Challenge: Get a presidential candidate to accept bitcoin donations

[PIO]

I would love to see a candidate accept bitcoin-donations but I can already see the headlines:
"******* accepts terrorist-currency donations!" 

[tymothy]

the ultimate irony here is that in order for it to be a violation of the FEC regs, the government would have to acknowledge it as MONEY

Not necessarily. The FEC requires disclosure of non-monetary things as well. So long as the thing has VALUE and is donated to a campaign, it generally needs to be reported, with some select exceptions. If you gave Ron Paul a rides in your private jet for three months to help him get around the country, he has to disclose that and report the value of the flights. So if someone donated 1000 BTC to Ron Paul and it wasn't reported, it could still be a violation of campaign rules even if the FEC didn't acknowledge Bitcoins as money; the FEC would only have to acknowledge Bitcoins as "a thing of value" whose value exceeded reporting requirements.


"( (A) The term “contribution” includes—
(i) any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office;"

[tymothy]

I think if you sent the Paul campaign a flash drive to their donation address with a wallet.dat file and a letter explaining what bitcoins were (stressing the fact that it's not backed by the Federal Reserve), the current market value of the bitcoins, your contact information and instructions for installing the client, loading the new wallet file and redeeming them into USDs, they'd probably accept them. There's a chance even that Paul himself might hear about the currency and mention it at a debate.

I don't have Bitcoins to spare, but the address is:

Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Committee
845 Plantation Drive
Clute, TX 77531

[cloud9]

I would love to see a candidate accept bitcoin-donations but I can already see the headlines:
"******* accepts terrorist-currency donations!" 

What is it with some btc user's self-fulfilling, self-dooming, prophesies?

Bitcoin is but a digital good, owned decentrally, securely, manufactured non-effortlessly, with current liquidity due to widespread demand - thus having currency attributes.  Other uses includes cryptographic applications like encrypting a message VERY, VERY securely to someone sharing a wallet.dat file and using each key in the wallet.dat file as a one-time password; or signing in to a web service securely by sharing a wallet.dat file with the website.  You can even sign something with your wallet.dat keys and it can be publicly authenticated by the bitcoin blockchain that you as key owner/holder has signed it.

[Synaesthesia]

I find terrorists generally prefer good old fashioned USD 

[Horkabork]

I think I would have better luck getting candidates to accept Pogs, Pokemon cards, and Magic Cards as campaign donations.

Hell, they'd be more likely to take World of Warcraft money, because that's a huge group of voters and doing so, if legal, wouldn't hurt anyone or be seen as very controversial. Also, they'd appear hip, young, with it, cool, groovy, hep, radical, and bodacious.

There are ways around contribution bookkeeping issues as well, such as donations to fundraisers thrown by 527 groups rather than directly to the candidate (I believe, but could be wrong, that 527s have no rules on who can contribute and have no upper limits). Your money doesn't go to the candidate, but it'll probably "buy" the same amount of money or more at the fundraiser or at least can offset money that the candidate might instead spend.

[DamienBlack]

I think I would have better luck getting candidates to accept Pogs, Pokemon cards, and Magic Cards as campaign donations.

Hell, they'd be more likely to take World of Warcraft money, because that's a huge group of voters and doing so, if legal, wouldn't hurt anyone or be seen as very controversial. Also, they'd appear hip, young, with it, cool, groovy, hep, radical, and bodacious.

There are ways around contribution bookkeeping issues as well, such as donations to fundraisers thrown by 527 groups rather than directly to the candidate (I believe, but could be wrong, that 527s have no rules on who can contribute and have no upper limits). Your money doesn't go to the candidate, but it'll probably "buy" the same amount of money or more at the fundraiser or at least can offset money that the candidate might instead spend.

I predict that the 2020 race will have at least one pseudo-viable candidate accepting bitcoins. Mark it.

[qualia8]

I think I would have better luck getting candidates to accept Pogs, Pokemon cards, and Magic Cards as campaign donations.

Hell, they'd be more likely to take World of Warcraft money, because that's a huge group of voters and doing so, if legal, wouldn't hurt anyone or be seen as very controversial. Also, they'd appear hip, young, with it, cool, groovy, hep, radical, and bodacious.

There are ways around contribution bookkeeping issues as well, such as donations to fundraisers thrown by 527 groups rather than directly to the candidate (I believe, but could be wrong, that 527s have no rules on who can contribute and have no upper limits). Your money doesn't go to the candidate, but it'll probably "buy" the same amount of money or more at the fundraiser or at least can offset money that the candidate might instead spend.

I predict that the 2020 race will have at least one pseudo-viable candidate accepting bitcoins. Mark it.

I predict that the 2020 race will have at least one artificial candidate (see the lead singer for AKB48) accepting bitcoins.