[2018-11-03]Most American Voters Consider Cryptos as Fiat Currency, Survey Shows

[Vladdirescu87]

Digital currency has widely expanded and found a lot of applications in different areas, including the political sector. For example, cryptos can be donated in federal elections and citizens insist on treating such donations equally to those made in fiat currency.

“60 percent of eligible voters believed that it should be legal to donate cryptocurrency in federal elections under the same rules that apply to donations in U.S. dollars.”

Read the details in the article of Coinidol dot com, the world blockchain news outlet: https://coinidol.com/most-american-voters-consider-cryptos-as-fiat-currency/

[Theb]

As far as I know the Federal Election Committee (FEC) only prohibits contributions coming from foreign nationals and corporations but they are not strict with what kind of contributions you give to the candidate may it be an item or service as long as the value of what you are giving is within the limits the FEC has given to a particular candidate or party. The only thing I can think of when not allowing cryptocurrencies as donation is when the FEC thinks it is a threat on their current kinds of "prohibited donations", as long as the money is traceable with reference this shouldn't be an issue for their part.

[pixie85]

Cryptocurrencies are items of value and should be treated as such. If you donate a car or a painting to someone it's equal to a donation of the same value in fiat money. It should be obvious that all donations should be treated like fiat donations. Do we really have to ask people what they think about obvious things? We should rather ask those who think it shouldn't be treated as equal why that is.

[squatter]

As far as I know the Federal Election Committee (FEC) only prohibits contributions coming from foreign nationals and corporations but they are not strict with what kind of contributions you give to the candidate may it be an item or service as long as the value of what you are giving is within the limits the FEC has given to a particular candidate or party. The only thing I can think of when not allowing cryptocurrencies as donation is when the FEC thinks it is a threat on their current kinds of "prohibited donations", as long as the money is traceable with reference this shouldn't be an issue for their part.

It seems like the FEC is treating Bitcoin contributions like any other contribution -- not restricted like anonymous/cash contributions. That's surprising to me as I doubt the FEC is doing blockchain analysis to rule out prohibited fund sources like foreign nationals. In an audit scenario, checks and credit cards leave a much easier paper trail to analyze, especially since banks cooperate with federal regulators. That's why cash contributions are restricted like this:

Cash Contributions
Contributions of cash (currency) which in the aggregate exceed $100 from one person are
prohibited. If a committee receives a cash contribution exceeding $100, it must promptly return
the excess amount to the contributor. If an anonymous cash contribution over $50 is received,
the amount in excess of $50 must be used for some purpose unrelated to federal elections.
11 CFR 110.4(c).