Bitcoin

Brian Doherty | From the November 2024 issue

Fourteen years ago, bitcoin was an experimental obscurity mainly popular among cypherpunks and libertarians, trading for less than a U.S. dollar. Since then, it has proven its success as a mostly swift and affordable way to move value globally, while experiencing unprecedented leaps in exchange value for dollars—as well as massive volatility. (Bitcoin first broke $100 in April 2013 and as of this writing is above $54,000.) Former President Donald Trump recently suggested that it's time for the United States to form a bitcoin strategic reserve.

"The government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoiner knows by heart: Never sell your bitcoin," said Trump, speaking to the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville in July. He vowed if he's president again that the U.S. will "keep 100 percent of the bitcoin [it] currently holds or acquires into the future" instead of, as it now does, occasionally auctioning it off through the U.S. Marshals service that confiscated much of it from accused........

© Reason.com