As the election approaches, the showdown between Trump and Harris is undoubtedly more intense. In the field of encryption, the confrontation between the two is becoming increasingly fierce. Recently, Harris also rarely spoke out, expressing support for digital assets. Trump, on the other hand, is undoubtedly more radical. He not only released a new NFT series, but also recently promoted his family’s Defi project, World Liberty Financial, and vigorously advocated his own encryption position.
For encryption voters, it seems difficult to believe in the faith of politicians who swing left and right. But even if they hesitate, in the end they will inevitably choose one of the two to vote for their own vision. Charles Bethea, a journalist for The New Yorker, is very interested in this group. He gained a better understanding of the encryption voters by attending an encryption gathering in Atlanta. Who will they choose? And who are they? The article records Charles’s observations and reflections on typical American encryption enthusiasts’ values and beliefs.
The following is a translation of the original text, with some deletions due to space constraints:
Recently, I attended a cryptocurrency gathering near Atlanta with the theme “Bitcoin Enters the Mainstream Political Stage”. The event was organized by Richie Clark, a real estate agent in his forties. Clark runs a community called Bitcoin Atlanta with thousands of members. This is also Clark’s attempt to connect cryptocurrency with politics. He said, “This has always been a sensitive topic.” He mentioned that most cryptocurrency enthusiasts have always been “indifferent to politics”. Especially Bitcoin, which has long been associated with financial sovereignty, its supporters tend to criticize government intervention, such as regulation, censorship, and central banks.
Clark’s interest in cryptocurrency began in 2012, when he supported Ron Paul for president twice. “My conclusion was that operating within the existing system would not bring us any benefits,” Clark said. “We must establish a new system or parallel system.” He continued, “Meanwhile, Bitcoin is becoming increasingly popular. So I thought this is something I can do to help pave the way for the new system.”
At the end of 2020, Clark, who used to work as an audio engineer, started a cryptocurrency consulting company, but it didn’t take off. In the early days, he mined some Bitcoin. “I have been involved in the cryptocurrency field for a long time, and people think I am a millionaire,” he told me. “In fact, I lost most of my money. But getting away from the financial layer actually made me see more clearly.” Since entering the field of cryptocurrency, Clark has been voting in presidential elections. “It was just a reluctant vote” – until this election. He was a Trump alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in July, partially because of Trump’s support for cryptocurrency.
“Cryptocurrency is a problem, but it also involves other issues,” Clark believes that making Bitcoin, not the US dollar, the world’s reserve currency can promote peace. “Since World War I, the funding for all US wars has mainly come from inflation,” he argued. “Bitcoin has no central issuing institution and no fixed supply, so this inflation mechanism is basically impossible.” Clark does not expect Trump to achieve this, “but he can give this technology more breathing space.”
I asked Clark if he knew that Trump’s recent support for cryptocurrency would win him votes. He told a story about a friend in his thirties who had never voted before but decided to vote this year after Trump expressed his intention to pardon Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht is the founder of Silk Road, an online black market that facilitated countless illegal transactions through Bitcoin before it was shut down, making Bitcoin one of its first major use cases. In 2015, he was sentenced to two life sentences without parole for crimes including drug trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking. “He is a folk hero in our community,” Clark continued. I asked him if he believed Trump would fulfill his promise. “If you want to weigh between voting for someone who clearly likes cryptocurrency and will pardon Ross, and someone who remains silent on this issue, I think you have to choose the former – whether he is lying or not.”
The meeting began on the terrace of a co-working space in Chamblee, Georgia. In mid-August, Clark’s plan was to organize a debate between representatives of the three most well-known presidential candidates, but they could not find a representative for Vice President Kamala Harris, and Robert F. Kennedy subsequently suspended his campaign. Clark believed that most of the attendees that day were right-wing and male. “When a woman comes to an encryption gathering,” he said, “you will be surprised, ‘Hey! What’s going on!'”
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are aware of the stereotypes associated with them. Clark told me, “We are used to being portrayed as crazy fringe people.” In July, the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One published a paper titled “Political, Psychological, and Social Correlates of Cryptocurrency Ownership,” which provided academic validation for some of these views. Co-authored by Urszula Wisniewska, the paper was based on a survey of 2,000 Americans in 2022 and has been widely circulated in the cryptocurrency world.
Clark selected from the abstract: individuals who own cryptocurrency “display various political loyalties and identities. We also found that cryptocurrency ownership is associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories, ‘dark’ personality traits, and more frequent use of alternative and fringe social media platforms.” Many people in the community consider social networks like X to be legitimate news sources. The report stated that cryptocurrency holders spend a lot of time online, which is one of the few findings that Clark agrees with. “This is obviously biased,” he concluded. “But you can judge for yourself whether you think cryptocurrency holders have these psychological tendencies.”
Barbecue was provided at the gathering, and about 30 people had arrived when I got there. As expected, most of them were men with beards, and many of them were friendly. The first person I talked to was Joey, a theater director in his sixties, wearing a T-shirt with the words “SINGLE,” “TAKEN,” and “HODLING.” As we sat down to eat brisket, Counting Crows songs played in the background, and Joey told me that he learned about cryptocurrency more than ten years ago from his son, who was mining in their basement. Joey was attracted by the “philosophical ideas behind Bitcoin” – as the country continues to print money, Bitcoin has the potential to give us a space for storing currency without devaluation. I asked about Trump. “He at least recognizes Kennedy’s ideas,” Joey said, noting that he supports Kennedy more. “Trump used to dislike Bitcoin, but now he likes it. Biden doesn’t like it. Maybe he will change? Harris hasn’t spoken yet.” Joey was undecided after Kennedy dropped out of the race.
