If you weren’t there in person, it would be difficult to accurately describe how long and winding the line was to see Donald Trump speak at the Bitcoin conference. The wait to even get through security and find a seat in the auditorium took hours, and thousands of people rushed to find a seat on the Nakamoto stage early in the day. As the line snaked through the expo hall, it was easy to find an equal split of Bitcoiners and Trump supporters (some were both), all eager to hear Trump speak. There was an excitement in the air, and while I didn’t share in the excitement, it permeated the air in Nashville. Uber drivers were quick to point out that Trump was speaking at the conference. Large images of Trump’s face were hung up next to Bitcoin symbols all over the city, advertising the conference. Trump-mania had certainly taken over the conference, but it seemed to have taken over the city of Nashville as well.
I can’t deny that having Donald Trump speak at the Bitcoin Conference during an election year is a huge “win.” It’s a big moment for Bitcoin and we should all appreciate this development as, in a way, a milestone that we can all be proud of as Bitcoiners. Trump’s speech promised to bring Bitcoin into the mainstream political conversation, normalizing a nascent digital currency that most people still dismiss as “fake internet money.” It was a moment that we should all remember for the rest of our lives; this was Bitcoin’s chance to be included in serious conversations, by serious people.
If Trump had been on time for his speech, we would have known an hour earlier that this wasn’t going to happen. Instead, we waited. Once Trump started his speech, it didn’t take long to realize that the people who had been waiting for hours all day had been given an excuse. Trump’s speech was a rambling, sometimes rambling, asinine speech with a few little nods to crypto and… I think… Bitcoin thrown in for good measure. The first mention of Bitcoin was about six and a half minutes in. I don’t blame Trump for talking more about crypto than Bitcoin; most politicians do. But when he spoke at the Bitcoin conference, I expected him to spend more time talking about Bitcoin than his genius uncle who used to work at MIT. Unfortunately, sometimes you just can’t set the bar low enough.
The most tangible lesson I learned from Trump’s Bitcoin speech was the not-so-shocking realization that Robert Kennedy Jr. thinks more deeply about Bitcoin as he drinks his first cup of coffee each morning than Donald Trump has thought about Bitcoin in his entire life. All of Trump’s best moments during his speech (and there were a few) were lifted entirely from RFK Jr.’s keynote address the day before. The parts of the speech that he didn’t lift from RFK Jr. were rejecting, arrogant, flattery And poorly informedThe value of watching the speech is that the issue Bitcoin voters keep talking about is an easy decision to make.
There are undoubtedly plenty of Bitcoiners who love Trump and thought his speech was great. But there are also a surprising number of people who see all of this for what it is: a politician out to make money and votes. And an uncertain Bitcoin community looking for borrowed legitimacy. There are some positives to having a leading presidential candidate talk about Bitcoin, but most serious people I know in the space also recognize that there are some risks and dangers associated with it. The biggest of these dangers is that by aligning with Trump, the Bitcoin community risks alienating its pre-coiner audience for the foreseeable future. This seems like a hard point to grasp if you already like Bitcoin or you already like Trump. Try to remember that most people don’t fit into either category.
I’ve been around Bitcoin long enough to appreciate the massive cognitive dissonance that exists among many Bitcoiners. Some of these people are Libertarians who are fully committed to individual liberty, but are unwilling to respect someone’s gender identity. Some of these people are Conservatives who want to shrink the size of the government, all the while allowing that same government to control which books get banned and what healthcare people get. Some of these people are Bitcoiners who want to see the government divest itself of the financial system, while cheering wildly for any politician who promises to buy Bitcoin on behalf of the US government. If I can see the cognitive dissonance, why is it so hard for a community that prides itself on being heterodox, skeptical, and non-trust-verifying?
I see it as a personal responsibility to orange pill as many people as possible, and I am serious about doing so. This means that I am the 57% of Americans who don’t want Trump to see Bitcoin as a force for good in this world; my job is hard, and it’s only gotten harder since Nashville. Let’s face it: Bitcoin is the perfect combination of “internet” and “money” that should make anyone skeptical. There’s no shortage of FUD dismissing Bitcoin as fake money or a scam or a pyramid scheme or money for criminals. Veteran Bitcoiners might not worry about that, but the pre-coiners I know are certainly hyper-aware of its reputation. If it’s my job to convince them to take a second look, that’s going to be harder when Bitcoiners are falling over themselves to join a well-known scammer, womanizer, fraudAnd convicted criminal.
Bitcoin will certainly attract its share of scammers, cheaters, fraudsters, and criminals. Bitcoin is there for them too. But we must not capitulate and reposition Bitcoin as something Trumpian. This is just bad marketing. The most compelling argument I’ve heard in support of seeking Trump’s approval is that it will force other politicians to support Bitcoin and that his policies will force other countries to take Bitcoin seriously. This may turn out to be true, but it’s just as likely that the opposite will happen. Normie pre-coiners, if they were paying attention at all, could so easily hold the Bitcoin “scam” up next to the Trump “scam” and walk away from the whole thing and sleep soundly. Meanwhile, Trump will have no real affinity for Bitcoin after the votes are counted.
After so much effort to ensure Bitcoin is impartial, bipartisan, and non-political, it was our community (really a handful of influential and connected Bitcoiners) that sought an alliance with the most polarizing political figure in generations. It would be one thing if Trump found Bitcoin on his own, but that is not the case. We made this unforced error ourselves, or rather, we allowed the leaders of our leaderless movement to make mistakes on our behalf.
I hear you screaming, “So what’s your solution? Vote for the others?!” Fair question. Here’s my solution: Run away from politicians and run to voters. Meet them where they are and teach them how Bitcoin solves the problems they care about. That’s basically it. The rest will happen. Set a low time preference and it will happen from the bottom up, without you having to sacrifice your principles. This is the best way to promote Bitcoin adoption, protect the marginalized people who can help Bitcoin, and attract policymakers who truly and deeply care about Bitcoin and shun “crypto.” When you do meet with politicians, advocate for protections for self-custody, de minimis tax treatment so Bitcoin can be spent easily, and consumer protections imposed on exchanges and brokers.
For those who think Trump is now one of us, he is not. He will abandon our community whenever it serves him, and we will be worse off for it. Zoom out. A week after Trump appeared in Nashville, he sat in front of a disastrous interview with the National Association of Black Journalists. This, it turns out, did not make him a black journalist. Nor did appearing in Nashville make him a Bitcoiner. We would all do well to remember that.
This is a guest post by Jason Maier. The opinions expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.