Byron Tau at Politico.com reports that the Federal Elections Commission is preparing to adopt a new rule that will allow political campaigns to collect donations in bitcoins. They will be required to convert bitcoins to dollars in order to spend on behalf of campaigns.
According to the proposal, the currency will count as an “in-kind” contribution to a campaign — like a stock or bond. The FEC will not consider them currency.
“Because Bitcoins are neither the currency of any country nor negotiable instruments, Bitcoins are not ‘money’ under commission regulations,” the committee concludes. “Therefore, a political committee that receives Bitcoin contributions may not treat them as monetary contributions.”
Already one candidate has announced on Independent Political Report that he will accept contributions in bitcoins. Now he will be required to report such contributions, if he reaches a reporting threshold.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/bitcoin-campaign-donations-draft-rule-99566.html#ixzz2k0rdLBbI
Yep. But still better than nothing.
paulie said: “Andy is right that it should have been promoted more but it’s better than nothing.”
The poor promotion of the Libertarian Party accepting Bitcoins is much like the pro-promotion of the LP in general.
I’ve long thought that the Libertarian Party has a great product, it is just that the marketing for it sucks.
https://blockchain.info/charts/market-price
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/11/07/worlds-first-bitcoin-atm-processes-100k-in-transactions-in-its-first-8-days/
This will be good for LP, I think bitcoin users will be more favorable to LP candidates than the average person. At least I hope so. http://www.lp.org/ has a visible contribute with bitcoin link on the front page now also, which is a good step. Andy is right that it should have been promoted more but it’s better than nothing.
This also extends it to candidates
“George Phillies November 8, 2013 at 1:38 pm
The LNC is already — or so I have read — accepting them.”
Yes, the LNC did start accepting donations in Bitcoins after Starchild took my suggestion to accept them to the LNC, and it actually got implemented. Unfortunately, the other part of my suggestion along with accepting them was to do a promotion to publicize that the LNC was accepting Bitcoins, and to reach out to the Bitcoins community to entice more of them to donate to the LP, and this has not been implemented.
So yes, the LNC accepts Bitcoins, but hardly anyone knows about it due to poor promotion.
The Bitcoin donations are actually processed through a company called Bitpay which converts them into Federal Reserve Notes.
The LNC is already — or so I have read — accepting them.
If I strike it rich I may have to give DWP enough in donations to see what would happen, if anything.
The odds are very low that Darryl Perry will raise enough – in either bitcoins or federal reserve notes – to reach the threshold for reporting to the Federal Elections Commission.
If he does reach the threshold, that is between him and the FEC. I certainly would not try to enforce FEC regulations. I only report them.
LOL, Thomas.
Defiine “required.”
The FEC may want Darryl Perry to report Bitcoin contributions, but if I know Darryl, his response will be that people in hell want icewater, too, and that the FEC should want in one and shit in the other and see which hand gets full first.