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Boosted by jwz:
molly0xfff@hachyderm.io ("Molly White") wrote:

The answer, of course, is that they never actually cared about these principles at all. In fact, many of these executives have long made it clear that authoritarianism isn’t just collateral damage in their pursuit of business-boosting deregulation, but a desirable outcome.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpol #USpolitics #CitationNeededNewsletter

The answer, of course, is that they never actually cared about these principles at all. Anyone who believed they did was dangerously naive. These were marketing slogans and talking points, deployed when convenient to ward off regulation and burnish crypto’s reputation, discarded the moment they might conflict with business interests. The atrocities of Trump’s regime have clearly done nothing to lose crypto’s support: Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz have each contributed another roughly $25 million apiece to the political machine that installed Trump and bought Congress.9 Gemini’s Winklevoss twins and Kraken have contributed at least $22 million and $2 million, respectively, to new pro-crypto super PACs and dark money groups that are even more explicitly Trump-aligned [I91, 93].a
Many of these executives have long made it clear that authoritarianism isn’t just collateral damage in their pursuit of business-boosting deregulation, but a desirable outcome. Marc Andreessen, an outspoken Trump supporter, adviser, and recruiter,10 published a 2023 manifesto on “techno-optimism” that explicitly cited as one of its “patron saints” Filippo Tommaso Marinetti — co-author of the Fascist Manifesto that formed the platform for Mussolini. Coinbase and Andreessen Horowitz alum Balaji Srinivasan has promulgated the idea of the “network state”, an autocratic proposal to create tech-governed city-states free from democratic oversight.11 Current Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Andreessen, and the Winklevoss twins have all expressed support for the concept.12 And the Winklevosses have even funded a proposed network state called Praxis, whose CEO rather overtly embraces fascism.13