As Aristotle quotes, “Man is political by nature”. Each and every one of us has opinions and beliefs and that’s where the true essence of democracy lies. With majority of politicians, globally, raising concerns on the ‘Gambling of Bitcoin’, a few believe it’s rapidly changing the way currencies are seen, while a minority (of libertarians) see it as means of deregulating currencies.
One thing that’s easily grasped by these politicians is money, be it cash or credit, donations flow every election year. This time, there’s a new entrant in the arena: cryptocurrencies. Political Bitcoin donations are gaining traction as everybody wants a piece from that virtual pie.
Every political campaign is usually looking for additional money to place their prospect in office. As tradition continues to depend on cash donations, the new guard is opening up its crypto wallets to accept Bitcoin donations.
One such politician is Austin Petersen, a Republican party candidate from Missouri. He received over 24 Bitcoin donations, and one ($4,500) being the biggest donation in US Federal Elections history.
While talking to the ex-Libertarian Party's nomination for President of the United States, Austin, said, “Bitcoin represents the modern version of the type of monetary policy that liberty advocates have been proposing for years. As someone who strongly believes in deregulating money, it was a natural fit for me to accept Bitcoin for my campaign and I'm more than delighted to be the US record holder for the largest donation to a candidate in US history.”
Commenting on his future plans he said, “As the next senator from Missouri, I plan on continuing to push for reforms of our banking system, and to do all I can as a federal representative to protect cryptocurrency from regulations and government interference.”
The first presidential campaign to accept Bitcoin donations was initiated by Rand Paul back in 2016. This was approved by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for campaigns to accept cryptocurrency back in 2014. However, the donations are said to be limited by $100 per person and the necessary information (name, address, company, etc.) were to be accumulated as well.
Till now the most Bitcoin donations the FEC has recorded is $66,000, received by Democrat candidate Brian Forde between August and September last year in his congressional campaign.
Currently, the amount of campaigns and political action committees accepting cryptocurrency donations is merely four. However, that number will grow when more candidates record their data with the FEC for next reporting deadline.
As a younger generation runs for public office, they'll be far more liberal to cryptocurrencies than the old guard in office. Be prepared to see more people advertising their wallet addresses soon.