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I have been an avid reader and supporter of the Daily Kos for the last 5 years. I was raised a Democrat in one of the reddest counties in America (Iredell Co. - N.C.). I have voted Democratic in every election of my life.
But when we see Democrats take strong stands against technological innovations that have the opportunity to change for the better the way banking, trade and commerce are done both on a micro and macro level, we as democrats cannot stand by and just ignore it. For this reason, I think Senator Manchin’s comments and letter asking for the banning of bitcoin should be grounds enough for his removal in the due election process. And I will be the first person to make bitcoin donations towards financing any challengers campaign who will stand in support of vital and new technologies.
Fortunately, the council of homeland security and regulators in New York do not seem to take part in Senator Manchins McCarthyesque views of Bitcoin. And fortunately his request will probably go mostly ignored. However, I feel that an adequate rebuttal of Sen. Manchin’s letter is in order.
Senator Manchin’s letter is based in fear, the same tactic that has resulted in the War in Iraq and the overstepping of NSA data collection as well as other offensive and treacherous breaches of civil and human rights all in the name of “war on terror.” Just like the war on drugs, fear is used for profit and power without regards to consequences all in a masque of “morality.”
Of course, most of Sen. Manchin’s arguments against bitcoin are obviously and patently false. He calls bitcoin transactions anonymous and irreversable. They are neither. Bitcoin transactions are kept on a public ledger unlike banking transactions where billions of dollars of transactions go unpublicized everyday. In addition, the ability to reverse transactions is already a technology overlay that has been developed and is going to be added by companies like Coinbase, Bitpay and others soon.
Senator Manchin goes on to suggest that Bitcoin is attractive to criminals - yet another short sighted and inflammatory statement. As we have seen with the shutting down of silk road, while criminals may sometimes use Bitcoin, it does not in itself provide any great protection against prosecution. In fact, many law enforcement agencies have stated that bitcoin provides a road map that makes finding and prosecuting these criminals easier than if they purely used untraceable cash.
He goes on to say that bitcoin was banned in China and Thailand thus should be banned in the U.S. too. On its head, this a ridiculous statement, suggesting that the U.S. should get its regulatory guidelines from communist China. On its face, its patently false - Thailand and China have not banned bitcoin - in fact exchanges operate freely in both countries and, in the case of Thailand, do so after their government last week reversed their previous ban on bitcoin exchanges.
Then Sen. Manchin goes on about the deflationary aspect of bitcoin. Even if we ignore the fact that inflationary currencies have been shown to fail over and over, attacking bitcoin based on the fact that it can rise in value over time is simply a play in favor of traditional banking and payment transaction companies, with no bases in modern world economic examples.
In fact, the technology industry - which was fostered first and foremost in the U.S.A after the creation and publicization of the internet - which created the largest market cap company in the world - Apple - is in and of itself deflationary in character. Yet, despite the fact that technology products deflate quickly, profitability in that industry continues to rise to all time heights.
It is not a surprise then when we look at Senator Manchin’s donor roll we see a mainstay of tradition and non-technology based companies, including a significant donation by JP Morgan Chase, one of the loudest anti-bitcoin lobbyists:
1) FirstEnergy Corp $139,450
2) Mylan Inc $127,500
3) Mepco LLC $64,400
4) Dominion Resources $63,900
5) American Electric Power $61,250
6) Centene Corp $55,900
7) Jackson Kelly Pllc $50,825
8) Drummond Co $49,100
9) Patriot Coal Corp $48,400
10) Alpha Natural Resources $48,298
11) Boich Companies $44,200
12) CONSOL Energy $41,050
13) Wexford Capital $40,000
14) Arch Coal $35,900
15) CSX Corp $35,700
16) Peabody Energy $34,100
17) Nelson Brothers LLC $32,000
18) JPMorgan Chase & Co $30,550
19) Chesapeake Energy $28,900
20) Lewis, Glasser et al $27,600
Indeed it is sad that any congressman or woman, especially a democrat would take such an naive, fearful and uninformed stance against a potentially revolutionary technology. A technology that could provide lower purchasing transaction costs, cheaper international remittance, traceable banking, individual asset protections, and a protocol on which literally millions of startups worldwide are currently, today, developing new speculative technologies that are providing millions of jobs to workers both here in the US and abroad.
It is time for our "grey-haired" congressmen and woman to stop being afraid, to stop hiding behind the falsehoods of a war on terror. It is time that big banks like HSBC stop being treated as too big to fail with light punishments after openly and knowingly laundering billions of dollars to criminal and cartel organizations. And it is time that fledgling and revolutionary technology be given the freedom to grow up and show what they might do to make our world a more safe an just place.
I call on Senator Manchin to reconsider his thoughts on bitcoin. Before he finds himself on the outside looking in.
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