Bitcoin has always been considered by its staunch supporters a tool to bring about personal financial freedom from government control and censorship as well as taxation via inflation. As such, most political players shun the cryptocurrency when they are in power as it threatens their position. Once out of power they are freer to appreciate the freedom a decentralized economy may bring, as exemplified by someone who was once one of the most powerful men in Washington, Steve Bannon, now hailing cryptocurrencies as the key to national liberation.   

U.S. President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has said in a speech on Tuesday that blockchain-based cryptocurrencies can help bring about liberation for Western nations from under the control of all powerful central banks such as the Federal Reserve and the ECB and the ruling "permanent political class."

"Central banks are in the business of debasing your currency," he proclaimed. "Central governments are in the business of debasing your citizenship." However, Bannon reassured that audience that with the use of cryptocurrencies "We take control of the central banks away. That will give us the power again."

International Economic Nationalism

The former executive chairman of the alt right platform Breitbart News, which served a pivotal role in the election of President Trump according to many American political observers, was speaking to a crowd of 1,500 right wing Europeans in Zurich, Switzerland on Tuesday. He has been touring Europe with his message of economic nationalism, seeking to empower new local populist parties in the region to achieve victory over the establishment as he has done in the latest US elections.