U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer says 'Bitcoin ain't going away'

U.S. Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) predicted during a recent interview that the COVID-19 pandemic wouldn't dampen the long-term prospects for Bitcoin.

During the “Pomp Podcast” hosted by Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, Emmer said the coronavirus pandemic is forcing people to look for new ways to store their assets — which will increase the use of Bitcoin. Decrypt first covered Emmer's remarks following Pompliano's show.

“As we come out of the crisis, Bitcoin ain’t going away. It’s gonna get stronger,” he said in the August 3 interview. “You just watch, it has value, when something has value, people are going to take risks and it’s going to advance,” the congressman said.

Emmer also railed against centralized monetary systems during the interview, and pointed to Bitcoin as the future since it's more decentralized in comparison. During the interview he said he does support a governmental role in the crypto conversation, albeit a small one. Still, Emmer has added to the digital dollar conversations, calling for more transparency from the U.S. Federal Reserve on its research and development efforts towards a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in June. 

The Congressman has publicly called for the U.S. government to take advantage of crypto innovation, most recently by signing a letter addressed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with a group of Congressional lawmakers calling for the U.S. tax agency to create a policy that supports proof of stake (PoS) technology.

However, some still see bitcoin as a tool used by scammers and nefarious actors, with the recent hacking of Twitter accounts for a bitcoin scam adding to that narrative. Emmer argued the blame doesn't lie with crypto. He tweeted his support of bitcoin in the wake of the hack, and doubled down on those comments during the interview.

"Twitter’s the problem. They are the ones that screwed up. Bitcoin didn’t screw up," he said.