The Intersection of Bitcoin and Trump: The Game of Freedom and Control

Author: YBB Capital Researcher Zeke

I. What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger

"I'm Back, Bitches!" This phrase is dedicated to all the skeptics and those who take pleasure in others' misfortunes.

The first former president in history to be convicted, a "tech madman" who flirts with everyone and claims to give humanity brain-machine interfaces and send people to Mars, some disintegrating old subordinates, and enemies who were once in opposition, along with a cryptocurrency that has been declared dead by mainstream media hundreds of times since 2011. This seemingly twisted and absurd combination constitutes all the visible chips for the Republican Party in the 60th presidential election in the United States. Starting from Trump, the internal dynamics of this team appear quite fragile; two core figures, Musk and Vance, have publicly criticized his policies multiple times, and Trump himself has repeatedly denounced Bitcoin since 2019, viewing it as a Ponzi scheme and a tool for money laundering.

But "All things are for profit; all movements are for profit," whether people or things, as long as there is an intersection of interests, differences can naturally be temporarily ignored. For Trump, this is a life-and-death battle, a battle for family honor. For Musk, this is a battle for the future of humanity. For Vance, this is a war to defend the old American dream and the new Silicon Valley. All these obstacles converge at this moment: the Democratic Party.

Since God cast the first vote in Pennsylvania, the scales of victory have begun to tilt. Changing the baton, bringing out all the old politicians within the party, gathering Hollywood stars, pouring money into media promotion, the Democratic Party has exhausted all means but still failed to stop Trump's team's victory.

On the voting deadline of November 6, contrary to what mainstream media in the U.S. described as the most intense election in history, with Harris slightly leading in polls, the Republican Party won all seven swing states, ending the battle in half a day. Trump ultimately repelled the Democratic Party's comprehensive hunt with overwhelming force. One of the Republican Party's key trump cards is the silent majority, those legitimate citizens at the bottom oppressed by illegal immigrants and libertarianism. They do not voice their opinions on social media, but they will cast the right vote. That man in the red MAGA hat is back in the White House.

In this spectacular American election, I can understand everyone's motivation in Trump's team to support him, but why did he choose Bitcoin? A common explanation is that 13% of the U.S. population holds cryptocurrency, and Trump needs to appeal to these voters. According to his own explanation, Bitcoin can be used to pay off $35 trillion in national debt and replace gold as a new strategic reserve. The former reason seems a bit forced, while the latter appears somewhat absurd. To convince myself, I have reviewed a large number of articles and videos from traditional financial bloggers since the 6th, and I believe the answer is that Bitcoin intersects with the multiple points of the America that Trump and Musk will lead over the next four years: namely energy, anti-Federal Reserve, anti-Democratic Party, anti-big government, and the new symbol of the old American dream.

II. Energy

The true motives of politicians are always hidden beneath those grandiose reasons. Let's revisit the strangest point in Trump's vision for Bitcoin's future: in June of this year, Trump posted late at night on Truth Social, "Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency)… We want all remaining Bitcoin to be made in the USA!!! This will help us dominate the energy sector."

There are many similar statements, such as hoping that all remaining Bitcoin will be labeled as made in America, making the U.S. the capital of crypto. The underlying message of these statements is to maintain a united front with the grassroots voters, resisting the Democratic Party's tyranny over Crypto, resisting CBDC, and resisting Bitcoin produced in Europe and Asia. However, these statements do not withstand careful scrutiny; whether Bitcoin is labeled Made in the USA seems unrelated to the aforementioned points. Trump's true intention is actually hidden in the development of energy. His main donors include Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer, Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, Jeff Hildebrand, CEO of Hilcorp Energy, Timothy Marvin Dunn, CEO of CrownQuest Operating, and Koch Industries, the largest oil company in the U.S. Funding from the oil industry is the main source of Trump's campaign funds for his second run, and the Democratic Party's promotion of renewable energy generation has greatly hindered the development of these traditional oil industries. Trump's intention is to strengthen the use of fossil fuels, generate electricity with fossil energy, and drill like crazy.

