Will the past catch up with presidential candidate Brock Pierce? | Interview

Cointelegraph reporter Turner Wright recently interviewed presidential candidate Brock Pierce about his ongoing campaign. Pierce is a former child actor known for his roles in the Mighty Ducks and First Kid. He is also a former director of the Bitcoin foundation and a co founder of Block 1, Tether, USDT and Blockchain Capital. In 1998, Pierce established Digital Entertainment Network with partners Mark Collins Rector and Chad Shackley. Two years later, three former Den employees filed lawsuits against Pierce alleging that he provided them with drugs and pressured them for underage sex. The Hollywood Reporter stated that these allegations against Pierce were later recanted, with one plaintiff convicted of fraud and two witnesses testifying that they had been offered payment to provide false testimony. Shackley, Collins, Rector and Pierce left for Spain in 2000 to start Internet Gaming Entertainment. They were arrested at their Marbella home by Interpol in 2002, where police found thousands of images of child pornography. Pierce denied awareness of these images while Pierce and Shackley were quickly released. Collins Rector was extradited back to the US in 2004 and found guilty of five counts of transporting minors for sex. Despite Pierce's repeated denial of criminal involvement, the story has followed him into his crypto ventures. He was elected director of the Bitcoin foundation in May 2014, but several members resigned, reportedly over concerns about Pearce. He was also one of the co founders of Block 1. But after a segment mentioning the Den allegations aired on John Oliver's Last week, tonight the the firm announced Pierce would be stepping down. Pierce first announced his candidacy for US president in a July 5 tweet stating he would run as an independent singer and entrepreneur. Akon recently joined Pierce's campaign team as its chief strategist. After four attempts, we finally managed to track down Pierce for the interview. Take a look.

Hi, my name is Turner Wright with cointelegraph, and I'm going to be speaking with Brock Pierce. Well, yeah, let's just jump right into it. I've prepared in every way I can by watching the mighty ducks, like 70 times. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of Sid Bad, so no first kid for me. Sorry about that. But let's focus on your presidential what would you, as president, what would you do to help make crypto more mainstream to foster mass adoption?

Well, I'm not sure it's the president's job to promote cryptocurrency. You know, I think that. I mean, the thing that I think is most relevant from a. Well, there's two things that the government is doing or has a role to play in this one is clearly regulators. Our regulators have created an unpleasant environment where entrepreneurs and innovation is leaving the country. The US historically has been the capital of innovation and that status is at risk. Our regulators are stifling innovation by creating an ambiguous sort of environment rather than a clear sandbox in which to innovate. I mean we, I mean most of the people that I see you know as someone that you know has historically been an investor, a mentor, a founder, advisor, etc. A lot of startups have been moving to Europe, A lot of startups have been moving to Asia. A lot of startups have been moving to Latin America. And other than the, other than Wyoming, Wyoming is clearly become the capital of our industry in the US which is really amazing to see that. Who would have thought Wyoming of all places would become the main jurisdiction that everyone in the blockchain space, this is where everyone incorporates today which does go to show how quickly things can turn around. If I had been asked a couple of years ago, what were the odds that Wyoming would be the state leading our industry? I would have said, I would have said as close to 0% as I could get. You would had a very hard time convincing me that Wyoming would be leading the charge. And it would be where probably 90% of all innovative companies in this field are incorporating. I mean I would have thought that would be, it would have been inconceivable to me. But it does go to show that with good leadership, forward thinking leadership, with visionary leadership, great things can happen. And so I'd say one thing the US needs to do is make sure that regulators are doing their jobs, which is to protect consumers and prevent whatever bad activities that they are there to prevent. But clearly it's not to move innovation outside of the country. We're living through the fourth industrial revolution and there will be winners and there will be losers and it's America's to lose. And that's one half of it. The other piece is the US dollar. Having been one of the founders of Tether, I think that that's clearly it's having a big impact in the world right now in terms of governments learning from that experiment and seeing ways to technology enable their currency. Tether is doing $10 to $15 trillion a year of transactional volume. Those are big numbers. Those are very real numbers. Tether might be the most important innovation around fiat currency since the advent of fiat currency. It's clearly one of them. Governments around the world have started piloting projects so seeing how technology could enhance their currencies and China in Particular with the Digital One project that is built off of the Tether framework is potentially going to threaten the US Dollar's world reserve status. That's relevant. That's relevant to our government.

