1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

Tonight the president signed an executive order creating a strategic reserve of cryptocurrency. The normal way for a strategic reserve to be created is through legislation when it become apparent that it is necessary for the good of the country to stockpile rare and useful material. He is circumventing Congress yet again. Gold, oil, medical supplies, things that may be scarce in an emergency situation. Thinks that have value. Those are things that belong in a stockpile. Cryptocurrency is not rare. It is useful only in rare situations, and usually associated with illegal activity or people who are gambling with their livelihoods. Cryptocurrency fluctuates in value so wildly that any stockpile is likely to lose value more often than it gains. How does one protect a digital stockpile? Recently there was a theft of $1.5 billon dollars worth of cryptocurrency. Who holds the keys to a particular cryptocurrency? Not the federal government. Sam Bankman-Fried embezzled almost all the funds in one cryptocurrency exchange. What would protect a government stockpile? The risk is too high and there is no reward. What backs the value of cryptocurrency? Nothing other than interested parties. The reason cryptocurrency is seen as valuable is because it is hard to mine the coins. Today, our smartphones are faster than the supercomputer of the late 1990s. How long before mining bitcoins is so trivial that a strategic cryptocurrency reserve is worthless? Gold backs the currency of the United States. We have a reserve of gold. That is enough. Write or back a bill blocking the creation of a cryptocurrency exchange.