Can Progressives Abandon Elizabeth Warren Over Crypto?

Politicians like Elizabeth Warren have helped create a reputation for the political left as enemies of crypto. The truth is far more complicated.

A prevailing stereotype about those in the crypto community is that they are primarily right-wing libertarians. It is not difficult to understand why. The worldview shares many ideas similar to crypto. Namely, individual freedom and minimal interference from the government in economic matters.

In the United States, crypto’s most determined enemy has been Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. She has led a year-long campaign to limit its use. She has said that crypto “has created opportunities to deceive investors, help criminals and exacerbate the climate crisis.”

The threats posed by crypto show that Congress and federal regulators cannot continue to hide, hoping that crypto will go away. It won’t.”

In recent months, she has organized a cross-party effort to strongly regulate technology. Crypto advocates have pushed back, arguing that it poses an unconstitutional threat to privacy.

Before her failed 2020 presidential bid, Warren was a popular champion of the American Left. Her first Senate run in 2012 attracted nationwide attention, and she was considered a rising star. Next to Bernie Sanders, she is one of the country’s most progressive politicians in a generation. Warren and her ilk advocate for a stronger role for government in the economy to reduce poverty and income inequality and tackle systemic issues like climate change and discrimination.

Where Warren goes, however, the political left does not necessarily follow. In 2018, CoinDesk Research conducted a survey that seemed to show that crypto was more ideologically diverse than people thought. The 1,200 respondents broke down into 8% anarcho-capitalists, 24% libertarians, 21% conservatives, 9% centrists, 27% liberals, 9% socialists and 3% nihilists.

The same survey showed that while 55% of Bitcoiners skew right, 55% of Ethereums skew left. Ripple can be described as relatively “centrist.” The privacy coin Monero was home to the most anarcho-capitalists – a group that advocates the elimination of the state. No surprises there.

Five years is an age in crypto, so it’s worth asking how relevant this data is. Although, as adoption has increased, it would be reasonable to assume that users have become more like the rest of the population. More varied, not less.

It’s more complex than just “right wing”

A 2020 survey by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority found that most people use it for speculative investment, a hobby not usually associated with leftists. So, is crypto inherently right-wing? “For the most part, yes, crypto is dominated by right-wing libertarian ideology and speculation,” says Blockchain Socialist. “Is that the only possibility of using the technology? No, I don’t think so, and there have been progressive uses of the technology that don’t conform to right-libertarian logic.”

As the 2018 survey suggests, the crypto community is full of progressives, socialists, and liberals. Although, a counterpart to this is that they are so often labeled. The fact that The Progressive Bitcoiner, Jason Maier, feels the need to write a book called “The Progressive Case for Bitcoin” is telling. His website states, “he did not feel that progressive people had a place in the Bitcoin community.”

“Even worse, he noticed that his liberal friends were being misinformed about Bitcoin by the media and some liberal politicians.” Figures like Elizabeth Warren don’t help.

The common thread is anti-establishment

Crypto is not just a vessel for anti-government sentiment. It can also be anti-company as well. The entire Web3 model is based on a critique of the Web2 internet giants, who farm our data for profit. It is difficult for any attack on that system to be essentially right-wing.

“In general, I would say that most people attracted to crypto are primarily anti-establishment, but many of these people are led to believe correct libertarian narratives around money, economics, politics, etc.,” The Blockchain Socialist continues. . “Even if you sit down with them often and really ask about their values, why they’re unhappy with the status quo, and what their ideal society looks like, they would contradict the libertarian narrative.”

The cypherpunks, a hacktivist movement of the late 20th century, were known for being ideologically diverse. Without their activism, the internet would be an even more dystopian place than it is today.

“There was a contingency that was more interested in the open source development of crypto, which generally attracts more left-leaning people. But they were far from the majority.”

‘Left Wing’ does not mean anti-crypto

It’s also worth noting that freedom, individual liberty, and a more atomized state can also be left-wing goals. Anti-censorship was a left-wing concern long before conservatives became its champions. Left-libertarianism is a thing after all. However, it is not as well known as its far-right cousin.

A left-libertarian writer points out to BeInCrypto that the libertarian movement has its roots in progressive causes. It goes back to “forms of self-organization before the welfare state, like cooperatives,” he says. A political tradition that Elizabeth Warren respects.

“Similarly, today’s crypto communities can be seen as forms of mutual learning and empowerment, members helping each other rather than dog-eat-dog anarcho-capitalism. As recent Uniswap governance issues involving venture capital firm a16z show, the decentralization inherent in the code does not automatically extend to who has the power to to run a crypto platform.”