Professional-crypto American businessman Brian Rose is operating for London mayor once more.
Londoners go to the polls on Could 2 to elect their subsequent mayor, with incumbent Sadiq Khan and Susan Corridor as main candidates.
Rose beforehand stood for election in 2021, securing 1.2% of the vote, however expects to enhance on that tally this time round.
Rose spoke with Cointelegraph to clarify why he determined to face once more in 2024.
“I like London a lot. I’ve been there for over 20 years. This metropolis’s given me all the pieces: my enterprise, my objective. My two youngsters have been born right here. I plan to be buried within the metropolis,” mentioned Rose. “So it’s my method of giving again.”
Rose, a fierce advocate for freedom of speech, conducts long-form interviews on his “Digital Freedom Platform,” drawing comparisons with main podcaster Joe Rogan. His company cowl subjects equivalent to politics, wellness, self-improvement and wealth. Lots of Rose’s interview topics hail from the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency, informing his political outlook.
Rose informed Cointelegraph that the present management of the UK isn’t doing sufficient to advertise the crypto business.
“I actually consider we might push London as a crypto-first metropolis and herald huge quantities of enterprise and business,” mentioned Rose. “Sadly, we simply don’t have that proper now, and the prime minister is paying crypto a bunch of lip service.”
In 2022, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated his intention to make the U.K. “a worldwide hub for crypto asset know-how,” however in 2024, proof of progress towards this aim stays scant.
Rose argues that Sunak just isn’t the one one underperforming. The entrepreneur additionally believes the Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA) — which regulates cryptocurrency within the U.Ok. — is misfiring.
“The FCA and the opposite organizations are actually pushing firms out, and that’s a disgrace,” mentioned Rose.
Blockchain use instances and London coin
Rose tells Cointelegraph that his affiliation with Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency is longstanding.
London Actual recurrently options high-profile names from the cryptocurrency world. The entrepreneur explains how he beforehand attracted large names to interview:
“I began that includes the highest 100 individuals in crypto, they usually mentioned ‘sure’ as a result of I had two million YouTube subscribers. That’s most likely the largest channel they’d ever be on,” he mentioned.
“I might have Michael Saylor, Raoul Pal, Yat Siu and a lot of the layer-1 founders — Justin Solar, Hedera Hashgraph, Avax — they usually taught me concerning the blockchain.”
“I had Max Keiser on my present in 2013 speaking about Bitcoin. That’s after I purchased my first Bitcoin and went down the rabbit gap. I’d later have Andreas Antonopoulos on my present in 2015, ‘17 and ‘19. Some individuals name him the Bitcoin Jesus,” mentioned Rose.
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Rose is additional pushing a coverage agenda that’s heavy on cryptocurrency and blockchain. Certainly one of his proposals to win over Londeners is the creation of a “London coin.”
In response to Rose, the token would put the equal of £100 into the palms of each London resident, sourcing liquidity from a tax on the standard monetary sector.
“We need to inject it with 1 billion kilos of liquidity, with a one-off 1% tax from the banks, who make all of their cash within the Metropolis of London and doubtless don’t pay something again,” mentioned Rose.
“Then, what we might do is put that within the wallets and palms of each man, girl and little one and use them to stake that for extra yields, permitting them to pay for public transport and different providers with that and that alone. If we will make that work over the subsequent 12 months, it might actually be copied by so many different cities.”
Rose added, “I need one thing tremendous practical that’ll have DeFi practicalities in there as effectively. In order that’s the plan for the London coin.”
Blockchain for democracy
For Rose, blockchain goes past monetary purposes. The electoral hopeful additionally advocates utilizing blockchain to safe the voting system, citing a 2005 Ipsos examine that confirmed “two in 5 British voters are involved about election fraud.”
Whereas that examine could also be a little bit lengthy within the tooth, newer occasions in London are unlikely to have improved voter confidence. In 2015, Lutfur Rahman, the London mayor of the Tower Hamlets borough in East London, was found responsible of election fraud. Rahman was ordered to pay £250,000, and the election was re-run. Rahman was excluded from standing that 12 months.
