UK’s New ‘Pro-Crypto’ Prime Minister Declared ‘No Friend of Bitcoin’
Twitter user @ODELL Newly appointed British Prime Minister (PM) Rishi Sunak called him “no friend of Bitcoin”, adding that reports of his pro-crypto rhetoric are “misleading”.
The basis for @ODELL’s comments came from a video of Sunak talking about Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which are generally seen by the community as philosophically opposed to cryptocurrency principles such as censorship resistance and decentralization.
This new UK Prime Minister is no friend of bitcoin, the “news” accounts are misleading you for engagement.
He wants total control and monitoring of money. pic.twitter.com/h3TY7LN2y5
— ODELL (@ODELL) 24 October 2022
Sunak’s pro-crypto reputation
On 24 October, Sunak won the Conservative leadership contest after rival Penny Mordaunt failed to achieve the required 100 parliamentary nominations to progress to the next stage of the contest.
Much has been made of his appointment, including Sunak as the first non-white British Prime Minister, while others have pointed out that his privileged position means he is out of touch with ordinary people.
The former Goldman Sachs banker and his wife, Akshata Murty, a fashion designer and venture capitalist, are reported to be worth 730 million pounds ($824.5 million).
During his failed leadership campaign against Liz Truss, Sunak told a studio audience that he supports cryptocurrency and the underlying blockchain technology as ways to improve lives through technological efficiency.
He ended his response by saying, as prime minister, “you better believe I’ll see it come to fruition.”
Similarly, in another show with crypto pundits during his campaign trail, Sunak said he prefers Bored Apes to CryptoPunks and, to avoid tribalistic backlash, chose a “basket of cryptocurrencies” instead of choosing between Bitcoin and Ethereum ,
Britain’s new Prime Minister prefers Bored Apes to CryptoPunks and prefers a basket of different coins (dubs in shitcoins?)
(Clip from leader’s race a couple of months ago) pic.twitter.com/3FwMgAPA0s
— db (@tier10k) 24 October 2022
Governments exploring CBDCs
On 14 October 2021, during his time as UK Chancellor under Boris Johnson, the treasury posted a video of Sunak discussing the concept of CBDC.
As part of the launch of the G7’s Public Policy Principles, Sunak said global governments and central banks are examining how CBDCs might work in practice. He called this movement part of “the story of digital innovation.”
Given the scale of change needed to accommodate CBDCs, Sunak said the G7 countries are undergoing an exploratory phase and no decision has been made on whether to proceed with them.
“The decision to launch a digital central bank currency is up to each country to make, and no G7 jurisdiction has yet made that choice.”
Critics argue that CBDCs are no different from the current system of inflation. Moreover, there are lingering doubts about financial snooping and the potential for “enemies of the state” to be prevented from acting at the push of a button.
