An Experiment Incubated at Harvard to Resolve the Global Debt Crisis (Part 4 of 7)

Faye’s Lens: From a New York Winter to a Nashville Summer

Faye recalled how Professor Han described two sharply contrasting scenes:

New York, December 2017. In the bitter cold, at a breakfast with Donald Trump, he handed over his book Quantum Wealth View—a seed of the new world, perhaps ignored.

Nashville, Summer 2024. On stage at the Global Bitcoin Conference, Trump’s booming voice shook the hall: “America will become the superpower of Bitcoin.“

4. Paradigm Shift: A Power Holder of the Old World Turns

Between 2015 and 2017, through early-stage investments in Ethereum and NEO, Han unexpectedly accumulated some Bitcoin. This sudden wealth inspired a simple thought: to use resources from the new world to contribute to the new world.

At that time, in December 2017, Dr. Xue of Harvard Kennedy School returned from the U.S. with news: then-President Donald Trump planned a breakfast event, and Xue had connections through Trump’s former Chinese-American chief of staff—there was a chance to meet the President in person and present a book.

Han’s first reaction was immediate: he had just co-edited and published China’s first book on Bitcoin and blockchain, Quantum Wealth View. This was the opportunity—a chance to plant the seed of the new world’s information directly into the core of old-world power. Even if Trump never read it, the act itself was symbolic. His impression of Trump then was of a man skeptical, even hostile, toward Bitcoin.

Han told Xue: “I want to attend this breakfast. Please arrange a seat close to the podium.” At that time, Bitcoin prices were at a peak, giving Han the illusion of commanding vast resources.

The Encounter in New York

Xue quickly secured arrangements. Han flew to New York and stayed at the Harvard Club. To his surprise, over several days, leaders of the Chinese-American community—business association presidents, accounting firm heads—people once distant and unapproachable—sought him out and hosted banquets in his honor. He was overwhelmed.

At these dinners, Han noticed a poised yet silent Chinese-American man. He asked Xue who he was. “That’s Trump’s former chief of staff,” Xue explained. “He’ll take you to meet the President tomorrow.” A third-generation immigrant, the man spoke little Chinese but adored Chinese food and was deeply rooted in the community.

The morning of the breakfast was bitterly cold. Outside the venue, the scene was tense, even absurd. Across the street, protesters clashed noisily with drums and banners. To block the noise, organizers had hired fleets of sand-laden trucks to barricade the street, a physical wall of silence. In the freezing wind, long queues of elites waited for security checks. People accustomed to VIP entrances, titans of wealth, now shivered like commoners.

Han, however, followed the former chief of staff through a special passage. The queued tycoons cast angry stares—rule-breakers! But the man walked tall, unfazed. The passage was guarded by Secret Service agents, Black men every few steps. He embraced each one warmly, calling them “bro.” Together, they walked through without hindrance.

At the end of the passage, Han saw Trump. In person, the President appeared taller, larger than in photos—physically imposing to an ordinary man from the East. In the brief, crowded encounter, there was no time to explain Bitcoin’s ties to quantum mechanics. Han extended his book Quantum Wealth View. A quick-handed aide whisked it away before it touched Trump’s fingers. A handshake, a photo—like a fleeting snapshot.

Figure 3. December 2017, in New York, attending Trump’s breakfast and presenting him with the book.

When the breakfast began, Trump, seeing the front tables filled almost entirely with Chinese-American faces, was surprised. He joked to the distant American business elites: “Next time, you’d better try harder—don’t let the Chinese take all the front seats.” The hall burst into laughter. The next day, many Chinese-American newspapers ran this story on their front pages.

Han knew the book had not been read—it was in Chinese. Indeed, after leaving office in 2021, Trump still called Bitcoin “a scam” and a threat to dollar hegemony.

Han was unsurprised. “A new paradigm takes time. One meeting cannot shift it.“

The Shift in Nashville

Fast forward to Summer 2024. Nashville, Tennessee—birthplace of country music—hosted the Global Bitcoin Conference. The air carried a nostalgic melody. Han remembered his younger days teaching in Qinghai, nights filled with cigarette smoke and cassette tapes of American country songs.

Then came the explosive news: Donald Trump, campaigning for re-election, would attend and deliver the keynote.

Han sat in the audience, dozens of rows back, watching Trump walk on stage. He looked little changed from seven years earlier, still radiant with energy—remarkable, considering he had just survived an assassination attempt.

Through the speakers, his voice rang—slightly hoarse, but unwavering:

“If elected again, I will make the United States the global capital of cryptocurrency and a Bitcoin superpower.”

“The United States will retain its more than 210,000 Bitcoins as a core national strategic reserve—never to be sold.”

“We will support domestic Bitcoin mining, ensuring the remaining Bitcoins are all made in America.”

Each sentence was a bombshell, exploding in the hall and in Han’s mind.

Why had Trump’s stance on Bitcoin undergone such a complete 180-degree reversal? Han admitted he might never know. Perhaps Trump himself had not changed—perhaps it was the massive, shifting field of forces around him. When the gravity of a new thing grows strong enough, even the power centers of the old world must adjust their orbits to it, not the other way around.

One thing was certain: a new era, a paradigm-shifting threshold, was at hand. Han immediately booked a flight to Boston. There, at Harvard, Dr. Xue and colleagues awaited him.

Faye’s Notes

In her margin notes, Faye underlined:

A paradigm shift does not occur because individuals “change their minds,” but because external gravity grows irresistible, forcing the powerful to turn.

Trump’s pivot was not just a campaign promise, but the old world dragged into a new orbit by a stronger story.

Suspense

Closing her journal, Faye posed the next question:

If even the helmsman of the old world now yields to Bitcoin’s gravity—what comes next?

Preview | Episode 5: Reflections by the Charles River — Narrative Economics and the Power of Wealth Stories.

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