Today Donald Trump promised to create a strategic bitcoin reserve if he's elected. Even for Trump, does this make any sense?
Put aside the question of whether bitcoin is a real thing or just a mass delusion. Let's assume it's real. We still don't stockpile every real thing. We don't have a strategic Lego reserve or a strategic airplane reserve. We only stockpile things that we might suddenly need in large quantities.
We stockpile oil because we might need it if OPEC cuts off supplies. We stockpile vaccines because they take a long time to manufacture and we might need them quickly in case an epidemic strikes. We stockpile rare earth minerals in case China decides to get nasty about them.
But what conceivable emergency would prompt a sudden need for bitcoin? And if, for some reason, we did suddenly need a huge amount of bitcoin, what would prevent us from just buying it on the open market? The whole point of crypto is that it's decentralized and under the control of no government.
Before you tell me: Yes, I know this is just Trump pandering to his fans. Still, his actual policy pronouncements generally make some sense. This one is like promising to create a strategic baseball card reserve. Is there any possible way of interpreting it that isn't completely out to lunch?
Now that I think of it,
bitcoin's purpose is to be untraceable.
How much bitcoin has Trump already been bribed with?
Gold-bug v2.0: stock pile a thing perceived to have enduring value so that when “fiat currency” collapses you will have some asset to hold up its value (a la gold reserves of old). The people HODLing are like people that buy gold coins. And creating a strategic reserve is also a way to say you will subsidize/prop up that asset class with government funds.
Sounds completely on brand to me….
Of course, if fiat currency collapses, the likelihood that the Internet will be operating in such a manner that Bitcoin can be accessed is approximately zero.
And, for that matter, how could gold be used? Would assay offices spring up everywhere to determine its purity? How could one tell whether an assay office was honest or a scam?
You couldn’t spend an ounce of it on anything other than maybe a car or a house. Would there be tiny, tiny coins? Dust?
For the last couple of weeks, Trump has been careering from one ridiculous thing to another. It's not really hard to understand why. Trump needs attention the way most people need oxygen. With Biden dropping out, Harris has been getting most of the attention, and it's driving Trump Ka-razy. So he spouts out whatever his demented brain tells him will generate attention. That's it. There isn't anything more to it than that.
????
Also, the Crypto companies are giving him lots of money, so there's that.
I came across this article. I think I've seen her name mentored in the comments.
https://www.theblock.co/post/307914/sen-cynthia-lummis-announces-bill-for-us-treasury-to-buy-1-million-bitcoin-worth-69-billion-bitcoin-2024
She described bitcoin as "a hard asset".
That nincompoop may be the dumbest person in Congress, stiff as that competition may be.
Perhaps the Bitcoin reserve could be held as a special class of shares in Trump Media and Technology Group, which will eventually be valued at more then $1 trillion.
Trump is headed in the right direction with his support for various strategic reserves. On of the most important - which he hasn't mentioned, but surely will - is a Strategic Strategic Reserve. That's where we put aside for future use, as many Strategics out there that we can find, purchase, drill-for, and mine.
Um, what Trump economic policies generally "make sense" exactly? Replacing the income tax with across the board 10% tariffs? Rounding up 10-20 million people and deport them? Cutoff legal immigration? Gut all climate change mitigation that increases much needed infrastructure improvements? More massive tax cuts for billionaires?