Bitcoin: US presidential candidate believes government feels threatened

USA presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy talks about Bitcoin, saying the government feels threatened and will talk about it at the Republican debate. 

Bitcoin: Republican USA presidential candidate talks about the queen of crypto

Vivek Ramaswamy, candidate for the Republican Party nomination for the 2024 US presidential election, talked about Bitcoin in a new interview with the What Bitcoin Did podcast. 

 Specifically, Ramaswamy wanted to point out that in his opinion, the US government currently feels threatened by Bitcoin and therefore refuses to embrace it completely. 

Not only that, the US presidential candidate talks about different views on the subject, emphasizing the following when talking about the view of ordinary people: 

“Those of us who are having this conversation believe that we, as individuals, create a government that’s accountable to us. The alternative worldview, to understand it, is that the state predates the individual. Your rights come from the government. They’re not independent of that and so this proposes a threat to the existence of that state. Then, it’s perfectly within the rights of the state to come after and prevent that from existing.”

Hence, for the aspiring US president, the government and politicians should not be educated to change their views on BTC and crypto, but rather, Ramaswamy says the problem is that everyone knows what Bitcoin is and what that entails. For this very reason, he says the government feels threatened by the queen of crypto. 

Bitcoin: US presidential candidate says he will talk about it at Republican debate

In his speech, Ramaswamy talks about the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act bill, proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Roger Marshall, Joe Manchin and Lindsey Graham. 

It is a bill designed to close current regulatory loopholes and promote greater compliance of crypto companies with AML/CFT regulations. 

As of last September, it appears that nine members of the US Congress had reportedly decided to support such a bill. Others, however, call such a bill a direct attack on the personal freedom and privacy of crypto users.

Again, Ramaswamy speaks of a vision, however, that is of the US government, which is very different from what ordinary people believe. 

Finally, the presidential candidate also said he will raise the issue of Bitcoin in the debates:

“I’ve already told the moderators in the Republican Party. This should be a topic we need to be talking about. If they don’t [bring Bitcoin up], I will.”

Policy debate also on CBDC and Blockchain

Moreover, last September, alongside Bitcoin with its blockchain, another political debate also arose over the Central Bank Digital Currency (or CBDC).

And in fact, Maxine Waters of the Democrats had spoken on pending legislation on CBDC and blockchain. According to Waters, Republicans who support crypto and decentralization are apparently standing in the way of central banks creating a US CBDC. 

In that case, the bill in question is one introduced by Republican Tom Emmer, who would like anti-supervision of central banks in digital currency. Specifically, Emmer would like to block state efforts in releasing a financial surveillance tool that will undermine the American way of life. 

Responding to Waters, then, Emmer also pointed out that being in favor of crypto and blockchain does not mean being in favor of CBDCs as well, since they are still controlled by the government. 

But Democrats went on to characterize that Republican proposal as anti-innovation on CBDCs, citing the fact that while 130 other states around the world are working on it, the US is “at a standstill.”