The crypto industry is making its mark on this year’s elections to the tune of some $119 million.

The funding has largely come from two companies — Coinbase and Ripple — which are funneling money into super PACs like Fairshake PAC, which is dedicated to “elevating pro-crypto candidates and attacking crypto skeptics,” according to Public Citizen.

At the 2024 bitcoin conference in Nashville in February, Trump — who called bitcoin “highly volatile and based on thin air” in 2019 — said he’d lay out a plan “to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.” Trump has already won the backing of several crypto enthusiasts, including his running mate JD Vance, who owns at least $250,000 in bitcoin.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    3 months ago

    Can’t tell if this is shill, but I dislike cryptocurrencies and anyone who defends them. Not that you did, per se, but it’s close.

    • parpol@programming.dev
      0·
      3 months ago

      I think that 99% of Cryptocurrencies are unnecessary and shouldn’t exist.

      But I also think that if I want to buy a private VPN, any payment method except monero completely invalidates the VPN because now your credit card is linked to the VPN instead.

      And I think that transferring money to family members abroad with some ethereum l2 curency is a 100 times cheaper and faster than any other method. I had to pay student loans in another country, but my bank blocked the credit card transactions because they were foreign. The only other way was cryptocurrency with a tiny fee, or a bank transaction with 10% plus 50$ fees. Guess which one I picked.

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        3 months ago

        To your point about money transfers, this is only true because crypto exchanges are dodging regulations. The cost and time involved in international transfers is primarily red tape, because no one likes wire fraud, money laundering, or people funding terrorism.

        If crypto ever “succeeds” as it hopes to, it will become more and more regulated, and the value you see in it will increasingly diminish.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        You can buy a gift card in cash which works just like a debit card and not have to worry about cryptocurrency.

        • parpol@programming.dev
          0·
          3 months ago

          For gifts maybe, but not for paying student loans. But gift card locations can be tracked to the store and be used to narrow down your location.

          Also, aren’t gift cards the biggest modern vehicle for scams?

            • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
              0·
              3 months ago

              they didn’t say a bank specifically,

              I had to pay student loans in another country, but my bank blocked the credit card transactions because they were foreign. The only other way was cryptocurrency with a tiny fee, or a bank transaction with 10% plus 50$ fees. Guess which one I picked.

              Gift cards that act like credit/debit cards are harder to get than they used to be. I think all of the mainstream ones require identification or linking to a previous bank account per regulation now

              The prepaid card issuer is required by law to verify your identity for most types of prepaid accounts. You may be asked to provide your full name, street address (no P.O. boxes), date of birth, and Social Security number, taxpayer identification number, or another identification number. (link)