There are rumors circulating that Kamala Harris, the Democratic front-runner for the 2024 US presidential election, will communicate at a Bitcoin convention in Nashville this week, however David Bailey has confirmed that she won’t be attending.
David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc. and organizer of the Bitcoin Convention, confirmed that the choice comes amid ongoing debate over the Democratic Celebration's stance on bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain know-how.
As Bailey reported on Twitter, her crew had been in discussions with Harris' marketing campaign about presumably attending the convention, however she later introduced that Harris wouldn’t be attending, saying it was “not a shock.”
Bailey advised that Harris' absence might be as a result of present administration's method to cryptocurrency regulation, which is seen as hostile by many within the trade.
Bitcoin convention organizers additionally raised the difficulty of Ross Ulbricht's incarceration as a doable impediment to Harris' involvement within the cryptocurrency group. Ulbricht, founding father of the Silk Street darknet market, is presently serving a life sentence with out the potential for parole.
He identified:
“What might we are saying when she was actively jailing builders, driving our trade abroad, and attacking PoW… it will have been a catastrophe for her.”
For the sake of transparency, Ulbricht was not incarcerated below the Biden administration. He was sentenced in 2015 when Barack Obama was president. He appealed his sentence twice in 2017 below Donald Trump. In 2018, the Supreme Court docket dismissed his case.
Bailey argued that commuting Ulbricht's sentence needs to be thought of the “minimal requirement” for politicians seeking to take care of the Bitcoin group.
“To be sincere, I feel Kamala ought to commute Ross Ulbricht's sentence earlier than addressing the Bitcoin group. That's the stakes.”
Whereas Harris is now vice chairman and can’t personally commute Ulbricht's sentence, Bailey seems to have issued an ultimatum concerning the doable invitation. It's unclear presently whether or not this was the explanation Harris didn’t attend the assembly, or if she has declined altogether. currencyjournals We reached out to Bailey for clarification however had not acquired a response by the point of publication.
Bailey famous that former President Donald Trump and impartial presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have each pledged to commute Ulbricht's sentence if elected, a promise that has been nicely acquired by many within the crypto trade. Donald Trump didn’t commute Ulbricht's sentence by a presidential pardon throughout his first time period, however has mentioned he’ll this time if elected.
The dialogue surrounding Harris' doable attendance on the Bitcoin Convention comes at a time when the regulation and adoption of cryptocurrencies has develop into an more and more sizzling political difficulty, with 14% of Individuals proudly owning Bitcoin. Harris' place on digital property stays largely unclear, sparking hypothesis as as to whether a Harris administration would proceed the Biden administration's method or take a extra crypto-friendly stance.
In the meantime, different presidential candidates have develop into extra vocal supporters of cryptocurrencies, together with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has proposed incorporating Bitcoin into the U.S. debt administration technique and owns greater than $1 million in Bitcoin.
Equally, the Trump marketing campaign lately started accepting donations in quite a lot of cryptocurrencies, together with Bitcoin and Ethereum, and there are rumors that Trump will declare Bitcoin a strategic reserve asset, although he would wish Congressional approval to develop into president.
With Harris absent from the Bitcoin Convention, consideration is now centered once more on Trump and his in-person tackle to the Bitcoin viewers.