Of course, you're right when it comes to the regulators, but things that there are like. Let's talk about things a little more within your purview. You recently tweeted about solutions to save the Post Office. Even though it is kind of this old school, it's not something we think about when we think of technological innovation. But are you in favor of bailing out the Post Office right now?

No, I'm not sure. I mean, it's a good question. Obviously the Post Office has played a very important role in enabling Americans to communicate. Email clearly has had a huge impact on our basic ability to communicate and certainly made it much faster and more efficient and cost effective. Right now the question is, what is the role for the Post Office going forward? There's still a lot of Americans that rely on low cost mail, which, you know, a stamp. And there is still the need to. We still rely on paper, paper ballots, for example. You know, you know, will there be. Will USPS be around in 50 years? Will there be any need for it? Yeah. No. I mean, my guess is no. I would hope by 2024 we've figured out how to enable blockchain based voting. For example, there's five states in the US that are currently testing blockchain based voting. Then the question is, is this an area where the government still needs to be involved, considering that we have FedEx and UPS and, you know, I don't have a definitive answer on what the right answer is. Clearly it's a hot topic right now because we're seeing mailboxes disappearing, really interesting photos. The timing for their disappearance is suspect. Clearly people are talking about this as a. Is this being done as a way to suppress the vote? You know, some might argue that this is being done to protect the. Protect us from fraudulent voting.

You have referenced 2024 a number of times rather than just focusing on this year's campaign? And I ask this as a completely serious question. Don't take offense to it, but do you intend to win or do you just want to make a statement other.

Than by an act of God? I don't think there is any way to win in 2020 though. You don't have to win to become president. You don't have to win the election to become president. This is something that most people don't understand. And when I talk to like the top sort of political strategists, advisors and people, they're like, what? I'm like, well, I'm a gamer. I study the rules and I study history. And when you actually understand the rules of our election and you study history, you will become aware of a couple things. So first of all, you don't need to win the election to become president. So the way that our general election works is it runs off. To win the election, you need to win a majority. The key word being majority of the electoral College vote. A majority. So in a two party race, what happens if there were a tie? So there's 538 electoral college votes, you need 270 or more to win. If there was a tie, it would be 269 to 269, meaning no one got a majority. This is what happened in the HBO Show Veep Season 5. It's also what happened in the year 1800. Thomas Jefferson versus Aaron Burr. Now, if a third party such as myself were to win a single state, it becomes possible that no one wins the election. If a third party such as again ourselves, were to win three states, it becomes likely that no one wins the election. So I'm not trying to win the election, I'm trying to win three states so that no one wins the election.

Yeah. Why? Why would you want no one to win the election? Okay, the question I had attended intended, despite winning, would you want to be president? Or is this just intended as a burn the system approach?

No, no, I'm. I am running with a strategy to end up in the White House in January. And I'm laying the groundwork, I'm laying the foundation to build, to build a coalition across the country to rebirth the independence party in 2022. It is our intentions to run 100 independent candidates up and down the ticket throughout the country, local, state, federal elections. And I intend to run in 2024 again as an independent with the objective of winning the election.

Okay, let's talk about some of the people you might have in your campaign. We've learned about a few on the Democratic ticket this week, as well as Republicans. But you've previously had a former advisor to Trump, Steve Bannon, who you called your right hand man for seven years. Is he helping at all to strategize?

No, I didn't involve Steve in any way whatsoever, though he could have been very useful. Steve and I worked together in my 20s, back in the mid-2000s, and I'm running as an independent candidate. And Steve obviously is core to the Trump campaign wouldn't have been. I'm not sure he would have been willing or interested, nor would it have been appropriate, I think, for this campaign.

Inappropriate now. I mean, if he were available, rather, would you still think he would be a person you would want on your campaign?

Well, he's. I think he's busy with China, principally right now. And it was my understanding that Trump was asking him to come on as CEO of the Trump campaign. And so I don't know what's going on there. And so I can't even give you a good answer because I haven't been in communications with him. No, no. I don't know what role he's playing in the current election. And I'm certain he's playing a role of some sort.

I was speaking purely hypothetically. If it's like he has no obligations, he's out there, would he be the kind of person you would want on your campaign?

