Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also known as RFK Jr., believes policymakers in the United States are quickly realizing that Bitcoin is “inevitable” and are scrambling to develop a coherent digital asset strategy that will preserve America’s fiscal dominance.
In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, RFK Jr. described his Bitcoin (BTC) journey in greater detail before discussing the role it should play in the country’s monetary system.
The presidential candidate, who dropped his Democratic affiliation in October 2023 to run as an independent, said he realized the importance of Bitcoin’s “transactional freedom” during the trucker strike in Canada.
RFK Jr. called the trucker strike “a very peaceful protest” where people were “exercising freedoms that we take for granted in this country, [like] freedom of assembly, freedom to petition their government.”
But the Canadian government “portrayed it publicly as kind of a terrorist event,” he said. “They began using technologies like facial recognition systems to identify people who are participating and then freezing their bank accounts.”
“I realized at that time that transactional freedom was as important as freedom of expression that is protected by the First Amendment,” RFK Jr. said.
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Fast forward more than two years later, and US policymakers realize there are 60 million Bitcoiners in the country, so they’ve been forced to change their tune on digital asset legislation, he said.
“I think now it’s past the point where it’s inevitable. And now, we need to move as a country that’s able to get some control over Bitcoin as part of a reserve,” RFK Jr. said.
In his view, a strategic Bitcoin reserve is the only way America can guarantee the future of the dollar as a permanent global reserve currency.
To hear what RFK Jr. has to say about the Federal Reserve, monetary policy and the role of blockchain technology in preserving democracy, check out the full interview on Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe.