Once the political director for the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign, Craig Berman is now the CEO of a tech company and mines Bitcoin in his spare time
In a recent interview, Craig Bergman disclosed that along with running his company Vortex Blockchain Technologies – he also mine cryptos, most notably Bitcoin, as a side project.
Vortex works on fintech, cybersecurity, hardware development, Bitcoin mining and AI development. The company has 75,500,000 privately held shares and plans to go public later in 2020.
Politically identifying as a Libertarian, Bergman has been a long time supporter of Bitcoin and claims he strongly backs crypto over the US dollar. Even with his faith in crypto, he also remains sceptical, stating that Bitcoin will not last forever.
“I would make halving every year and start with a bigger pool. Satoshi was good at economics and bad at math. Bitcoin cannot make it another 100 years as it is not big enough to capture the 100 Trillion dollar world economy,”
Even though he is an adamant supporter of Bitcoin, Bergman thinks that future cryptocurrencies may develop capacities that Bitcoin does not possess.
“Cardano is close, but it’s like watching Shawshank Redemption where [Andy Dufresne] is chipping away at a wall behind a Marilyn Monroe poster. Will he finally break through? Probably, but it will take 20 years.” he stated in the same interview.
The Future Outlook for Crypto in the US
The term “cryptocurrency” is still very murky; the rules for cryptos vary based on which agency is looking at the assets. Without firm regulations, large investments in US-based crypto development are difficult, as other nations like Singapore have created a regulatory environment that is far more attractive.
Currently, the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) does not consider crypto to be legal tender, but that it can be exchanged in the same way as money. In contrast, the IRS considers it as property, which means it could be taxed accordingly through its guidelines.
The US Government hasn’t directly regulated cryptos, leaving room for their growth — but making other nations where there are firm regulations more attractive for investors.
The recently proposed anti-encryption bill, the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act of 2020 (LAED), outlaws the use of any encrypted product or information that cannot be accessed by the federal government. If this bill is passed, decentralized coins such as Bitcoin will be difficult to bring into compliance with the law.