Crypto offers a lot for the political right and left
Bitcoin originated as a libertarian cause, but the left should also embrace the asset
In the first decade of its existence, Bitcoin was largely associated with the libertarian values of freedom from government control.
The digital store of value was born out of an online community of cypherpunks, a group of idealistic computer scientists and cryptography enthusiasts. They sought to create an Internet-based currency as a means of avoiding government censorship and control within the burgeoning world of cyberspace.
Cypherpunks
Although no one knows Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity, the Bitcoin creator was almost certainly a cypherpunk and corresponded regularly with the other cypherpunks via email. It is not an exaggeration to say that absent right-wing libertarian ideology, Bitcoin probably would not have been created.
Bitcoin spread far and wide from the early cypherpunks in the years following its creation. In 2018, the modern ‘bible’ explains what, howand Why of Bitcoin was published by economist Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard. In his book, Ammous explains the many problems with state-imposed money, so-called fiat currencyand that Bitcoin is the free market solution to all the problems that fiat currencies induce.
For Ammous and his many followers, Bitcoin is truly a libertarian technology, one that drastically limits the Leviathan state, consolidates private property, and empowers the individual.
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To be sure, these right-wing libertarian arguments are true. But they are not just pro-Bitcoin arguments. The last few months have left-wing arguments have emerged for Bitcoin, coming from new progressive voices that recognize Bitcoin’s potential to satisfy their political goals.
Broadly speaking, these progressive Bitcoiners argue that Bitcoin helps achieve two key left-wing goals: 1) mitigate anthropogenic climate change and 2) empower individuals in third world countries living under oppressive tyranny.
Renewable future
With regard to Bitcoin’s potential to improve humanity’s relationship with the environment, philosopher and Bitcoin Policy Institute Fellow Troy Cross, cleantech investor Daniel Batten, and political advocate Dennis Porter are working to explain both to the public and to lawmakers that Bitcoin mining could be the key to a renewable future.
Professor Cross has spoken at a number of conferences and Bitcoin podcasts, arguing that anthropogenic methane emissions are a more pressing climate crisis than we previously thought, and that Bitcoin mining is the solution. Mining is the only available technology that can use to locate where methane is produced, use methane as its power source on a large scale and operate at any time of the day or night.
The burgeoning Green Bitcoin faction is helping Porter orange-pill leftist politicians in power.
Daniel Batten has been an environmental activist for a long time and has supported Greenpeace for over four decades. He was initially skeptical of Bitcoin precisely because mining consumed so much energy. To Batten’s credit, he did his own research and concluded that Bitcoin was actually a net positive for the environment. He has since written data-driven articles on the subject with appropriately confident titles such as “LFG = Landfill Gas: Bitcoin mining Can Turn Gas from Garbage into Money” and “Bitcoin Mining Can Prevent Climate Change”.
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Dennis Porter co-founded and directs the Satoshi Action Fund, a “non-profit educational organization dedicated to informing policymakers and regulators about the benefits of Bitcoin mining and how it can be used as a tool to support other public policy goals”. Porter has only recently come around to the idea that Bitcoin mining could advance humanity’s goal of solving the climate crisis.
Before this realization, he may have had an easier time selling the benefits of Bitcoin to Republicans than to Democrats. Still, the burgeoning “Green Bitcoin” faction is helping Porter “orange-pill” left-wing politicians in power.
Freedom from oppression
Finally, Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, published a compendium of essays this year titled Check Your Financial Privilege: Inside the Global Bitcoin Revolution. The title is a clear nod to the leftist phrase “check your privilege”, and one of Gladstein’s messages is that most people do not enjoy the privilege of low inflation and a stable fiat currency. It would be hard for a liberal to read the book and not recognize the role that Bitcoin will play in furthering classic causes of the left.
As Iyad el-Baghdadi, activist and president of the Arab Spring, Kawaakibi Foundation, put it: “Alex is one of the few experts who truly understands what Bitcoin can mean for the billions living under dictatorship – but also how the current system creates and sustains inequality, authoritarianism and imperialism.”
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In the US, financial regulation is driven by the political party in power. If Bitcoin maximalists want a clear, consistent and long-lasting legal framework around Satoshi’s invention, it is crucial that Bitcoin appeals to both sides of the aisle.
We’ve already seen glimpses of bipartisan efforts to integrate the Bitcoin economy into the US legal order: This summer, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) co-sponsored the Responsible Financial Innovation Act to establish a regulatory framework around digital assets (including Bitcoin). Although it is unlikely to pass this year, political attention on Bitcoin is sure to increase in the coming years.
Bipartisan appeal
It is not enough for Republicans like Lummis, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Representative Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) to favor Bitcoin. If the West is to lead the way towards a future with Bitcoin as the global reserve asset, we also need the approval of the Democrats.
Bitcoin is a rare example of a revolutionary technology with genuine bipartisan appeal. Right-wingers like Bitcoin because it offers an alternative economic system outside of government influence.
And now leftists are beginning to realize that Bitcoin is empowering billions of citizens currently living under the thumb of tyrants, and that Bitcoin reduces humanity’s harmful impact on the environment.
We live in a time of deep political polarization. As the saying goes, Bitcoin fixes this.
Will Szamosszegi is the founder and CEO of Sazmining
