Here's How Government Can "Confiscate" Your Bitcoin: Samson Mow

Samson Mow, CEO at JAN3, has addressed the recent interview of MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, in which the latter said he did not believe that BTC can be confiscated by the U.S. government.

Saylor also spoke unfavorably of OG Bitcoiners and all those who prefer to hold their private keys to Bitcoin wallets for fear that BTC stored with private custodians may be confiscated one day, similarly to gold in the 1930s.

Gold confiscated in 1933 "voluntarily" 

Mow referred to executive order 6102 issued by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 in order to limit private ownership of gold in the country. Back then, the dollar was still on the gold standard. U.S. citizens were offered to turn in their gold "voluntarily" or threatened with a $10,000 fine or 10 years in prison (or both).

People started bringing in their gold and received $20.37 per ounce in return. This was a move to help the Federal Reserve issue more dollars during the Great Depression since it received more gold to back them with. However, the official reason was to prevent private gold hoarding.

In a recent interview, Michael Saylor refuted the narrative that gold was confiscated, saying that people turned it in of their own free will, stating that when the gold was collected, Roosevelt devalued gold in terms of USD, making one ounce go for $35 rather than $20.37, as it had been before.

Saylor stated that the fears of many OG Bitcoiners about the U.S. government confiscating BTC in the future from public custodians are groundless, since back in 1933, the U.S. was on the gold standard, and now it is not on the Bitcoin standard. He called these Bitcoiners “paranoid crypto anarchists” who defy governments and taxes.

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Executive Order 6102 for Bitcoin: Samson Mow

Meanwhile, Samson Mow responded that history may still repeat itself, and the government does not necessarily have to confiscate Bitcoin physically. It can just “lock custodial BTC into approved custodians forever,” he said, “and call it ‘institutional Bitcoin.’”

“And then it can drive the price of that Bitcoin lower by decreasing its utility,” Mow added. While the U.S. is not technically backed by Bitcoin, he said, the government still has an incentive “to degrade and attack Bitcoin” because it can print dollars forever, and BTC with its limited supply goes against this principle.