True progressives will support Bitcoin and the crypto economy…

When political progressives broach topics like inflation, taxes, or corporate wrongdoing, they claim to be speaking for the people. Whether working class or minorities, progressives seek to shape public policy to protect those who are constantly at risk of exploitation.

But when these same people such as US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts)turn their attention to innovative technologies like Bitcoin and its crypto offspring (cryptocurrencies with huge potential to empower middle and lower class Americans), they prefer the steamroller to a helping hand.

Many progressive ideals can be achieved with cryptocurrencies: no bank ownership, no intermediaries, low fees, fast transactions, and a lifeline from a life of debt and poverty.

Anyone can download a mobile wallet from the app store for their smartphone, generate a bitcoin address, and immediately receive small portions of cryptocurrency in a secure, cryptographically secure way, regardless of race, gender, orientation, economic status, or even location.

Author Alex Gladstein has provided many stories about Bitcoin. providing a real alternativeempowering citizens in countries with rapidly inflating currencies or in authoritarian countries with capital controls.

For those close to 6 million Americans who does not have bank accounts (without bank accounts), using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin can be a godsend. There are no income requirements to use bitcoins, no need for a physical address, and no need to use an ID.

For the millions of Americans sending money abroad, growing number use low-fee bitcoin transactions instead of traditional bank transfer services that often carry double-digit rates.

Cash App, one of the most popular financial apps, is completely integrated bitcoin to send and receive funds among friends and family, and a growing number of both online and personal sellers now accept bitcoin.

Although there will inevitably be some technical problems, especially for older people not keen on technology, the experience growing adoption in developing countries gives hope that cryptocurrencies can become a progressive triumph.

The rejection of mediation by corporations or politically connected organizations should excite a populist fighter like Senator Warren, who made a reputation fighting banker bailouts and criticizing the cozy relationship between financial institutions and the Federal Reserve.

Unfortunately, due to collapse of FTXone of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, progressives like Senator Warren want to completely destroy the crypto ecosystem, and not just enforce laws to rid it of unscrupulous players.

The actions of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, a crypto wunderkind and once the second largest political donor to the Democrats, who are now considered the prime movers of the $8 billion scam or Ponzi scheme, have brought us to this point. accusations include blurry ledger silos between client and company accounts, missing funds, and billions of dollars of tokens donated to his own hedge fund, Alameda Research, to boost economic power in the cryptocurrency markets.

Senator Warren has a right to be outraged, as are the millions of FTX customers whose funds have either disappeared or been blocked in bankruptcy, and millions of other cryptocurrency holders are now struggling with falling prices.

But, as the senator recently said column, these alleged crimes are dealt with by existing law enforcement and regulatory agencies, whether it be the FBI or the SEC. Fraud, insider trading and market manipulation are not all of a sudden different because they happen with crypto tokens.

Where the senator is going too far is in seeking to completely destroy crypto-alternatives and the economy that supports them.

One of her objections is the industry mining with proof of work which uses electricity and computing power to validate new blocks and secure the Bitcoin blockchain. In her opinion, these firms are “polluters” that create a load on the electrical grid. In any other progressive era of economic growth, these firms would have been considered innovative upstarts, embodying the American dream.

Growing share of miners use of renewable energy and repurposing methane pollution from gas and oil wells to fuel vehicles, thereby limiting greenhouse gas emissions, would be enough to headline any global conference on climate change. But in progressive states like New York, legislators all but killed it.

The same mentality is driving Senator Warren to step up surveillance on every cryptocurrency transaction. That, too, would be a dangerous precedent.

Donating cryptocurrency to a pro-choice charity or environmental activist group can make someone a target for actors opposed to those goals. Tech-savvy grandmothers who send crypto payments to their grandchildren, or workers who prefer to receive payments in bitcoin, will effectively be treated as criminals. Raising state power to such a degree, while limiting our individual freedoms, is far from progressive.

Although Bitcoin is nowhere near as popular as its proponents hoped, it was created due to the shortcomings of the traditional banking system. Using rules and laws to stifle it in banking 2.0 not only misses the point, it also wipes out opportunities for millions of Americans who need an alternative.

Our political officials must temper their knee-jerk instinct to consign new technology like Bitcoin to oblivion. Technological advancement should be an integral part of growth politics in political capitals, and Bitcoin is just one example. Cryptocurrencies may or may not become more mainstream, but we deserve a chance to try. Government under all circumstances must be technologically neutral: it must not try to pick winners or losers in any emerging industry.

Wealthy progressive lawmakers may not need bitcoin on a daily basis, but there are millions of others who would greatly benefit from being able to use it.

Using the failures and crimes of politically connected crypto exchanges like FTX to effectively curb and regulate innovation in the sector will deprive many Americans of new economic technologies that could change lives for the better. This is the furthest thing from progressive and would severely limit our ability for entrepreneurship, innovation and human flourishing.

Yael Ossowski

Yael Ossowski is Associate Director of the Consumer Choice Center, a D.C. millennial activist group advocating for greater consumer choice.

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