Former Trump Advisor: Bitcoin Will Bring ‘Real Freedom’

Steve Bannon, former chief strategist for US President Donald Trump and once considered a leading figure in the US "alt-right", is promoting the liberating potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Speaking at an event hosted by Swiss weekly International Weekly in Zurich on Tuesday, Bannon alluded to the use of blockchain technology in both the financial and non-financial sectors, such as the management of personal data.

In a speech – part of a European speaking tour – he described cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as “central” to the Swiss populist movement.

Bannon, the former head of the right-wing media Breitbart News Network, helped Trump win the presidency in 2016. As the campaign’s chief strategist, he praised the importance of decentralization, saying:

Central banks are devaluing your currency, central governments are devaluing your citizenship, and central tech conglomerates are devaluing your personal sovereignty and personal data.

Bannon, a former member of the National Security Council, was fired by the White House in August 2017. During his brief tenure, he frequently criticized the "financial elite," including those on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Now the former media mogul is calling cryptocurrency the perfect tool to escape the control of these elites. Bannon said:

We’ve taken away the control of the central banks, and that will give us power again…Once you control your currency, control your personal data, control your citizenship, that’s when you have true freedom.

Yet, he went on to say, the best way to “break” what he described as globalized economic oppression was through populist movements, like the ones he promoted in the United States.

His call for popularizing cryptocurrencies won applause from the European audience.