Balaji Srinivasan: 17 Thoughts on the First Crypto President
2025.01.20
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Balaji Srinivasan: 17 Thoughts on the First Crypto President
If Trump were to distribute TRUMP tokens via airdrop to American voters, it could generate political support and alter traditional political interest structures, potentially providing him with an opportunity to dismantle his opponents' political machinery.
2025.01.20 - 07:54:33
特朗普
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsIf Trump were to distribute TRUMP tokens via airdrop to American voters, it could generate political support and alter traditional political interest structures, potentially providing him with an opportunity to dismantle his opponents' political machinery.
Written by: balajis
Translated: Scof, ChainCatcher
Overnight, the vast majority of wealth—$59 billion—of the next U.S. president is now held in cryptocurrency. This remains true even if crypto prices drop by 90%.
What does this mean?
- First, Trump’s assets have shifted from possibly just 1% in crypto to over 90%. Many early holders of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana have experienced similar leaps in wealth.
- Second, this phenomenon—the relative devaluation of all non-crypto assets—will become a reality for billions globally within our lifetimes, as fiat currencies decline.
- Third, every politician, influencer, and celebrity around the world is watching closely, observing the political and financial implications. If this "meme coin" endures—though that's a big question—they may follow suit.
- Next, the emergence of thousands of personal meme coins might not be entirely unacceptable, since each buyer knows exactly what they're purchasing: the potential future brand value of a meme.
- The key lies in whether the value of Trump’s asset can endure. If other celebrity meme coins rapidly go to zero, Trump’s case is different due to (a) over 100 million followers, (b) daily media attention, (c) presidential immunity, and (d) unprecedented governmental control.
- Therefore, regardless of any political backlash, Trump now has a strong incentive to legalize cryptocurrency in the most radical way possible.
- Of course, this could be criticized as a conflict of interest. But the Biden family took “10% cuts,” Pelosi trades stocks, Hillary profits from speeches, Podesta runs a $300 billion climate fund, and Obama signed a Netflix deal. All these individuals became millionaires through various means, accruing benefits that can be justified in their own ways.
- Thus, Trump’s rebuttal might be: he’s doing everything out in the open. His argument could be that transparency resolves conflicts of interest.
- This may hold some truth, but it doesn’t fully solve the alignment problem. For context: a company CEO is typically one of the largest shareholders, yet aligned with all employees because they hold the same stock. Ideally, all shareholders rise and fall together.
- By analogy, the ideal scenario would be for the president to be aligned with citizens—say, by holding a kind of “American Coin” and receiving dividends from America’s profits. Something like the Alaska Permanent Fund.
- One way to address alignment might be for Trump to airdrop some “Trump Coin” to every U.S. citizen. Or perhaps more simply, he could personally email every Trump supporter offering free Trump Coins.
- Specifically: he could give everyone 72 hours’ notice, and even many Democrats might join his mailing list just to get the airdrop.
- Is this legal? Well, politicians sending fundraising appeals to voters is legal, but to my knowledge, no politician has ever attempted a personal airdrop—giving away money—especially at such a massive scale.
- At current valuations, airdropping $100 worth of locked Trump Coins to each of 77 million Trump voters would cost him $7.7 billion—an asset that was nearly worthless two days ago. Even if he airdropped $500 per person, he’d still retain over $20 billion.
- Yes, this would consume part of Trump’s wealth. But if joining his mailing list is required to receive the coin, and the airdrop can happen without capital gains tax, it would pay for itself by turning supporters into even stronger ones.
- It could even earn him enough political support to dismantle the Democratic patronage machine. Essentially, by joining Trump’s mailing list and supporting his crypto policies, you’d receive something akin to universal basic income.
- If 77 million Americans all benefit from Trump Coin, accusations of conflict of interest would vanish. It would create an entirely new social contract—a personal relationship between president and citizens.
Worth pondering.
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