US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. supported Bitcoin (BTC) while opposing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) in a May 5 Twitter thread.
According to Kennedy, the digitization of currency has already given governments unprecedented powers to monitor and control economic life. He believes the CBDC “further extends the government’s power to stifle dissent by cutting off access to funds with a keystroke.”
The presidential candidate’s rhetoric against CBDC is not surprising given that he once described CBDC as a tool of “financial slavery and political tyranny.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy Said Bitcoin allows people to conduct transactions without government interference. He further described the flagship digital asset as “a lifesaver for people’s movements around the world.”
The government financially censors political opponents
Kennedy emphasized how the government has financially censored political opponents without a CBDC. This tends to be done under dictatorships, but Western countries like Canada have also adopted this approach.
Kennedy gave the example of the Canadian government freezing the bank accounts of more than 200 individuals in protest against mandatory vaccination.
According to Kennedy, the incident signaled that the US could one day freeze individual bank accounts because of their political views or comments on social media.
“In the end, PayPal, Visa and Mastercard suspended WikiLeaks in 2010 at the request of the US State Department,” he added.
Rising Anti CBDC Stand
Meanwhile, a growing list of US politicians opposes CBDC, citing financial censorship risks.
some US states Florida, north dakota, and north carolina It submitted a bill to ban digital currencies in the country.Senator Ted Cruz introduced A bill prohibiting the issuance of this currency by the Federal Reserve.
While some cryptocurrency community members have applauded the ban, some stakeholders have warned that the anti-CBDC move could hurt Bitcoin. Bitcoin Policy Institute I have written South Dakota Governor Christy Noem’s veto of the CBDC bill has affected BTC.
According to the Institute, the bill included provisions to expand the definition and protection of Bitcoin. Additionally, it has created legal mechanisms to allow self-custody and integration of the protocol into traditional lending, insurance and commerce.