I mean, he's a brilliant political strategist, and a number of people would argue that he was responsible for Trump getting elected. Certainly he played a role in that, I think most people would agree, a substantial role. And so the answer is, yeah, conceivably, as long as I had someone similar from the left. I try to do everything in a very balanced fashion. And I don't know what Steve's opinion is on third parties. Right. He's presently aligned with the Republican Party. I'm very focused on a political revolution, a political rise, to rise above partisan politics. So I don't know what Steve's opinion is. I can give you hypothetical opinions based upon if Steve thought this and that, but you have to go through sort of a tree of questions. I actually don't know where Steve stands on this stuff because I've not consulted him or asked him.

That was not the angle. It was general temperament.

Well, I believe that we should carry, you know, we should aspire to be as graceful in life as we possibly can. You know, I'm not perfect, nor are any of us, but, you know, I aspire to carry myself with grace.

Do you have any regrets in your life?

Regrets? I'm not sure that the word regret is the word that I would use. I've made mistakes, lots of mistakes. I take responsibility for the mistakes that I make, and I try to learn lessons from them so as not to repeat, you know, those mistakes. I mean, life is a Life wouldn't be very interesting if we didn't make mistakes, you know, part of, part of, part of the process. And so, you know, I'm Happy with the person that I am today. I feel like I'm doing lots of good things in the world, helping lots of people, making the world a better place. You know, I believe in, you know, make. I believe I'm making a positive impact. And I think there's a fair amount of evidence to support that.

So you've described some of what I'm talking about as an old narrative that people can't get beyond certain aspects of your life. But it was reported several years ago, during your time with Den, that you paid $21,000 in settlements regarding allegations of sexual assault. Are you concerned at all that those previous allegations, despite you calling them an old narrative, are going to affect your presidential vote?

What do you mean by a few years ago? Several years ago when I was 16 and 17.

Correct.

So 20, 24 years ago. This is back in 1997, 1998, 1999. I never gave anyone a settlement, so I think your information is incorrect. There was. All of that stemmed from a single lawsuit. And all three of the plaintiffs apologized and admitted that nothing ever happened, and they were sorry, and they dismissed their first two cases. The third plaintiff, the lawyer, refused to file the paperwork to dismiss the case without getting his expenses paid. And the third plaintiff, who apologized in front of many witnesses and said that none of these things ever happened, couldn't get the lawyer to file the paperwork. And so I paid his lawyer's out of pocket expenses to dismiss the case. I wouldn't call that a settlement.

Legal fees and whatnot?

No, not legal fees. Court filing fees, gas, you know, out of pocket expenses. Legal fees normally would be in the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, depending upon the case.

But one of your party did, in fact, plead guilty. Mark Collins Richter. Do you still have any connections with him?

No, of course not. He was my business partner when I was 16, 17, and 18.

Well, so, going a little bit back to the crypto space and just about some of your goals. Some. Let's combine the definition of win versus being in the White House. Public figures like Matty Greenspan have called your campaign having a snowball's chance in the Mojave Desert. What do you say to something like that? Even assuming he's thinking of winning in the traditional sense, but assuming he's had snowball chance in the Mojave Desert to get into the White House.

I've told you my strategy. It's pretty clear.

All right. What kind of temperament and character would you believe you would carry forward as president? Because obviously we're leaving A very contentious president behind in terms. The post office is just the most recent example. But how would you carry yourself?

Well, probably the same way that I carry myself in life. You try to do that with treating people with dignity, respect, facilitate conversation, bring opposing parties to the table, make sure that everybody's voices are heard, to have vision, to inspire, to educate, find a path forward.

All right, fair enough. And one of the other issues we've been talking about, you stated the mental health issue is still very real. That was one of your tweets a while ago. I'm not sure if you said any interviews. I apologize. But what are your thoughts on Kanye's presidential bid and run as he is technically the competition?

Well, I'm not running against Kanye. I'm running with Kanye. I'm a big supporter of anyone running as a third party candidate. And, you know, hopefully Kanye is inspiring lots of people into recognizing that they may have a future in politics. You know, we need more people with a diverse background represented in government. And so I hope that Kanye's running helps people recognize that maybe they could be on their local city council. Maybe they could be mayor one day. You know, I think we need more entrepreneurs, more computer scientists, more engineers, more business owners, more farmers. I think we need a government that is more representative of the people.

All right, Brock Pierce, thank you for speaking with me today.

Cointelegraph, like subscribe and Hodl.

Sam.