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🏟️ Bitcoin is Center Stage

As more 2024 presidential hopefuls refine their stances on Bitcoin, it’s now center stage in the U.S. political landscape.

Graphic of presidential candidates who have shared their stances on Bitcoin. From bitcoinnews.com

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: A proponent of Bitcoin since his keynote address at the 2023 Bitcoin Conference. He suggested including Bitcoin as part of a basket of finite assets to back the dollar.
Ron DeSantis: The Governor of Florida vowed that he would end “Biden’s war on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency” if elected.
Vivek Ramaswamy: Does not believe that the asset should be used to stabilize the U.S. dollar at this time. He is a “Bitcoin fan,” and believes that he is the only candidate with a nuanced understanding of the protocol.
Francis Suarez: The Mayor of Miami has been a Bitcoin supporter since 2017. He reportedly takes his salary in bitcoin, and recently announced that his campaign is officially accepting bitcoin contributions.

This is more than a U.S.-only phenomenon, too:

Javier Milei discussing why Bitcoin is different from fiat currencies.

Javier Milei: Has just won the Argentine Presidential Primary. Milei applauds Bitcoin because he believes it to be a more faithful representation of scarce money, as opposed to the inflation-plagued Argentine Peso.

🎢 Another Year Off The Gold Standard

In 1971, President Nixon took the United States off of the gold standard to curb inflation and prevent foreign nations from redeeming their dollar holdings for gold.

Three charts tell the story of how the U.S. has fared in the 52 years since the move:

1️⃣ The dollar has lost nearly 87% of its purchasing power.

Illustrating the decline of USD purchasing power since 1971.

2️⃣ Total public debt as a percentage of GDP has increased over 238%.

Illustrating the increase in Public Debt to GDP ratio since 1971.

3️⃣ M2 Money Supply has increased by over 2,973%.

Illustrating the steady, and recently more sudden, increase of USD supply since 1971.

A fiat currency that is untethered from scarcity (reality) is easily manipulated by those in power. This is why we Bitcoin.

🤔 What Could Lightning Look Like in 2025?

We recently published an article covering the current and future states of Lightning’s user experience.

What will you see?

Wallets have a single balance, and users won’t need to care if a transaction is done over Lightning or on-chain.
Successful payments even while your wallet is offline.
Reusable and shareable QR codes and payment IDs.
Better privacy guarantees.
Securely moving funds from cold storage to Lightning and vice versa.

🥳 Fun fact: River was the first U.S. brokerage to integrate the Lightning Network! You can easily transact over Lightning today in your River App.