Not that I ever expected a 70+ year old man to know about crypto anyway, (Except Ron Paul!) but holy shit this guy's a headache.
Also, you guys already know everything I am about to write, but it's important the world knows Trump is full of shit. His tweets caused a slight dip in the price of BTC, at which time I encouraged all my friends to buy, now it is going back up
I'll cut right to the chase because I've already spent too much time talking about this.
Claim 1: "Cryptocurrencies, which are not money"
False.
According to economics 101 (A class which I'm 100% positive Trump did not take), the characteristics of money are durability, portability, divisibility, uniformity, limited supply, and acceptability.
Bitcoins are more durable than dollar bills (Assuming you have multiple digital backups). Bitcoins are portable (Online wallets/wallet files on USBs). Bitcoins are more divisible than the USD (The smallest unit of Bitcoin is 0.00000001 BTC). Bitcoins are uniform, all Bitcoins are the same. There can only ever be 21 million BTC in total, so there is a limited supply. Lastly, Bitcoin is acceptable all over the world. I will admit though, that Bitcoins are less acceptable than the USD. However, in all other aspects, Bitcoin demonstrates the characteristics of 'real money' more strongly than the USD. In conclusion, Bitcoin has all the characteristics of money as defined economically, so it is real money. However, if you're too senile to understand how computers work, then Bitcoins are thin air.
Claim 2: "..and whose value is volatile and based on thin air"
True that it is volatile. False that it is based on thin air/
While it's true that crypto is highly volatile, this is the case with any good offered in a free market economy. This is because there are no countries to be invaded for the sake of stability of the currency. For example, nobody ever invaded Iraq and killed millions of people in the name of Bitcoins. It is human nature to dump currency which doesn't work for you. However, far too many have been punished for dumping the USD. Bitcoins are volatile, as is gold, and silver, and virtually any other supply and demand based currency. So yes, they are volatile.
...however, the value of Bitcoin isn't based on "thin air", but rather, supply and demand. People need to buy Bitcoin so they can purchase digital goods. People sell Bitcoin in exchange for goods and services. Supply and demand, a simple concept, unless you're a billionaire by inheritance who had to file for bankruptcy several times in your career. What
is, however, based on "thin air", is federal reserve currency. Economics actually agree that fed currency is backed by absolutely nothing. The arguments are usually about whether or not we need that kind of system
in place (we don't, the fed steals a lot more from the people than you think).
Claim 3: "unregulated crypto assets can facilitate criminal behavior"
Misleading.
Crypto doesn't facilitate criminal behavior. A majority of drugs are bought and sold through USD bills. For instance, US backed terrorists in Syria, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, etc, don't need crypto, when they can get stacks of USD. Criminals will always find a way to sell their assets, free trade such as the one offered in platform by Ross Ulbricht
keep our streets SAFE.
Also, drug trade isn't "criminal" at all. A crime requires an injured party. Two willing parties who engage in voluntary trade for drugs are not in fact committing any crime, rather, they are being unjustly punished by the state. The facts are that most illicit drugs are bought with the USD, most weapons deals happen with the USD, child molesters pay their bail in USD, I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point. The only difference between regulated and unregulated crypto assets, is that with regulated assets, the government gets a cut.
The most criminal act was making permanent warfare in the Middle East a sustenance plan for maintaining a currency, and that was not done in the name of Bitcoin.
All that being said, Facebook's Libra is not to be trusted at all. Mark Zuckerberg already has gone full fascist and decided to outright ban people whose political views he disagrees with. This man is not to be trusted with your money at all. He already got busted auctioning your data to shady third parties. So, Trump has a point with Libra. He really doesn't know jack shit about crypto though.
