Interview and compilation: Wendy, Foresight News
U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended the Consensus conference in Austin on May 30 local time, and answered questions from Foresight News reporters on encryption-related issues during the media question-and-answer session before his public speech.
According to Kennedy, he has bought 21 bitcoins since announcing his candidacy, three for each of his three children, and the money used to buy bitcoins came from the compensation he earned from the Monsanto lawsuit as a lawyer.
Once he is elected President of the United States, he will ensure that the United States maintains its central position in blockchain technology and will end the hostility of relevant U.S. regulators and the financial system towards cryptocurrencies.
Foresight News: What are the biggest issues in the U.S. regarding cryptocurrency, especially regulation? How do you plan to address them?
Kennedy : I think the biggest issue is the freedom to trade. We need sovereignty over our own wallets and the freedom to trade. We need a transparent decentralized currency as a bulwark against totalitarianism. We saw what they did during the Canadian truckers' strike, and we saw what PayPal did during the pandemic.
We need to bring in blockchain. We need to make sure that the United States remains the center of blockchain technology. The Biden administration's hostility to Bitcoin is driving the technology abroad. In the past few years, Switzerland has registered about 1,200 Bitcoin companies with a total value of $360 billion. All these innovators and entrepreneurs want to come to the United States, but we're driving them to Switzerland and Singapore.
I want to end the hostility from the banking system, the Federal Reserve, the regulators, the FDIC, the SEC. I want to end the hostility from them toward cryptocurrency.
I want to make sure that cryptocurrencies are regulated to protect consumers from malicious schemes and Ponzi schemes and so on. At the same time, truly decentralized currencies should be encouraged and we should encourage capital to flow into those currencies.
As president, I would do that.
Foresight News: Can you tell us about your personal crypto holdings? For example, any cryptocurrencies, or NFTs?
Kennedy : I've bought 21 bitcoins since I started my campaign. I bought them with my legal fees from the Monsanto case. I was part of the litigation team that sued Monsanto, and it ended up settling for about $13 billion. I got some of the legal fees from that case, and I put that money into crypto.
I bought three (bit)coins for each of my children .
Robert Kennedy Jr., who comes from the Kennedy family, a top political family in the United States, announced his candidacy as an independent candidate after failing to win the Democratic nomination last year, competing against current President Biden and former President Trump. His running mate for vice president is Nicole Shanahan, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
During this campaign, Kennedy clearly expressed his support for cryptocurrencies. Foresight News reporters will bring back more details about Kennedy's cryptocurrency-related Q&A at the press conference.
