For the taxpayer, the purpose of such an initiative is obscure. The crypto industry is a hyper-speculative casino. It is not essential to the American financial system, nor are cryptocurrencies essential to the American public. Workers cannot put bitcoin in their gas tanks; parents cannot feed XRP to their kids; businesses do not need cardano to build roads, light cities, produce vaccines, or provide loans to homeowners and entrepreneurs.
Yet for the White House, the purpose is obvious. Trump’s commerce secretary, his AI and crypto czar, and several of his most influential policy advisers are crypto investors, and the president launched his own meme coin. Establishing a reserve would boost prices, enriching these public officials and the crypto magnates donating tens of millions of dollars to Republican campaigns. It would not be a public investment, but a private giveaway—one of a mounting number in the Trump era.
Again, why comment on something when you don’t understand it?
You definitely don’t need a stable supply of energy to own and trade Bitcoin. You don’t even need markets or exchanges. You don’t need a stable internet connection, or an internet connection at all. You just need the ability to send a minuscule amount of data to the internet. And you could even do it by passing a piece of paper to someone who has the ability to connect to a proxy.
Fucking poor kids in Africa own bitcoin. Usually through a very cheap prepaid mobile phone plan that doesn’t even have proper internet access. In fact, it is rapidly replacing USD cash as a store of value in the third world. Don’t talk out of your ass if you’ve never been to a third world country.
Only mining is energy intensive, but it can be done anywhere.