Report | The Nakamoto Project
I appreciate the effort put into this report; it has excellent information. However, a statement that stuck out to me that we should do our best to avoid is: "Bitcoin ownership is apolitical."
Bitcoin ownership is political. Owning Bitcoin is a statement about who controls the money in a polity. It's possible the authors meant Bitcoin is not partisan, which their data supports, but that is a very different meaning than "political."
I fear framing Bitcoin as apolitical is naively walking into a bear trap. There are undoubtedly political opponents to Bitcoin owners, and we should take note of that.
Instead of viewing Bitcoin as "apolitical" to explain the non-partisan support, I hypothesize that Bitcoin ownership ranges across party lines because our "conservative" and "liberal" political parties are just different flavors of liberalism. People are growing dissatisfied with the current political order because they are dissatisfied with what liberalism has produced: rampant inequality, an authoritative ruling class, and increasing social isolation. I would guess people who are harmed by the current liberal order support Bitcoin in way more proportion than those who benefit from it, which doesn't break down cleanly between party lines.
Furthermore, I suggest that Bitcoin is not only a political tool; it has the potential to re-orient our political parties into liberals, those satisfied with the status quo, and "post-liberals," those trying to effect change. Expect Bitcoin to become even more prominent in the political discourse.
