Steve Bannon, the former aide to President Donald Trump and a firebrand of right-wing populist movements, is now touting the liberating potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Bannon alluded to both the financial and nonfinancial applications of blockchain, such as for managing personal data, on Tuesday at an event in Zurich sponsored by the Swiss newspaper Die Weltwoche.
During his lecture, part of a European speaking tour, he described cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as the "very heart" of a populist movement in Switzerland.
The former head of right-wing media outlet Breitbart, who helped Trump win the presidency in 2016 as the campaign's chief strategist, lauded the importance of decentralization when he said:
"Central banks are in the business of debasing your currency. Central governments are in the business of debasing your citizenship. The central technology conglomerates are in the business of debasing your own personal sovereignty and your own personal data."
Bannon, a former member of the National Security Council, was dismissed from the White House in August 2017. During his brief tenure often criticized "financial elites," including those in Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
Now the former media mogul is calling cryptocurrency a perfect tool to escape the control of such elites. Bannon said:
"We take control of the central banks away. That will give us the power again...Once you take control of your currency, once you take control of your data, once you take control of your citizenship, that's when you're going to have true freedom."
However, he went on to say the best way to "break" what he described as the globalized culture of economic oppression is with populist, nationalist movements like the one he popularized in the U.S.
His political rallying cries about cryptocurrency inspired resounding applause from the European audience.