Camille, 35 years old this year, is a mechanical engineer born in Poland in the 1990s.Not having become a US citizen, Camille has been involved in cryptocurrency trading since 2011. He used to own hundreds of bitcoins, but he said, “I was a poor college student at the time, with free internet money available, and I definitely got involved.” Cryptocurrency aligns with Camille’s belief in “economic freedom”. Since his first election in 2016, he has consistently voted for the Republican Party, largely due to their cryptocurrency policies. “The opposition strongly opposes cryptocurrency from all angles. They want to monitor it, restrict it, and even tax it. That’s definitely not acceptable.” Trump’s support has excited him, but he doubts that many cryptocurrency enthusiasts who haven’t yet voted for the Republican Party will change their allegiance. “I hope Trump’s embrace can sway people, but I haven’t seen people change their vote, even those who have benefited greatly from it.”
Andrew, a 58-year-old software developer with a beard, stood next to a speaker. He told me, “People who have studied the principles of free currency are essentially single-issue voters.” He referred to the idea advocated by liberal economists that the financial system should limit government intervention and be based on a limited supply of currency. “The currency issue must be addressed first. Everything else is secondary. Whoever takes the best position on this issue gets their vote.” He continued, “I usually don’t vote for the Democratic Party. But if they propose other policies – like having their own wallets, buying and selling cryptocurrency – and Trump continues to call it a scam, I’ll be torn. But things aren’t developing in that direction.”
As I sat next to another bearded man wearing glasses, The Wallflowers started playing. The man, who previously worked in the IT industry, initially didn’t want to reveal his name but provided his X nickname. (X seems to be a favorite in the cryptocurrency community on all major social media platforms, possibly partly due to Elon Musk’s strong support for a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin.) “Nashville has ten US senators,” he referred to the Bitcoin Conference. “Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy, it’s great.” He called himself a “centrist” and “distrustful of any political party,” but he had made up his mind. “I had already joined the Trump camp before coming to Nashville. But Trump surprised me. I wanted Vevek – former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Lamaswamy who supports Trump – to tell him, ‘Look, there’s a free vote here.’ Trump just went and picked up the vote. He’s very pragmatic.”
Solomon, an IT developer, was talking to theater director Joey. Solomon appreciated Trump’s “bold challenge to the old system.” Joey praised Kennedy’s desire to “give kids good food and prevent all these diseases.” They both criticized the problems with corn subsidies in terms of finance and nutrition – they believed it was best to avoid market intervention and corn syrup. Seizing the opportunity, I asked Solomon about Trump’s transformation. “I know some cryptocurrency investors now support Trump more,” he said. “They are willing to be appeased, and the baby boomer generation is leaning towards ‘economic mess, one-party rule’… Not just because of cryptocurrency, but partly for other reasons.”
“I’ve been to four or five cryptocurrency conferences, and 80% of the people I’ve talked to have always supported Trump,” Joey retorted. “But when Kennedy appeared, supporting Bitcoin, Trump said, ‘Oh, I’ll lose supporters because of Bitcoin.’ So he changed his mind. He has no idea what Bitcoin is or how it works.” At least on this point, most of the attendees I talked to agreed.
Suddenly, it started raining – the first rain in weeks – and the crowd started moving. On the way in, a man in jeans and a polo shirt pulled me aside. He said he had been the “only libertarian” since 2012 and quietly told me that most of his net worth is in Bitcoin. So, policies favorable to cryptocurrency are his top priority, but he believes that regardless of the election outcome, cryptocurrency will eventually become a widely used currency. “They can’t strangle it. So it doesn’t matter.” He said that if Trump is elected, “it might be beneficial for my net worth in the short term, but what’s the use of being rich if you have to live in a gray empire?” He added, referring to this gathering, “I almost didn’t want to come.”
Clark eased the atmosphere at the microphone. He told the attendees that he was wearing a $5,000 T-shirt. He said, “I bought it in 2014 with $20 worth of Bitcoin. Now Bitcoin is worth $50,000.” He introduced a tall man named Wes who provided beef brisket for the gathering and bought his first Bitcoin in 2010, making him one of the earliest Bitcoin owners present. Wes gave a brief PowerPoint presentation comparing the presidential candidates’ positions on cryptocurrency. Many nodded when he mentioned Trump’s promise to release Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Then he listed some of Trump’s demands in support of cryptocurrency, including his promise to dismiss Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, who is skeptical of cryptocurrency, and to end “hostile” regulation.
“Next is Biden,” he said. Clark interrupted him, seemingly well-prepared. “Hmm, it’s not Biden now. It’s Harris.” The crowd laughed. “Harris isn’t a part of the Biden administration, right?” Wes said. “I want to be fair.” He listed several regulatory bills proposed by the Democratic Party. People shook their heads. Before concluding his speech, Wes summed up, “You may be tired of it, but we are Bitcoin owners.” He continued, “Vote for the bill you think is most favorable to Bitcoin owners.”
Someone asked if there were any supporters of Harris willing to refute, but no one responded.
Before I left, Clark introduced me to Michael Tidwell, a man in his thirties wearing a “Free Ross” T-shirt. “Biden and Harris can free him, but they haven’t,” he told me. “At least Trump said he would.” I asked him about his political stance. “I just like good things to happen,” he added, noting his support for “real freedom.” He described Kennedy’s actions as “a bit foolish” and pointed out that Trump carries “strange baggage.” He went on to say, “Normally, I wouldn’t consider voting for someone like that. I’ve never voted for a presidential candidate before.” He concluded, “But if you want Bitcoin to succeed, you have to support the person in the worst position. And right now,
