Here’s What Every Major 2020 US Presidential Candidate Has Said about Bitcoin

The 2020 US presidential poll is still nearly two years away, but campaign season is already in full swing. Before long, voters require know which Democrats support the Green New Deal and what mantra will replace Trump rally principal “Lock her up!” (assuming Hillary Clinton doesn’t run again, that is). Less prominent, though, are the candidates’ thoughts on bitcoin, positions which do not unendingly sort out along party lines.

Will the 2020 US presidential election bring us the first crypto-investor-in-chief, or will the voters choose someone with no qualms about using the long arm of the executive branch to impose burdensome regulations on the nascent asset league? Read below to find out.

Note: While this list is not exhaustive — more than two dozen Democrats bear either formally begun their campaigns or are considering running — it includes every major candidate, as well as others who take taken notable stances on bitcoin or blockchain technology. We will regularly update this list as candidates jot down the race and/or update their opinions on cryptocurrency.

Democratic Candidates

Cory Booker

• Insist on to Fame: Sitting Senator (New Jersey)
• Campaign Status: Running
• Crypto Stance: ???

Cory Booker sits on the Senate Trafficking Subcommittee on Communications Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, but the junior senator from New Jersey has not revealed his thoughts on at least one innovative internet-native communications technology: bitcoin.

Tulsi Gabbard

• Claim to Fame: Sitting Representative (Hawaii)
• Campaign Status: Running
• Crypto Stance: Devoted

While Tulsi Gabbard has not revealed her formal stance on cryptocurrency, her public financial disclosures show that the symbolic from Hawaii invested in litecoin (LTC) and ethereum (ETC) toward the height of the crypto bubble. It is not clear whether she continues to about these funds.

Kirsten Gillibrand

• Claim to Fame: Concerned agree with Senator (New York)
• Campaign Status: Running
• Crypto Stance: ???

Kirsten Gillibrand has not taken a public stance on bitcoin, not that it pass on necessarily matter much. Once a representative from a conservative New York district, her views have — to put it nicely — “evolved” since her 2009 post to the Senate and subsequent development of a national profile.

Kamala Harris

• Claim to Fame: Sitting Senator (California)
• Stand Status: Running
• Crypto Stance: ???

If Senator Kamala Harris has a strong position on cryptocurrency, she has yet to share it with the flagrant.

Elizabeth Warren

• Claim to Fame: Sitting Senator (Massachusetts)
• Campaign Status: Running
• Crypto Stance: Critical

Senator Warren has been acerbically critical of the state of the cryptocurrency industry, reiterating in several congressional hearings that she believes US regulators need to do assorted to oversee the nascent asset class and the harm it could do to retail investors.

“I’m apprehensive about consumers getting hurt,” she told Yahoo in 2017 when asked for her opinion on bitcoin, arguing that when regulators snitch a back seat, it is American families who pay the price.

She has been particularly skeptical of initial coin offerings, which she voted are often used to scam ordinary investors. “The challenge is how to nurture productive aspects of crypto with protecting consumers,” she swayed last October.

Andrew Yang

• Claim to Illustriousness: Entrepreneur
• Campaign Status: Running
• Crypto Stance: Bullish

Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign is a longshot, but it’s one that’s of discriminating interest to cryptocurrency fanatics since he announced that he would accept campaign donations denominated in bitcoin and ethereum (as definitely as ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens).

Republican Candidates

Donald Trump

• Claim to Fame: Former reality TV star, sitting US President
• Campaign Status: Running
• Crypto Carriage: ???

President Trump has not shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency. However, his administration includes several current and former senior associates who are pro-bitcoin.

Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House Chief of Staff, praised bitcoin in 2016. Stating that the cryptocurrency was “not manipulatable by any ministry,” he compared it favorably to the US dollar, which he said had been “effectively devalued” by the Federal Reserve.

Former White Ill fame adviser Steve Bannon is also a crypto bull, revealing last year that he owned bitcoin and thirst to launch one or more utility tokens. “I’m working on some tokens now, utility tokens — potentially — for the populist movement on a worldwide underpinning,” he said, “but they’ve got to be quality.”

Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who served on the Trump conversion team, has repeatedly stated that he believes bitcoin is “digital gold” and has invested in several other blockchain proposes, including EOS creator Block.one.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had less praise for bitcoin when he discussed the meaningfulness last January, though he didn’t go so far as to state that the government needed to impose more regulations on the industry. He voiced that the Treasury is “very focused” on cryptocurrency and wants to ensure that the technology does not become the new “Swiss bank account.” Similarly, Snow-white House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated in 2017 that the cryptocurrency industry is “being cathode-ray tube screened” by the executive branch and that advisers had discussed it with Trump during an Oval Office meeting.

Notably, Donald Trump was also the first US president to abandon an executive order explicitly mentioning cryptocurrency. That March 2018 order banned US citizens from purchasing the state-sponsored petro cryptocurrency created by Venezuela.

Republican Primary Challengers

As of this article’s latest update, no Republicans had advertised their intention to challenge Donald Trump for the GOP’s 2020 presidential nomination. Nevertheless, Trump will likely in spite of a primary challenge, however ill-fated.

Independent/Third-Party Candidates

John McAfee

• Claim to Fame: Software mastermind, ICO promoter
• Campaign Status: Running (both for president and from the law)
• Crypto Stance: High as a Kite

John McAfee is so bullish on cryptocurrency that he move ats Fundstrat’s Tom Lee look like a bear. The septuagenarian has found a second career as an initial coin offering (ICO) promoter, and he has asseverated that he will “eat [his] d*ck on national television” if the bitcoin price does not reach $1 million by 2020.

Howard Schultz

• Petition to Fame: Former CEO of Starbucks
• Campaign Status: ‘Exploring’ a Run
• Crypto Stance: Pro-blockchain, anti-bitcoin

The former Starbucks CEO believes blockchain is an substantial technology and that digital currency could represent the future of payments. However, he does not think that bitcoin or any other decentralized cryptocurrency has value.

“I don’t confidence in that bitcoin is going to be a currency today or in the future,” Schultz said in a January 2018 earnings call. “I’m talking near … the possibility of what could happen — not in the near term, but in a few years from now — with a consumer application in which there’s confide in and legitimacy with regard to a digital currency.”

Last updated Feb. 2, 2019

Featured Image from AFP