Ron Paul: Bitcoin Is Not 'True Money'

AP

"Though I dont personally believe that Bitcoin is true money, it shouldbeperfectly legal and there should be no restrictions on it, there should be no taxes on it," Paul wrote."The people who operate Bitcoin would, of course, be prohibited from committing fraud but the people should be able to have competition whether it is a basket of commodities or crypto-currencies - it should be perfectly legal."

Paul described Bitcoin as an "introduction" to competition for the dollar that could improve our "terrible monetary system."

"Bitcoin is a very interesting subject because for many years in Congress I was a champion of legalizing competition in currencies," wrote Paul. "We have a terrible monetary system today. We have a government that purposely counterfeits and debases the currencies and I believe that the alternative would be a competition. That means that anything that wants to substitute for the American dollar should be permitted. There should be no prohibitions; there should not be a monopoly and a cartel running our monetary system because it so often benefits the privileged few. ...Bitcoin is an introduction to that."

Paul also noted Bitcoin requires "freedom from government intervention when it comes to the Internet" to flourish. He said he is "concerned that the government ultimately wants to curtail the Internet."

"The internet is the salvation for those of us who believe in liberty because it is an alternative way of getting around the system not only in the spreading of our ideas in this instance but in in terms of getting around the monetary system on the whole if they do permit crypto-currencies and other forms of transactions. So, this is something that we should all be concerned about whether we endorse it or not," Paul wrote.

Read Paul's full discussion of Bitcoin here.

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Ron Paul: Bitcoin Is Not 'True Money'