Written by: Fu He Huo, Odaily Odaily
As the U.S. election approaches, how the crypto industry will take sides has become a focus of industry attention.
First, Ethereum founder Vitalik published an article opposing "voting because the presidential candidate supports the crypto industry", calling for a return to the original intention of entering the circle. This move caused a huge uproar, and many founders of crypto projects spoke out one after another; then Messari CEO Ryan Selkis published an article "brainlessly" supporting Trump's inflammatory remarks, which caused controversy, and he eventually resigned to "apologize."
Odaily Odaily compiles recent comments on the US election and analyzes the real impact behind them.
With multiple opinions coming together, who is really thinking about the future of the crypto industry?
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote on the 18th that he opposes making political voting choices based on "whether or not to support encryption." Supporting a politician should be because of their entire platform and views, not just because they support cryptocurrency.
“The crypto space is increasingly politically active, and supports political parties and candidates almost entirely based on their willingness to be tolerant and friendly to cryptocurrencies. But decisions made in this way run the risk of violating the values that brought you into crypto in the first place. In crypto, people tend to focus too much on the centrality of money and the freedom to hold and spend money (or tokens). Bitcoin is seen as an extension of that libertarian ethos in the realm of internet payments.”
Vitalik hopes that crypto voters will return to their original intentions and not vote based on the preferences of candidates. He reminded that just because a candidate is cryptocurrency-friendly now does not mean that he will still be cryptocurrency-friendly five years later.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson refuted Vitalik's remarks and said: "My primary goal has always been to keep the government away from cryptocurrency as much as possible, but when this goal is impossible to achieve, the remaining options are very clear. If they will continue to over-regulate, then we should not vote for them... Voting for Biden is voting for the demise of the US cryptocurrency industry. For this reason, we should vote for candidates who support cryptocurrency."
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson is clearly being practical and putting the current development of the crypto industry first - instead of voting for a candidate who does not support the crypto industry, it is better to focus on the present and vote for a candidate who supports cryptocurrency.
Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, expressed his support for Vitalik's remarks. "I agree with Vitalik: our choices must be based on principled reasons related to the candidates' personal freedom positions. In order to win elections, the superficial support positions continue to change, but sooner or later politicians will return to their true inner selves. In addition to personal freedom and authoritarianism, principles have more dimensions."
Some well-known figures have also expressed the hope that the two parties will unify their views on the crypto industry.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse questioned why innovations designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency could be politicized, and he decried partisanship in crypto innovation, specifically targeting Senator Elizabeth Warren’s description of cryptocurrencies as a tool for illegal activity. Garlinghouse called for bipartisan cooperation to fully leverage the benefits of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey wrote: “The media tried to belittle Trump’s support for Bitcoin through the crypto industry’s donations to Trump. However, what they don’t realize is that the crypto industry is proving to the world that if you work with the crypto industry, we will strongly support you; otherwise, we will end your career. After this election, Bitcoin will be supported by both parties in the United States for political reasons.”
Whether the above remarks focus on the current reality or on future issues, both sides have different starting points and their own considerations. Compared with these rational discussions, some crypto OGs are overly enthusiastic about the election.
Messari founder Ryan Selkis has repeatedly posted a large number of radical "support for Trump" remarks on social media. For example, "Everyone who votes against Trump at this time may die in the sea of fire", "The civil war in this country has begun today. If you are against Trump, you are against those who are willing to fight".
Mask Network founder Suji Yan commented on Ryan’s behavior: “This is stupid. We will stop all potential transactions with Messari and stop participating in all their activities. We will also advise our partners and portfolio companies to think twice about working with them.”
Influenced by public opinion, Ryan has set most of the relevant remarks to private. Messari’s leadership has negotiated with him about the situation, which ultimately ended with Ryan’s resignation.
Conclusion
Judging from the comments of the OGs in the crypto industry above, everyone has mentioned the issue of politicization to a greater or lesser extent, especially in Vitalik’s article, hoping that everyone will return to the original intention of joining the crypto industry, rather than supporting a short-term candidate because of his or her political bias.
The US election only highlights the problem of the politicization of the crypto industry. In recent years, the crypto industry has gradually become one of the arenas for politicians to gain power. Seeing the wealth generated by the crypto industry and the increasing number of crypto voters, politicians who previously disdained or even criticized the crypto industry have embraced the crypto industry to gain votes and financial support. Of course, some crypto industry practitioners also hope to participate in the election of politicians who care about the crypto industry to ensure the current development of the crypto industry.
Back to the day when cryptocurrency was born, Satoshi Nakamoto might not have thought of Bitcoin as a way to fight against centralized power. Instead, it would become an important helper for politicians to seize power.
