Trump's RNC speech gave tech enthusiasts hope for the future

Residents of Silicon Valley have been boarding the Trump train, and Trump's speech at the RNC illustrated some of the reasons.
Christopher Koopman
Posted by Christopher Koopman July 21, 2024 4 Mins Read
Residents of Silicon Valley have been boarding the Trump train, and Trump's speech at the RNC illustrated some of the reasons.

Former President Donald Trump’s speech before the Republican National Convention (RNC) gave a subtle hint of his potential openness to embracing the tech industry. It was brief — just a few words in the middle of his 90-minute speech. If you blinked, you missed it. But they were important. “America,” Trump said, “is on the cusp of a new golden age, but we will have the courage to seize it.”

Those in the “e/acc” community, a tech-focused movement embraced by Marc Andreessen and Gary Tan, took notice. One of the movement’s founders, an anonymous social-media user called "@BasedBeffJezos," shared a clip of Trump’s remarks and asked his followers, “Can you feel the acceleration anon?”

One thing is for sure. The GOP is down with Bitcoin (BTC). Earlier this summer, after meeting with industry representatives, Trump said he wants all future Bitcoin to be mined in the U.S. The official Republican platform states that the party “will end Democrats’ unlawful and unAmerican Crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency. We will defend the right to mine Bitcoin, and ensure every American has the right to self-custody of their Digital Assets, and transact free from Government Surveillance and Control.”

As if this weren’t enough to send the message, the party’s newly nominated vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, is a Bitcoin-holding skeptic of the Securities and Exchange Commission who has publicly criticized Chairman Gary Gensler’s approach to blockchain and crypto as “almost the exact opposite of what it should be.”

Related: Donald Trump’s crypto platform is missing one thing

And Trump’s excitement about crypto will likely grow as he is scheduled to headline the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville on July 27.

However, what remains to be seen is whether this translates into a broader embrace of permissionless innovation across emerging technologies.

There are reasons to be encouraged. When it comes to artificial intelligence, the party seems ready to embrace the promise the technology holds for our economy and society. The GOP has made it a plank in the party platform, promising to repeal the Biden administration’s AI executive order and embracing AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing. Donald Trump even seemed in awe of AI, briefly referencing it in his nomination speech, and impressing the importance of not allowing domestic AI concerns to hinder the US role in shaping the technology for the world.

Groups like the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and the Heritage Foundation, outside the official party structure but vying to influence a potential second Trump administration, also embrace technologies like AI. AFPI, for example, is said to be drafting a framework to make America first in AI. Heritage “Project 2025” notes not only the importance of the development of AI technologies but also their use in detecting waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending and enforcing international trade deals.

Related: Crypto won big in the Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision

There are also reasons for concern. For all the significance a crypto/AI-friendly White House could have, it is not clear how this translates into specifics around technology in America.

Autonomous vehicles are nothing but applying AI to cars. While the GOP position is pro-AI, the waters are pretty muddied around autonomous vehicles. Both Tucker Carlson and Sean O’Brien were given opportunities to speak at the RNC. Carlson has said he would ban autonomous trucks “in a second,” and if he were president, “we’re not letting driverless trucks on the road. Period.”

O’Brian, as president of the Teamsters Union, has advocated for federal rules requiring a human with a commercial driver’s license to sit in autonomous trucks at all times and has lobbied to ban autonomous vehicles around the country.

For all the criticisms Vance has directed at Gary Gensler, he has equally praised Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan.

In fact, in the same speech in which he criticized Gensler’s approach to crypto and blockchain, he said Kahn is “one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job.“ And what has she done? She’s laid out the most aggressive regulatory approach to AI in the Biden administration, blocked nearly every tech merger she could, and continues to advance tenuous legal theories that will ultimately undermine the “new golden age” Trump sees in our future.

Is this something to be concerned about? Silicon Valley doesn’t think so. And a who’s who of tech titans have lined up to back the GOP nominee.

While there is much to be encouraged, it is too early to assume we may have a White House championing a full-throated call for permissionless innovation. For now, crypto​currency has the opportunity to emerge from the shadows. Here’s hoping that innovators of all stripes may find a way out, too.

Christopher Koopman is a guest columnist for Cointelegraph and the CEO of the Abundance Institute. He was previously the executive director at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University, and a senior research fellow and director of the technology policy program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is currently a senior affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center and a member of the IT and Emerging Technology Working Group at the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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