This is the dawn of the crypto era. once again.
No. 47. Bitcoin President. Head encoder. Cryptocurrency chief.
But not: Crypto Head.
When “cryptography” meant “encryption,” the personal computer and the advent of the Internet were new tools for expressing freedom and power. The industry it led was completely new. New capabilities. New challenges. New regulations. At the heart of it all was “cryptography”: a magical power once reserved for the missions of secret agents and sleek 007 bondsmen (not the financial kind). However, it has reached the point where it is appearing in public and corporate programs. The unlikely duo of corporations and freedom fighters were banding together to usher in a new era of public empowerment through the possibilities of encrypted software and the use of the Internet. After looking at the political landscape, they found their candidate who they would support to become the “crypto president” – Democrat Bill Clinton. And then he did what early polls said he had no chance of doing. He won.
That was when all hell broke loose. Clinton betrayed them.
But what else is new? What did these voters expect in 1991? What do we expect now? What can anyone expect other than what they are told? It doesn’t take much for a presidential candidate to attach their name to a cause and join a new group of voters and funding. For example, the newly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, took the stage on May 5, 2024 and swung his rope in just five sentences. There is no policy framework. There is no convincing evidence. Just five sentences to connect his platform to the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin communities.
Less well-known than this public moment is one that took place away from prying eyes: a dinner party at the home of tech entrepreneur David Sachs, co-hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya and featuring other powerful voices in Fintech & Crypto. Many of them are Democrats. Trump left that dinner with an additional twelve million dollars for his campaign. More importantly, he left with the tinge of a new industry looking for a political activist to lead the way.
32 miles away and 32 years ago, Bill Clinton found himself at the home of Apple CEO John Sculley. They fished the salmon alongside 135 other strongly Republican-leaning Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Clinton will leave this dinner with more funding and support for the booming new industry. “I’m still a Republican, but I’m voting for Bill Clinton,” Scully would say, in a letter to his fellow Silicon Valley contemporaries. At this gathering, it was understood that Clinton would open the issue of encryption wide open for the industry. And their biggest obstacle, gun regulations, will be removed. Clinton will continue to gloss over some other general themes to show his support for the software and Internet industries, but without any real details on the actual actions he will take to fulfill those promises.
Promises about Bitcoin are pouring in today from many of Trump’s “MAGAvengers” as they are called. Cynthia Loomis, Robert Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Howard Lutnick, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Tulsi Gabbard spoke about how they see Bitcoin being installed in the next administration. It’s hard for anyone watching not to be impressed by the amount of thoughtfulness and uniformity in pro-Bitcoin positions they shared. Furthermore, Trump mentioned creating a Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Advisory Council to bring more educated voices into government. Maybe if Trump drops the ball, we can still count on some of these other Trump minions to step up.
Although Clinton did not have MAGA avengers to back his sweeping promises, his cabinet was perhaps more impressive than Trump’s. Did anyone in Trump’s group do? Invention of the Internet? It’s a long-running joke about Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore. Although he certainly did not invent the Internet, by then he had already racked up years of accumulated successes in legislation fighting for software and the future of the Internet before it became politically popular to do so. John Podesta, after an entire legal career fighting and lobbying against export controls that were stifling crypto, was named head of the Clinton transition team and then White House chief of staff. Podesta and Gore will bring with them a highly curated list of academics and eclectic technology experts. The length of hair and the amount of sandals being worn in the political aisles were about to go off the charts. Cyber libertarian John Perry Barlow would describe the incoming eccentrics as “highly intelligent, conscientious freedom-lovers. Hell, a lot of them are Deadheads. I was sure that after they were fully transferred, they would face the NSA and the FBI.”
The deck was stacked. Silicon Valley’s future has never been brighter. In less than a year, the computer, internet and cryptocurrency sectors will see the most stringent regulations in the history of computing. Bill Clinton’s government faced the NSA and the FBI. The NSA and FBI won.
The biggest infringement on crypto freedom from the Clinton legacy came in the form of Scissor Chip and its “Skipjack” crypto suite. They have put a government backdoor into almost every electronic device in the United States. Moreover, it was portrayed as a victory for the American people. He was technically providing them with stronger encryption than was previously allowed. So, in a way, Clinton was making good on his promise about his pro-crypto platform. But like a monkey’s paw wish, the reality of the president keeping his promise was a much worse reality than the one Americans were already stuck in. Fortunately, there was enough public anger met with production difficulties and economic incentives to stimulate the economy. Leave that Big Brother timeline dead in the water. There have been more regulatory overreaches, whether other back-door initiatives, the creation of CALEA and its dominance of electronic surveillance, the funny business between the FBI and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or presidential directives and executive orders targeting communications and information systems, and more support. to export controls that were strangling crypto in its infancy.
It was not until the end of the first Clinton administration, when he was running for another term, that he finally waived and relaxed export control laws. And what do you know? The trials of Phil Zimmerman and Daniel Bernstein had just concluded, and the courts ruled that encryption was protected under the First Amendment. Clinton’s move to relax crypto-related export control laws could be seen as nothing more than a symbolic gesture to follow up the power reversal that has already occurred behind his back.
The times we live in always feel unique and important. Trump’s return to the presidency, the current political uncertainty, and the rise of Bitcoin are all complex factors that will greatly impact our lives. But history is not without its rhymes. During Bill Clinton’s time in office, there was a unique shift in party lines, complex world politics with the fall of the Soviet Union and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and a new software and Internet industry that was very new and expanding dramatically year after year. If our story continues to line up, we may not need to worry about “whether or not Trump supports Bitcoin.” But instead “Will Trump’s support for Bitcoin do more harm than good?” Would “good for bitcoin” be bad? After all, Bitcoin’s progress up to this point has been largely due to a large group of programmers who managed to build it outside of regulatory scrutiny. And if the question is “more harm than good?” On the wrong side of the coin, do we have the Zimmerman/Bernstein card up our sleeve to check regulatory and legislative overreach?
It is impossible to predict. One thing we can be sure of knowing at this point is that the era of building Bitcoin in the shadows has just ended.
This is the dawn of the cryptocurrency era, Bitcoiner. once again. And if past is prologue, “good for Bitcoin” will likely mean anything else.
This is a guest post by AIS. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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