Right-Wing Cryptocurrencies vs. Left-Wing Artificial Intelligence: The Stirring of Technology and Values

The Bitcoin Conference 2025 is in full swing in the United States.

I've not been very interested in a convention full of politicians and businessmen, because I can guess what they will say.

But Vance's speech at the conference was a big blow to me.

Shenchao has published a translation of the full text of this speech (see the link at the end of the article).

In this speech, there are three ideas that are refreshing and resonate strongly with me:

"Cryptocurrencies are inherently conservative or right-wing technologies, and AI is inherently leftist or totalitarian technologies"

"A lot of smart right-wing technologists are attracted to Bitcoin, and a lot of smart left-wing technologists are devoting themselves to AI."

"I don't want the development of AI to have a negative impact on U.S. national interests. And the best way to make sure that there are smart, forward-thinking people in this AI conversation is to make the Bitcoin community a part of the AI conversation as well."

Before sharing my views, I would like to introduce to you the definition of right and left in the Western tradition.

In a more general way:

The rightists advocate small government, advocate individual struggle, and advocate a free economy, and have a strong vigilance against centralization, control, and intervention. The right is also known as a conservative.

The left advocates big government, advocates government control over society, and advocates government intervention in the economy. The Left is also known as the Liberal.

In modern society, pure right and left no longer exist, but the difference between a little more right or a little more left.

Vance's quote about Bitcoin appealing to the right and AI appealing to the left immediately reminded me of some very typical figures in both ecosystems.

Wei Dai, one of Bitcoin's pioneers, planted a seed in his heart by witnessing his grandfather's tragic experience during the Cultural Revolution: he wanted to use technology to create a society in which individuals were protected from the power dump.

All Satoshi Nakamoto's whereabouts on the Internet are trying to hide their figures and not show their whereabouts.

......

Among the friends I have been involved in the crypto ecosystem over the years, I have found an interesting phenomenon: whenever the topic is more in-depth, I can often guess his values, and then guess his true attitude towards Bitcoin. And when I asked him about his operations with Bitcoin, I found almost one thing in common:

Almost without exception, participants with strong right-leaning views will firmly hold on to a portion of bitcoin. Although they also do swing bands, there is always a part that remains in their hands and never sells. For this kind of operation of keeping a part and not selling, they will all say excitedly that this is a tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Therefore, I have always believed that investing in the crypto ecosystem, without the support of values, is unlikely to obtain relatively rich returns. I don't believe that Changpeng Zhao sold his house and bought bitcoin purely out of commercial considerations, and there was no belief in values as support and drive.

My impression of the AI participants is almost entirely encapsulated by Ultraman. His close-fitting attitude toward the U.S. government, in which participants swap iris for tokens, vividly reflects this man's worship of power and desire for control.

Another typical example of a raccoon dog who is on the same page as Ultraman in the tech world is Zuckerberg.

Most of the articles and media on the market that praise AI are almost always immersed in the joy brought by the rapid increase in efficiency and physical sensation of this technology, and few are worried about the consequences of artificial intelligence once it is controlled by demons.

The vast majority of articles and media on the market that disdain crypto technology almost without exception will only talk about the inadequacy and uselessness of crypto technology in terms of efficiency and cost, and they have never understood the great significance of crypto technology for human beings to obtain financial freedom and get rid of centralized control.

A few times I was curious, and I looked for a few other articles by the authors of these articles, and almost all of them found that they were full of the feeling of elite control of the masses and the pleasure of prostrate on power.

It's only in the crypto ecosystem that I've seen explorers like Vitalik constantly exploring where to work to be as decentralized as possible, and what to improve in order to find a way for Ethereum to survive an attack by a sovereign state.

About two years ago, I wrote in an article that once I was attending a roadshow in Hong Kong and saw a foreign team proposing a way to train AI with a decentralized dataset. Although that solution has many problems and seems to be immature, I can only see this kind of thinking and perspective in the crypto ecosystem.

Of course, the top technologist who vigorously promotes artificial intelligence will also pay attention to encryption technology. Altman issued his Worldcoin and Layer 2 extension, and Zuckerberg is on the verge of restarting his stablecoin program. But their core purpose is not for human freedom, but to control more users, more resources, and provide more value to their ecology.

These two types of people are fundamentally different.

Perhaps this is what Vance quoted: "A lot of smart right-wing technologists are attracted to Bitcoin, and a lot of smart left-wing technologists are devoting themselves to AI".

In the previous article, I also shared my expectation for the best scenario of the combination of AI + Crypto: that is, to use the decentralized method of encryption technology to decentralize the computing power and data of artificial intelligence, so that the revolutionary invention of artificial intelligence will not be controlled by a centralized organization. Only in this way can it truly benefit all mankind and become a great invention that mankind is proud of; Otherwise, it is likely to create a catastrophe and become a weapon of destruction for humanity.

Vance's statement that he doesn't want AI to have a negative impact on the U.S. and that he wants the Bitcoin community to join AI is exactly how I expect these two technologies to come together.

In my opinion, the points quoted by Vance are the best commentary on the values behind the two technologies, encryption and artificial intelligence, and the best explanation of the complementarity between the two technologies, encryption and artificial intelligence.

I have the stereotype of politicians as only telling lies, clichés and empty words, but I was surprised that Vance was able to quote/express such a brilliant point.

A person with a non-science and engineering background can understand the values behind these two cutting-edge technologies to such an extent that he or she has surpassed the vast majority of participants in these two ecosystems.

I now kind of understand why Peter Thiel from Silicon Valley has been a long-term sponsor of Vance and has been helping him along the way.

If such a person becomes president of the United States in the future, then encryption and artificial intelligence will only accelerate in that land.