Musk's dream of Mars is also closely related to the energy industry. What are the obstacles to landing on Mars? First is energy, followed by rocket launch costs, AI robots, and communications, which correspond to Musk's Tesla electric vehicles, SpaceX, Tesla robots, and Starlink. However, the biggest obstacle to colonizing Mars has become the government. The funding for the car companies behind the Democratic Party mostly comes from traditional automakers like General Motors and Ford. Although the Democratic Party implements clean energy legislation and electric vehicle subsidies, these naturally exclude Tesla. The U.S. lunar return program, although initiated during Trump's previous term, allocated most of the $1.46 billion in contracts to SpaceX. However, after Biden took office, NASA redistributed the contracts, significantly reducing the number of orders for SpaceX, which only received $9.4 million, while the bulk went to Bezos's Blue Origin. The most important issue is that the Democratic government has been making it difficult for SpaceX's rocket launches through environmental regulations, with absurd justifications, such as whether it might harm marine life and threaten the marine environment. Starlink played a crucial role in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war, but the usage fees have been delayed. Musk, who originally considered shutting down the Starlink service in Ukraine, had to restart it under pressure from the Democrats.

All in all, Trump is Musk's only choice; energy policy and space contracts will be the bargaining chips Trump exchanges with him. Besides reviving gasoline vehicles, all of this aligns perfectly with Trump's anti-extreme environmental policies, and the two naturally hit it off.

Moreover, energy plays an important role in AI development. I mentioned in last year's article "Prospects for Potential Tracks: Decentralized AI Computing Power Market" that computing power is the oil of the future. If this oil is divided into two parts, it would be electricity and chips, with "the number of tokens per dollar per watt" representing future productivity. Developing the energy industry is also to ensure that the U.S. maintains a leading position in AI, which aligns with the demands of the new Silicon Valley forces behind Vance. Therefore, Bitcoin mining is just a pretext for Trump; Made in the USA has no necessary connection with stopping CBDC or preventing other countries from mining. The "understanding king" may not understand Bitcoin and doesn't need to; he just needs to know that people indeed like it and that it consumes electricity.

III. Anti-Federal Reserve

Zuckerberg was once the number one fan of the Democratic Party. To demonstrate his loyalty, he banned Trump's social media accounts the moment he stepped down. Trump has repeatedly stated that if he has the chance to return to office, he will first imprison Zuckerberg. However, this loyalty did not earn the Democratic Party's compromise on Libra; Zuckerberg may not truly understand that this is a declaration of war against the largest private bank in the U.S., the Federal Reserve. Meta's downfall was a stock price crash, and the metaverse became a bubble, but compared to past politicians, Zuckerberg is still relatively lucky.

Historically, there have been two presidents who wanted to challenge the Federal Reserve: Lincoln, who wanted to reclaim the power to mint currency, and John F. Kennedy, who wanted to issue silver-backed currency. The ultimate result for both was assassination. However, Musk and Trump still aspire to be the next challengers to the Federal Reserve. During his previous term, Trump publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes multiple times. The independence of the Federal Reserve prevented him from intervening in monetary policy, and in the next term, he hopes to directly fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Musk, during the last crypto cycle, attempted to have Tesla accept Bitcoin payments but ultimately claimed that Bitcoin was not environmentally friendly and paused Bitcoin payments. Of course, I would like to believe that the fundamental intention behind adopting Bitcoin payments was to challenge the dollar, and the reason for the eventual halt could not possibly be environmental concerns.

No pain, no gain is a commonality among the three: Trump is the craziest politician, Musk is the craziest entrepreneur, and Bitcoin is the craziest currency. Perhaps there is nothing in this world they are afraid to challenge. On November 8, a senator posted a message, and Musk replied with an emoji "💯," indicating 100% support. The content of the post was as follows: "The executive branch should operate under the leadership of the president. This is the design of the Constitution." He also added the hashtag "#EndtheFed." He wrote, "The Federal Reserve is one of many examples of our deviation from the Constitution. This is another reason we should 'end the Fed.'"

Let’s revisit Trump's promise regarding Bitcoin: to use Bitcoin to pay off U.S. debt, to establish Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, and that Bitcoin will ultimately surpass gold. Anyone who can do basic arithmetic knows this is nonsense; with the U.S. holding 1% of the total Bitcoin supply, it wouldn't even cover a week's interest on the national debt. But what is implied? It is that the "understanding king" wants to seize the power of currency, and Bitcoin, as the number one mocker of fiat currency, is perfectly suited to lead this anti-Federal Reserve movement. If he can ultimately bring down the Federal Reserve, Trump will not only be the most powerful president in decades but the only president in the history of the U.S. who possesses all powers.

