Bruce Fenton, a Bitcoin-advocate, has announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in New Hampshire. Fenton was a previous director of the Bitcoin Foundation and moved to New Hampshire in pursuit of the Free State Project, a political pro-freedom movement. “Democracy is a poor and overhyped system that results in two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner,” Fenton says.
Bruce Fenton, a Bitcoin-advocate, has announced his candidacy for the United States Senate to represent the state of New Hampshire. Bitcoin Magazine got an exclusive interview with Bruce to discuss his thoughts on Bitcoin and his objectives on running for the U.S. senate.
Bruce Fenton previously served as an executive director for the non-profit Bitcoin Foundation, originally founded in 2012 with the intention of setting the ship right with bitcoin as scandalous misrepresentation affected its reputation. His early bitcoin-roots allowed Fenton to amass a small fortune preparing him for his eventual self-funded campaign driven by his $5 million injection.
After his tenure with the Bitcoin Foundation, Fenton turned his eyes to New Hampshire and the Free State Project, which is a political pro-freedom movement that calls for smaller government and lax regulatory burdens. This particular group has been widely accepting of bitcoin and no-doubt has served as a muse for Fenton’s festering discontent with the status quo. A resistance for traditional systems seems staple to Bitcoiner ideology, which leads to cross feelings regarding the intersection of Bitcoin and politics as some want it to stay apolitical. This was one of the first points Fenton made.
“Bitcoin is not apolitical. Bitcoin is political and has been since its inception,” Fenton stated. “Satoshi understood liberty, freedom and the problems with the existing fiat system.”
Fenton continued to say “Some people say Bitcoin isn’t political out of fear of upsetting the other side. Fact is, separating money and state is just as political as separation of church and state was hundreds of years ago.”
Fenton went on to discuss how Bitcoin can completely change the way money works and the disruptive nature inherent to the protocol. In discussing the ways bitcoin represents the change of archaic systems, Fenton said:
“Bitcoin is voluntary and needs no central point of control to make it work. Bitcoin uses technology to create the next natural evolution in money and how we move value in the world. More broadly, Bitcoin is part of the massive change we are seeing in the world, a change from centralized power to decentralized power.”
Speaking of change, it is very important to pay attention to the changes being pursued by all candidates, not just Fenton. However, Bitcoin Magazine did ask what, specific to bitcoin, would Fenton push forward? He gave a succinct reply.
“I’d like to have the government entirely uninvolved with Bitcoin.”
That would seem an obvious answer to Bitcoiners, because it is. However, there are still other politicians for and against Bitcoin. This begs the question of what Bitcoiners should demand from politicians, but moreover, what should they demand from Fenton?
“Bitcoiners should demand the simple right to run, use and write code they want. The government has no place in Bitcoin,” he said. “I believe Bitcoin is one of the most important innovations in history for peace and human progress. Bitcoiners can demand and expect that I’ll be true to the core principles of this technology and movement.”
To close out the interview, Bitcoin Magazine asked Fenton a simple, yet complex question, and it’s one we have all certainly wrestled with at some point — is democracy necessary for freedom?
“Democracy is a poor and overhyped system that results in two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner,” Fenton declared. We can’t achieve freedom with democracy and the founders knew this, which is why they chose a constitutional republic instead.”
Fenton went on to explain there becomes a larger issue at hand with the democratically elected officials of a constitutional republic opting not to follow their constitutional origins. He then offered his ideal solution for the system.
“The best way to achieve the maximum peace and freedom is to allow voluntary human choice and to avoid force and violence in every way possible.”
