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Bitcoin has an unyielding apolitical nature which, oddly enough, makes it a political statement in today’s rampantly politicized world.
In this episode of Bitcoin Magazine’s Fed Watch, my co-host Christian Keroles and I discuss the recent U.S. Presidential Election and what it means for Bitcoin. Our discussion is wide-ranging, going from election irregularities, to the rebound in mining hash power, to bitcoin price predictions for the near term. Bitcoiners — those who believe that Bitcoin can change the world for the better — see bitcoin as generally insulated from most other market concerns. They think political and monetary events inevitably force the interaction of human nature with bitcoin’s unique properties creating a perhaps politically-unpopular yet unavoidable outcome. They believe this process will occur regardless of election outcomes and the only question is how fast it will happen.
I am a staunch anti-voting advocate who rips into elections as a route for central planners and statists to legitimize their infringement on the electorate. It is now popular to contest the validity of this election, and hopefully in doing so, people will realize that they should contest the validity of all elections. Casting a vote creates the very space for election fraud to exist and harmful laws to be enacted. We cannot achieve prosperity and happiness through a ballot box.
Nevertheless, markets seemed to approve of the outcome. Whether that is because they are trying to price in further stimulus or as an effect of relief that Election Day is over, markets leaped upward.
Keroles and I discuss where they are going from here. The conversation also moves toward the recent volatility of the Bitcoin hash rate. The last few weeks saw the end of the rainy season electricity rates in China and an apparent mass movement of mining equipment to other parts of the country. This resulted in the second largest downward adjustment in difficulty in the history of bitcoin mining, followed by a steep rebound. In this episode, I discuss at length from his recent article on the seasonal hash rate.
This is a guest post by Ansel Lindner. Opinions expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
