Is Bitcoin protected by the First Amendment as Michael Saylor says?
Michael Saylor, swiping an idea from a paper written by NYDIG’s Ross Stevens, claimed recently that bitcoin is speech and therefore protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The argument put forth by Stevens is a basic series of assumptions. First, he argues that Bitcoin “consists entirely of the creation and transmission of information, which is speech.” Second, that “bitcoin activity is at minimum protected expressive conduct.” Finally, according to Stevens, this allegedly protected free speech activity is a form of civil participation, which is “expressive association separately safeguarded by the First Amendment.” The paper concludes, “Bitcoin is free speech protected by the First Amendment and therefore regulating bitcoin has clear constitutional implications.” However, while the paper is supposedly an argument for constitutional protection, it isn’t filed in any court proceeding and won’t have any US judge issue a ruling on its merits . ...