worry that it will perpetuate the public opinion of crypto being a "thing from the dark web for criminals" or other such nonsense. Responses to his tweets have been blowing up on social media with mixed reviews.
A tweet from the CEO and Co-founder of Coinbase - Brian Armstrong put it into a different perspective though.
Achievement Unlocked
He made the observation that getting this type of attention from a sitting US president is actually a massive step towards crypto adoption.
Achievement unlocked! I dreamt about a sitting U.S. President needing to respond to growing cryptocurrency usage years ago. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win". We just made it to step 3 y'all.
Research Shows...
Research shows that you have to hear something a minimum of 7 times before it begins to "stick" in your brain. Although this is not a "positive" tweet about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies - it is another point of recognition for people. Perhaps they become more familiar with the term by hearing about it in the news, then their neighbor brings it up in conversation, then their co-worker mentions he just bought his first chunk of bitcoin.
Even if all of these interactions are not positive - they all still add up to people becoming more familiar (read comfortable) with the idea of crypto. Most people tend to follow "social norms" and shy away from things that feel fringe or strange. By the terminology becoming more familiar in everyday vernacular - it opens the door for normalizing the movement in the eyes of everyday users.
The US Dollar Will "Always" by the Dominant Currency of the World? What a Joke...
Such an ignorant statement - although not all that surprising coming from Trump's mouth. Sadly, there are many people that truly believe this and actually have no idea how currency creates and holds value. If you asked most people on the street why those pieces of paper in their hands were valuable - they would have no idea how to respond.
That is one thing I'm excited to see a shift in the social culture as the crypto movement continues. My hope is that more people will begin to truly see how value is created and have a better understanding of economics and how it can impact their lives.
Thoughts?
What are your thoughts on Trump's tweets about crypto? Do you think it does more harm or good? Looking foward to chatting with you guys below!
He's sending mixed messages here...first he says he doesn't like crypto...then he says it's useful to "facilitate unlawful behavior". Isn't he the one that launders Russian money through his properties? Also, can he even pronounce facilitate? There is no fucking way he wrote that tweet. All of the language in those tweets is way too complex. He didn't say bigly or any of his other weird fake words and manners of speech once.
It is important to remember that we're not necessarily the best of friends with traditional institutions. Sometimes those in the crypto space whine about Visa and banks and all manner of other things. We're kinda in competition with them. It's expected that they would occasionally throw shade...and poo. It's actually part of the reason that crypto doesn't react as much as people think it does to the news. We get shit on all the time, and it doesn't matter, because that's what competition does.
That certainly seems to be the strategy of certain politicians. Just repeat the lie enough times, and it becomes true. I don't think that that's necessarily true in some sense though. You do retain info even the first time you hear something, unless your brain disregards it as unimportant. The more you hear about something though, the more it sticks.
It took me a lot more than 7 times though. I should have bought crypto the first time I heard of it...or a really nice used video card and mined the hell out of it. I might have heard about Bitcoin before the famous pizza buy. I know I actively remember when they launched Litecoin. I didn't really know how to buy it back then though...and every time I thought about buying some, people talked me out of it.
Never listen to people, they're stupid.
LOL! There's actually a ton of talk in the news about the US dollar losing because of this or that. One huge thing is it potentially being dropped from being used for the sale of oil. Visa just launched a blockchain product not long ago to allow the transfer of massive amounts of funds internationally. The dollar ain't looking so hot.
The more I learn about currency, the more I laugh when people say stupid shit...like how FIAT is safer because the fake ruling class backs it. Yeah, the people that take everyone's money, kill people every day, lock people in concrete and steel cages, and generally use their power for manipulation and control says it's valuable. Then it must be true...or they'll kill us.
Money has value because it's agreed between people that they will trade it for things that actually have value, like your time, and goods collected and harvested with your time. Cash is basically just a tokenized ledger system of sorts. The government controls a certain amount, which is then traded back and forth as an easy way to value things against a singular thing. Basically it just simplifies barter so you don't necessarily have to do multiple trades with multiple people. It's a tool.
Most cryptos are just as useful, if not more so than cash. It takes a bit more effort to put them on like a paper wallet...but everyone has phones these days. Perhaps the biggest deterrent is that the value could lower. But we might get used to that. When crypto goes down, we'll just all work harder to get more so we don't kill our bags, if we didn't sell for something that didn't go down as much.
It was extremly Good. After the tweet many many more has googled "bitcoin" show statistic from google
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Agreed!! Very cool. 💪🏻
Fiat does have value for three reasons:
If you are a creditor and refuse to accept fiat as repayment of debt, the state monopoly of violence will not help you collect your debt.
All entities that have accounting obligation by law are required to do their accounting with the official fiat current as the unit of account.
All taxes and fines must be paid in fiat.
Those three things make using the official fiat currency the path of least resistance. Because everybody else accepts fiat, people generally accept it. That, however, does not mean fiat currency is impossible to debase beyond usability. The world has seen plenty of examples of that. In our time, the government has ruined fiat in Zimbabwe and Venezuela by hyperinflating it.
He’s a business man and investor... deep down he loves bitcoin but as a president, he needs to protect the USA dollar 🤑
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Haha fair point!!
"achievement unlocked" lol - which achievment is next? paying taxes in crypto?
Well we will probably move that way in some ways - but they still don’t get that crypto isn’t something they can just “take control of”. 😂
The revenge for printing too much government owned money.
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Actually, that's possible in some places. I believe California allowed dispensaries to pay their taxes in crypto. Maybe I'm just hallucinating that that happened though.
I guess so and after that; country abandoning fiat for crypto. It's just a matter of time :) I think these two will take 10-20 years
I'm not one to pay too much attention to the price of Bitcoin... but I was curious to see if it would have any affect at all... especially since it doesn't take much for people to panic... and his tweets had literally no effect on the market at all... which I was super surprised about.
I'm pretty sure he either doesn't understand or doesn't care how economics work so no real surprise here.
I was curious about price fluctuation too! I think the fact that it didn’t change much shows that people don’t freak out too much by the tweets of trump. Haha
This is great news, Trump usually says 2 things that all the politicians say, and the third one will be something to revolutionize and implement his vision... I think this might be the first of three affirmations from Trump towards acceptance of crypto.
I don’t know whether it will do more harm than good, especially in the short run. But it makes total sense to me that it takes many mentions or touch points for something new to enter the average person’s conscious mind. And that is crucial for mainstream adoption. So I agree that it’s potentially net positive that he is bad mouthing crypto.
I think there are people on the extremes who will a) model their thinking after his, and b) listen to what he says and do the exact opposite. And then there is the vast continuum in between.
Hopefully among that larger set is a majority that is devoted to gathering facts and doing their own research. Possibly that is wishful thinking.
Yes It's absolutely a good thing . Because what bitcoin needs right now is exposure from the laggards and everyday people. The tweet from Trump offers that exposure to the crypto industry. So it doesn't matter if he is positive or negative about bitcoin.
It was extremly Good. After the tweet many many more has googled "bitcoin" show statistic from google
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