Bitcoin 2023 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Keynote

Bitcoin 2023 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Keynote

May 18-20, 2023

In his first public appearance since announcing his candidacy for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a keynote address at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, where he declared fierce support for Bitcoin.

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that his would be “the first presidential campaign in history to accept Bitcoin donations through the Lightning Network” during the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami.

"Today, we show the world the power and the durability and the flexibility of Bitcoin,” Kennedy said.

“Almost everyone in this room is aware of the link between Bitcoin and democracy and freedom,” he said. “They're passionate because of the deep representation of a deep need that we have for liberty and democracy, and the promise that this innovation has to guarantee those virtues."

Kennedy pledged to be an unwavering proponent of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. “As president, I will make sure that your right to hold and use Bitcoin is inviolable,” he told crowds in Miami that erupted into applause. "I am an ardent defender and lifelong defender of civil liberties, and Bitcoin is both an exercise and a guarantee of those freedoms.”

Time Stamps:

0:00 - 3:15 - The Canadian trucker protest
3:15 - 8:35 - Increasing authoritarianism during the pandemic
8:35 - 13:30 - RFK Jr's position on Bitcoin
13:30 - 15:36 - The environmental criticism of Bitcoin
15:36 - 19:49 - Bitcoin is the currency for liberty and democracy
19:49 - 25:31 - News Desk: Reactions to Robert F. Kennedy's Keynote

He laid out an ambitious plan that involves:

1. defending self-custody of Bitcoin - "your wallet is your own";

2. the right to run nodes in one’s home;

3. industry-neutral regulation of energy;

4. ensuring the US remains the global of hub of cryptocurrency technology;

5. "sensible jurisdiction and governance", recognizing that Bitcoin is not a security and should not be regulated as one; and

6. examining whether individuals like Ross Ulbricht (founder of online black market Silk Road, who received two life sentences), "were prosecuted for actual crimes, or as a means to crack down on crypto.” He added, “I will consider pardoning them and I will act very quickly to do so."

Despite the strict crackdown of the crypto industry by regulators, he promised to improve the policy environment, making it more favorable to crypto firms in order to prevent them from moving offshore: “I will reverse the government’s growing hostility toward this industry,” he said.

He also acknowledged Bitcoin's environmental footprint and encouraged expansion of pro-environmental energy technology, but exhorted the public not to use an environmental defense "as a smokescreen" to undermine the industry.

Kennedy warned of the danger of centralized digital currency (known as CBDC or central bank digital currency) being abused by governments to track every financial transaction of its citizens and then punish them for bad behavior, noting that "free money is as important to freedom as free expression."

Audience-goers from around the world expressed support for his viewpoints on Bitcoin, even if they disagreed with his other political views. "His stance on Bitcoin is spot-on. He knows exactly what he's talking about on Bitcoin," Thomas Jeegers, the author of Understanding Crypto Fundamentals, told TheStreet Crypto.

"People want to make sure their money is their own," Jeegers said. "Bitcoin is so much more than money or a currency. Bitcoin is property rights, freedom of speech – it's freedom to do what you believe in without having your money in the hands of a government that can devalue it."

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz7FPl065II

https://b.tc/conference/

https://www.thestreet.com/cryptocurrency/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-bitcoin-2023-speech-miami