In his take from this Monday, Nikolaus argued that Donald Trump is heavily pro-Bitcoin. I beg to differ.

Yes, Trump is providing lip service to Bitcoiners, which is more than we can say of Kamala Harris. The fact that he spoke at the Bitcoin conference is certainly interesting, and at least indicates that he’s aware of the “crypto voter” as a potential voting block. And yes, Trump did show up at PubKey, which was a fun little stunt— though he apparently wasn’t even able to make the payment himself.

But it’s blatantly obvious he just wants your money and your vote. Of course, the same can be said for most politicians, but if anything, Trump is a more extreme example of this. He’ll basically scam you for it if he must, whether it’s through these ridiculous NFTs, or with whatever his new shitcoin project is supposed to be.

I’m not at all convinced that Trump will continue to be an ally of Bitcoin if he does get elected for a second term. Even at Bitcoin 2024, his closing remarks —“have fun with your crypto, and Bitcoin, and all the other things you play with”— made clear he doesn’t actually care about Bitcoin in any real way. Indeed, just a few years ago, Trump said he was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air”.

Right now, Trump needs your money and your vote— but he won’t need that anymore after he is elected. Even if you want to take seriously his blabberings like “miners get all the electricity they need for mining”, is there any reason to believe he won’t throw Bitcoin under the bus the moment that benefits him… most obviously, in favor of the dollar?

Given Trump’s track record of broken campaign promises in his first term, I wouldn’t expect anything else.

Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of having an in-depth conversation with Jeff Booth, who I often refer to as the Eckhart Tolle of Bitcoin.

Booth, soft-spoken yet direct, harped on one point in particular in the conversation that, while at first I didn’t grasp, ended up resonating deeply with me.

He said multiple times “We are Bitcoin” in efforts to drive home the point that Bitcoin will continue to work if we continue to make it work.

At first this statement seemed antithetical to Bitcoin. Technically, of course, we’re not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an open-source protocol that allows people to transfer value securely and permissionlessly. Also, Bitcoin was designed in a way that actually requires less human involvement than the traditional monetary and financial systems, as its inflation rate can’t be altered by humans and there are no middle people involved in Bitcoin transactions.

Yet we are Bitcoin, just as Booth said.

We are the ones that have to spin up nodes to keep the network decentralized.

We are the ones that plug in the miners to help power and secure the network.

And we are the ones who educate others about Bitcoin as well as defend it in the social arena.

We’re human nodes in the network, doing our part to technically keep Bitcoin running and propagating information about Bitcoin to the world.

Without our taking responsibility as human nodes, Bitcoin becomes less decentralized, less secure and less understood.

So, if you’re reading this, know that you are Bitcoin, a component of the most incredible system for human freedom and prosperity ever created, and both savor that and act accordingly.

As an Indian Bitcoiner returning home recently, I found myself using UPI digital payments repeatedly for everyday spending.

UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is India’s real-time bank-to-bank payment system that has become ubiquitous for making payments by scanning QR codes or using phone numbers. It’s enabled even street vendors and tiny shops to accept payments online.

Given the difficulty of getting cash change and vendors needing to keep the card machines, UPI is often the only payment option. 

And I have to admit; it’s incredibly fast, cheap, and easy to pay merchants through UPI apps compared to fumbling with Bitcoin Lightning wallets, custodial or non-custodial. The money moves instantly for free, and the process is familiar to all parties.

While I’m huge on censorship-resistant, private, and decentralized money, Bitcoin and UPI’s convenience are hard to ignore. UPI processes over 14 billion monthly transactions across over 450 banks with no fees. 

By comparison, Lightning is dealing with low liquidity, channel balancing headaches, and clunky user experiences (which keep improving with custodial wallets with some tradeoffs).

Of course, the privacy implications of an almost fully digital system controlled by centralized third parties make me cringe and sound dystopian. But most Indians happily surrender privacy for convenience time and again.

So, even as a Bitcoiner, I can’t see most Indians ditching UPI to start using Bitcoin lightning en masse for day-to-day payments anytime soon, apart from Bitcoin circular economies. The incentive needs to be there. And let’s be honest – Lightning still confuses Bitcoiners, let alone my uncle!

Maybe down the road, privacy concerns or currency devaluation could drive Indians toward Bitcoin payments. But for now, UPI has too much momentum and network effect.