Andrew Yang on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

Social media giant, Facebook, announced the launch of their digital currency Libra in June 2019 and following the congressional hearings on Libra, experts pointed out that Libra may help Bitcoin by getting people talking about what makes Bitcoin and other currencies valuable in the first place. Though Bitcoin’s price didn’t hit $20,000 this year, it has strongly rebounded and helped Bitcoin and crypto by bringing them back into the mainstream conversation.

Now thanks to presidential hopeful Andrew Yang endorsing blockchain technology, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency, these innovations have become 2020 talking points about the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Yang is heavily campaigning on the risks of automation to the U.S. economy and he has promised a blockchain-based mobile voting system if he makes it to the White House.

On his campaign website Yang wrote, “It’s ridiculous that in 2020 we are still standing in line for hours to vote in antiquated voting booths. It is 100% technically possible to have fraud-proof voting on our mobile phones today using the blockchain. This would revolutionize true democracy and increase participation to include all Americans—those without smartphones could use the legacy system and lines would be very short.”

Yang has been speaking for the case of blockchain technology now more than ever before. In April 2019, Yang called for clearer guidelines for companies and individuals on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency acceptance and investments. In July 2019, Humanity Forward Fund, a political action committee supporting Yang, announced it would begin accepting bitcoin donations. Elon Musk recently tweeted in support of the Yang gang and his Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposal, and many news outlets reported that Musk is now supporting a pro-Bitcoin candidate. Yang stated in a January interview with the Being Libertarian podcast – I think there should be a national cryptocurrency. You could even put this social credit stuff on the blockchain.

As for regulation, Yang’s current campaign policy statement maintains that “A national framework for regulating these [crypto] assets has failed to emerge, with several federal agencies claiming conflicting jurisdictions. At the same time, states have come up with a patchwork of varying regulations that make it difficult for the U.S. cryptocurrency markets to compete with those in other jurisdictions, especially China and Europe.”

Most of Yang’s positions on cryptocurrency seem favorable to regulated development within the industry. For example, Yang wants to define “what a token is, and when it is a security,” in the interest of clearing up regulatory confusion. He aims to clarify the tax implications of buying, selling and owning cryptocurrencies for those lost in a fog of confusing letters from the IRS.

Interestingly, Yang is not the only candidate that is interested in cryptocurrencies. Fellow Democratic candidate, Eric Swalwell’s (now out of the race) campaign announced in May 2019 that it would accept donations in BTC, BCH, BSV, ETH, XLM, and stablecoin WSD. The first-ever presidential candidate to accept Bitcoin donations was Rand Paul, back in 2015. Yang’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, Tulsi Gabbard, also appears to be invested, quite literally, listed on an official Financial Disclosure Report as having purchased Ethereum and Litecoin in 2017.






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