In March 2022, Communities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Metropolitan Police and the Electoral Fee, expressing considerations that voting fraud might happen once more. In Could 2022, Rahman was reelected to Tower Hamlets.
Rose sees the same downside throughout the Atlantic, pointing to an erosion in voter belief after the final United States presidential elections.
“After the 2020 elections, particularly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I heard lots of people say there hasn’t been a good election in that metropolis for 100 years,” mentioned Rose.
In an April 25 press launch, Rose mentioned blockchain “can assist the citizens see and interrogate voting, in addition to securing the electoral course of, offering a everlasting, accessible and dependable report.”
Relating to London elections, Rose informed Cointelegraph, “I’m not accusing anybody of election fraud, however I’m saying that the job of London Elects is to make the British public assured that their vote issues.”
London Elects is the physique answerable for the mayoral elections in London.
Run-ins with Ofcom and YouTube
Rose, the host of the longstanding London Actual podcast, just isn’t with out critics or controversy.
Actually, a lot of Rose’s politics are intertwined together with his podcast and the occasions surrounding its broadcast.
In 2020, throughout the U.Ok.’s COVID-19 lockdown, Rose broadcast an episode of London Actual that includes skilled conspiracy theorist David Icke. Icke is greatest identified for popularizing the idea that the U.Ok. royal household are shapeshifting lizards from outer area (or one other dimension).
Free speech advocate Rose informed Cointelegraph, “I don’t agree with all the pieces that my company say by any means, however I consider they’ve the correct to say it.”
In 2020, Icke supplied a lot of conspiracies relating to COVID-19. On London Actual, Icke blamed an electromagnetic “soup of radiation toxicity” for compromising the immune methods of the aged and mentioned a cult was utilizing the virus to create an “Orwellian world state” enabled by synthetic intelligence.
The U.Ok.’s communications regulator, Ofcom, received 48 complaints concerning the London Actual broadcast.
“We didn’t incite violence. We didn’t incite overthrows of governments. It was actually simply two individuals speaking. However I assume that was thought of harmful,” Rose mentioned.
On the podcast, Rose resisted or outright disagreed with Icke’s theories.
“I do consider within the science, and I do consider in vaccines,” he informed Icke on the time.
Regardless of this, Rose was censored, and the printed was faraway from YouTube. Ofcom later dominated that this system “had the potential to trigger vital hurt to viewers in London throughout the Coronavirus disaster.”
Digital Freedom Platform
The censorship of his YouTube channel set Rose on a path to creating the “Digital Freedom Platform,” an internet site that hosts London Actual broadcasts. He now not uploads to YouTube, telling Cointelegraph that he was completely deplatformed eight months in the past.
Rose’s followers crowdfunded the Digital Freedom Platform to the tune of $1 million. Through the increase, Rose said that $200,000 could be earmarked for the applying of blockchain know-how.
Cointelegraph requested Rose how that blockchain integration was progressing.
“The issue is that placing video on the blockchain remains to be not doable,” Rose defined. “There are a few firms in Dubai proper now that I’m speaking to, however proper now, from a bandwidth perspective, it’s simply practically unimaginable.”
He added, “I’d like to do it as a result of we proceed to be censored.”
In an interview with PoliticsJoe in April 2021, Rose gave another excuse for not implementing blockchain into the Digital Freedom Platform. He said he’d “already spent the cash” on different facets of the platform, together with livestreams.
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When Cointelegraph spoke with Rose, the broadcaster was in Myrtle Seaside, South Carolina, selling his documentary movie We Will Not Be Silenced. The documentary facilities on the censorship of London Actual in 2020 and stars David Icke, with whom Rose has fostered an ever-closer working relationship lately.
On the premiere, Rose mentioned, “Earlier than I used to be an advocate without spending a dime speech, however now I’m a fanatic […] they selected the flawed white boy to f*ck with.”
Rose tells Cointelegraph he plans to spend the ultimate few days of the marketing campaign again in London, aiming to safe each final vote he can. Ought to the entrepreneur seize 5 % of the vote or extra, it might strengthen the case for Rose to be included in future televised mayoral debates — if he determined to face once more.
London goes to the polls on Could 2.
