Robert Kennedy Jr Launches Bitcoin 2023 Campaign: ‘Free Money Is Just as Important as Free Speech’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his first public appearance as a presidential candidate today at the Bitcoin 2023 conference, sharing his own experiences with bitcoin, warning of how the technology is enabling governmental authoritarianism around the world. and describes how it will protect the rights of bitcoiners. If elected President.

“As president, I will ensure that your right to possess and use bitcoin is inviolable,” Kennedy said. “I am an ardent defender and lifelong defender of civil liberties, and bitcoin is an exercise and a guarantee of those liberties.”

Kennedy told the crowd that he was first inspired by bitcoin as an important freedom technology after learning how it was used to circumvent financial sanctions during the Canadian truck protests last year.

“None of these legitimate and peaceful protesters had violated any laws…but suddenly, they found they could not use their money, their bank accounts to pay their mortgages or feed their families. Could,” he recalled. “When I saw this … devastating use of government repression, I realized for the first time how important free money is as is free expression.”

Kennedy has publicly expressed his support for bitcoin. from May 2023, acknowledging its isolation from other cryptocurrencies and indicating that legislators should support it rather than hinder its growth, as with regulations such as the Biden administration’s proposed tax on the energy used by miners . On stage, he reinforced his distaste for such regulations and outlined the steps his administration plans to take to drive bitcoin innovation in the US.

“First and foremost, I will defend the right to self-custody of bitcoin and other digital assets,” he said. “Second, I will retain the right to run a node at home… Third, I will defend energy usage-neutral, industry-neutral regulation… Fourth, I will ensure that the United States can use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.” remain a global hub of… I will reverse the growing hostility of the government towards this industry.

Finally, he said he would “not look into individuals like Ross Ulbricht,” the founder of the darknet, bitcoin-based marketplace Silk Road, who received a double life sentence in 2013, “for actual crimes, or as a means to an end.” “The case was prosecuted. Crypto action.

Kennedy said, “I would consider pardoning him and I would move very quickly to do so.”

Kennedy launched his Democratic primary bid A while ago Signals Support for the Bitcoin Industry on Twitter And announced his bitcoin 2023 appearance. His public stances on issues such as vaccine mandates and climate change have contradicted the views of most mainstream Democrats and he has positioned himself as a party outsider, As of this writing, he sits in second place, though by a significant margin, behind Joe Biden. national polling average,

At Bitcoin 2023, Kennedy clarified that he has not personally invested in bitcoin and announced that his presidential campaign would be the first in history to accept donations through the Lightning Network.

He concluded, “We are now living in this era of turnkey authoritarianism … and our task is to try to build and strengthen democratic institutions at the same rate.” “The biggest, most important thing on the horizon is bitcoin, because it cannot be manipulated.