IV. Anti-Big Government

I will skip the content regarding the Democratic Party here; there is a more exciting description in an article titled "Crypto Wars 33 Years: Started by Biden, Ended by Biden" by an author named Chao. We will mainly discuss what big government of the Democratic Party and small government of the Republican Party mean.

Jefferson set the rules for the young America: "The best government is the least government." Small government ideology has been the political stance of the Republican Party for many years, advocating low taxes, less regulation, and emphasizing individual freedom and market mechanisms. The Democratic Party tends to favor big government, high taxes, and strong regulation, emphasizing social equity and public services. The anarchism advocated by Crypto is actually very close to small government ideology; both fundamentally lean towards free markets and individual freedom, but small government ideology believes that retaining a minimal government to maintain individual freedom is necessary.

In the process of integrating crypto with America, we may see the Republican Party promoting on-chain forms towards small government ideology, thus launching another attack against the Democratic Party. Over the past four years, the Democratic Party, which has absorbed extreme leftist liberal ideas, has completely transformed into an exploitative government against legitimate American citizens. An unprecedented moral kidnapping has bloodied America. We see that the so-called government intervention to remedy social injustices has evolved into the indulgence or even support of various extreme movements; rainbow flags, looting, and drug use are commonplace, and the arrangement of hotels and shopping cards for illegal immigrants shows that their benefits surpass those of citizens. The Democratic Party's goal is evident: through exploitation and brainwashing citizens to maintain power stability, even if they lose some citizen votes, they can gain more votes from illegal immigrants and extreme leftists. What Trump wants to cultivate may be a compliant crypto world, where citizens can engage in financial activities more efficiently and freely. The election fraud he despises may also be realized through blockchain, reclaiming the four years lost by the Republican Party and consolidating its position after 28 years.

V. The New Symbol of the Old American Dream

The so-called new American dream is represented by the immigrant elite class, exemplified by Kamala Harris, the first female vice president, who is both African American and South Asian, perfectly fitting the Democratic Party's "politically correct requirements." She symbolizes the immigrant "American dream" against the backdrop of America's multicultural era, representing open and inclusive cultural concepts. The representative of the old American dream is JD Vance, a fighter born in the Rust Belt. As a common child of the working class, he is a soldier, a writer, a businessman, and also the next vice president of the United States and a new Silicon Valley figure. He represents the belief held by early Americans that through hard work, courage, creativity, and determination, one can ultimately achieve prosperity, which embodies democracy, rights, freedom, opportunity, and equality.

As Trump's running mate, his buff is perfectly stacked. The intersection of Bitcoin, or Crypto, with the old American dream is, I believe, perfectly aligned. The essence of Proof of Work is that the more you invest, the more you earn; in this parallel world of blockchain, miners are absolutely equal. This American dream is better interpreted in third-world countries, where they can use stablecoins or even Bitcoin in the blockchain for transfers and payments, thus bypassing banks and unreliable small government currencies. They can also seek freedom and opportunities in DeFi or on-chain. If Trump keeps his promise, the upcoming Web3 will be an "American dream" belonging to crypto users worldwide.

Conclusion

Satoshi Nakamoto once wrote a reply to BM (the founder of EOS), "If you don't believe me or can't understand me, then I don't have time to convince you, I'm sorry. We have passed the era of explaining what Bitcoin is and whether it is a Ponzi scheme. For sixteen years, it has never failed; it is there, existing across the Atlantic and right beside you and me."

I do not oppose the Americanization of Bitcoin; any country, institution, or individual can buy Bitcoin. Crypto is inherently about freedom; controlling tokens does not mean controlling the network. Everything that happens on the Bitcoin blockchain remains decentralized. However, I do resent the constant mention of crypto and politics. First, I truly do not understand American politics. Secondly, as an industry that mixes finance and emerging crypto technology, we have spent a significant amount of time discussing politics over the past year, which is absolutely abnormal for any developing tech industry. Bitcoin and the Republican Party are on equal footing in this election, each benefiting from the other, but the Crypto beyond Bitcoin is not.