Harris and Trump Shouldn't Pander to the Crypto Crowd
哈里斯和特朗普不应该迎合加密货币人群

The good news is that business interests are getting support during an election year. The bad news is that the business is crypto.
好消息是，商业利益在选举年得到了支持。坏消息是，这项业务是加密的。

Less than two years after the industry’s highest-profile political donor was exposed as a criminal, the lure of campaign donations from the digital-money crowd is once again proving irresistible. Last time, Sam Bankman-Fried lavished cash on candidates in hopes of laxer regulations (before he ended up in federal prison on fraud charges). This time, crypto advocates are raising some millions to oppose unfriendly politicians. That’s led some candidates to abandon common sense in pursuit of cash.
在业内最引人注目的政治捐助者被揭露为罪犯不到两年后，来自数字货币人群的竞选捐款诱惑再次被证明是不可抗拒的。上一次，山姆·班克曼-弗里德 （Sam Bankman-Fried） 在候选人身上挥霍现金，希望能更宽松的监管（在他因欺诈指控而入狱之前）。这一次，加密货币倡导者筹集了数百万美元来反对不友好的政客。这导致一些候选人放弃了常识，追求现金。

Although the industry is good at grabbing headlines, the stakes aren’t especially high. Not even the most skeptical US politicians are proposing to ban Bitcoin and other such currencies, as China and about 20 other countries have done. Instead, the debate has mostly focused on whether digital tokens should be regulated like other types of investment products. (They should be.)
尽管该行业擅长抢占头条新闻，但风险并不特别高。即使是最持怀疑态度的美国政客也没有像中国和其他大约 20 个国家那样提议禁止比特币和其他此类货币。相反，争论主要集中在数字代币是否应该像其他类型的投资产品一样受到监管。（他们应该是。

President Joe Biden’s administration has done a good job limiting the risks that crypto poses, including by taking legal action against several companies and individuals — Bankman-Fried among them — for violations of money-laundering requirements and securities laws. So far Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t said whether her own approach would differ from Biden’s, but she’s under pressure to adopt a more lenient position. A policy adviser indicated this week that she wants to help the industry.
乔·拜登总统的政府在限制加密货币带来的风险方面做得很好，包括对几家公司和个人采取法律行动——其中包括 Bankman-Fried——违反洗钱要求和证券法。到目前为止，副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）尚未表示她自己的方法是否会与拜登不同，但她面临着采取更宽松立场的压力。一位政策顾问本周表示，她希望帮助该行业。

Her opponents have thrown caution to the wind. Former President Donald Trump rattled off a series of promises when he spoke to the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July. They included: appointing a council of “people who love your industry” to write crypto regulations; firing Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman (and crypto skeptic) Gary Gensler; banning the Federal Reserve from creating its own digital currency; establishing a strategic Bitcoin stockpile; and commuting the prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, convicted in 2015 for creating a crypto marketplace for illegal goods. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent, has gone even further: Calling Bitcoin “the currency of hope,” he has pledged to direct the US Treasury to invest hundreds of billions in crypto.
她的反对者已经把谨慎抛到了九霄云外。前总统唐纳德·特朗普在 7 月份的比特币 2024 会议上发表讲话时，提出了一系列承诺。其中包括：任命一个由“热爱你的行业的人”组成的委员会来制定加密法规;解雇证券交易委员会主席（和加密货币怀疑论者）Gary Gensler;禁止美联储创建自己的数字货币;建立战略性的比特币储备;以及减刑罗斯·乌尔布里希特 （Ross Ulbricht），他于 2015 年因为非法商品创建加密市场而被定罪。独立人士小罗伯特·肯尼迪 （Robert F. Kennedy Jr.） 走得更远：他称比特币为“希望的货币”，并承诺指示美国财政部在加密货币上投资数千亿美元。

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It’s hard to square this kind of thing with the broader national interest. In the 15 or so years since Bitcoin was invented, digital tokens have proved to be of essentially no practical value. Just 1% of Americans say they used them for a payment or money transfer last year. More often crypto is used to move money outside of government oversight. That’s helpful for criminals, terrorists and anyone under sanctions. But these are hardly the constituencies that a presidential candidate should be soliciting. Nor should policymakers be encouraging people to park their savings in digital wallets instead of stocks, bonds and other assets that support the real economy.
很难将这种事情与更广泛的国家利益相提并论。自比特币发明以来的 15 年左右的时间里，数字代币已被证明基本上没有实用价值。只有 1% 的美国人表示他们去年使用它们进行付款或汇款。更多时候，加密货币被用来将资金转移到政府监督之外。这对罪犯、恐怖分子和任何受到制裁的人都有帮助。但这些选区并不是总统候选人应该争取的选区。政策制定者也不应该鼓励人们将储蓄存放在数字钱包中，而不是股票、债券和其他支持实体经济的资产。

Instead, candidates should promise to work with Congress and regulators to ensure that the rules applied to cryptocurrencies are consistent with existing laws on fraud, money laundering and sanctions enforcement. If the technology is as innovative and useful as its advocates assert, then playing by the rules shouldn’t be a problem. No amount of campaign cash should lead candidates to think otherwise.
相反，候选人应承诺与国会和监管机构合作，确保适用于加密货币的规则与有关欺诈、洗钱和制裁执行的现有法律保持一致。如果这项技术像其倡导者所声称的那样具有创新性和实用性，那么按规则行事应该不是问题。再多的竞选资金都不应该让候选人有不同的看法。

More From Bloomberg Opinion:
更多来自彭博社的观点：

• Stablecoin Risks Continue to Grow as Congress Dithers: Editorial
  随着国会的犹豫，稳定币风险继续增加：社论
• Trump’s Bitcoin Embrace Is the Art of the Grift: Lionel Laurent
  特朗普对比特币的拥抱是痛苦的艺术：莱昂内尔·洛朗
• SEC's Gensler Fails Investors With New Bitcoin ETFs: Editorial
  SEC 的 Gensler 让投资者的新比特币 ETF 失望：社论

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