Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced that he will accept campaign donations in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).
Kennedy is currently running for the Democratic nomination, but remains well behind incumbent President Joe Biden for the 2024 nomination for the White House.
The Kennedy family, who hold strong Democratic principles and views, remain united behind the current president as Robert takes a different stance than the rest of the family.
Kennedy was against the COVID-19 vaccine as he was spreading the conspiracy theories and propaganda that are not typically in-line with his political party.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2023 Conference in Miami on Friday, Kennedy said his campaign would be the first in American history to accept donations.
“Our campaign will be the first presidential campaign in history to accept Bitcoin donations through the Lightning Network. And today, we move one step closer to the future. Today we show the world the power, durability and flexibility of Bitcoin,” he said.
He added that, as president, he would ensure that the public’s right to hold and use Bitcoin is inviolable.
“First, I will defend the right of self-custody of Bitcoin and other digital assets. You should be able to own your private keys the same as you own the keys to your car or your wallet,” he said.
Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and whose father also ran for the presidency, also said that, under his leadership, the government wouldn’t impose a 30% tax on electricity, encouraging home-based Bitcoin mining.
“I don’t think the government has the right to demand access to your Bitcoin key or any of your passwords. To say otherwise is to cede essential territory to the surveillance state,” he said.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $26,896, down by one percent in the last seven days.
He doesn’t own Bitcoin or any form of cryptocurrency, but underscored the importance in threats to democracy.
“Our job is to try to build and fortify democratic institutions at the same rate as totalitarian instruments are being expanded in their power,” Kennedy said about the threats to Democracy
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in up-and-coming technology including ChatGPT where it has been the talk of replacing human labor.
Kennedy spoke of AI as the possible threat to democracy as it could end humanity.
“For things like AI which really are going to threaten democracy at its base, we need to not be chipping away at our democratic institutions. We need to fortify the ones that exist and build new ones and the biggest most important one on the horizon is Bitcoin because it can’t be manipulated,” Kennedy said of AI being a threat to democracy.
Produced in association with Benzinga
