When Politics Meets Proof-of-Work

As someone who codes Solidity contracts by day and studies political theater by night, Trump’s sudden Bitcoin evangelism feels like watching a non-technical founder pitch a “revolutionary new blockchain” at a Miami NFT conference. Yet here we are - with the former president making eight specific cryptocurrency promises that could reshape American crypto policy. Let’s audit this smart contract of political pledges line by line.

Promise #1: All Remaining Bitcoin Mined in USA

Trump’s Truth Social post about domesticating Bitcoin mining reads like a nostalgic manufacturing policy - if you ignore how proof-of-work actually functions. While boosting domestic mining infrastructure makes sense (I’ve crunched the Texas grid numbers myself), claiming “all remaining Bitcoin” will be American-mined demonstrates either:

1. Fundamental misunderstanding of decentralization
2. Intentional oversimplification for voters
3. Both

My fellow CFA charterholders know energy dominance doesn’t equate to hashrate monopoly. Even if America captured 50% of global mining (currently ~38%), the other half would…you know…keep existing?

Promise #4: Firing Gary Gensler on Day One

Here’s one promise that might get spontaneous applause at any DeFi hackathon. But having navigated SEC compliance myself, I’ll note that dismantling regulatory capture requires more than one pink slip. The administrative state moves like a Byzantine fault-tolerant network - slowly and resistant to single points of failure.

Pro Tip: Watch whether Trump nominates a Web3-native replacement or just another Wall Street retread. That’ll reveal if this is real reform or just political theater.

Promise #6: Freeing Ross Ulbricht

This pledge surprised even me - a Silicon Valley libertarian who thinks Ulbricht’s sentence represents everything wrong with America’s war on tech innovators. If Trump follows through (presidential pardons bypass bureaucratic inertia), it could become his most meaningful crypto legacy beyond market speculation.

The Verdict: Smart Contract or Smoke Screen?

Having built tokenized governance systems, I recognize performative politics when I see it. Several promises require Congressional cooperation (good luck), while others like “solving $35T debt with crypto” belong in comedy clubs. But between plausible mining incentives and personnel changes, there might be enough substance here to cautiously monitor - assuming voters overlook Trump’s established pattern of reneging on inconvenient promises when lobbyists come knocking.

What’s your take? Will these commitments survive first contact with DC reality? Drop your predictions below - bonus points for referencing Nakamoto consensus in your analysis.