Ireland to Ban Political Donations in Cryptocurrencies

[hatshepsut93]

Source

Ireland plans to prohibit cryptocurrency donations to political parties amid fears of Russian election interference in an upcoming set of amendments to its Electoral Reform Bill 2022.

“The appalling invasion of the Ukraine and insidious disinformation war highlight the ongoing fundamental threats faced by all democracies,” said Irish Local Government Minister Darragh O’Brien, who is spearheading electoral reform.

New political integrity rules proposed for the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 will revise political donation rules to minimize the risk of foreign meddling and will also introduce safeguards against malicious disinformation campaigns targeting Irish elections.

In particular, Ireland is concerned that crypto donations can conceal the identity of a donor and increase the likelihood of dark money entering campaigns via foreign governments.

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

[MarkWal36]

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

I think bitcoin managed to hold out pretty well in this war,After the initial dump people thought bitcoin was doomed but it recovered pretty fast.

Banning donation via bitcoin will only hurt ukrain tbh and wouldn't do much to russia as they have other means of doing transactions.

[tbct_mt2]

The ban can cause more barriers to bring Bitcoin to the crowd but it won't be able stop the growth of Bitcoin adoption and the expansion of its usability. Political donation is just one part of Bitcoin use cases. Even with political donation, governments can not totally ban it. In reality, governments can not ban anything totally. People basically always figure out ways to break through government regulations.

For politicians, it's obviously that they don't want to get issues with governments and regulations but donators can cash out their cryptocurrency and donate cash. The ban just force them to switch from direct donation by cryptocurrency to undirect donation by fiat currency.

[Darker45]

But don't you think it is quite easy to go around this new policy? If somebody wanted to donate cryptocurrency to a particular candidate or party but cannot because it is prohibited, then he/she could just easily convert his/her crypto first before donating it. And then it's all good. Or if somebody from Russia is instructed to make huge donations to a candidate they are supporting, isn't it easy to channel such fund through another person from Ireland?

[franky1]

part of the 'politician accepts crypto' and the 'crypto treated as legal tender' is not as positive as some have thought

back in 2009-2014 crypto was not thought of as a financial currency that was in the jurisdiction of financial authorities.
crypto was thought of as an asset/product/good, and businesses using it treated as merchants/retailers.
but now its deemed as currency whereby swapping fiat for it is no longer 'buying an asset' but instead forex exchanging. suddenly regulations jump in to control those exchanges.

same with political donations. the end result becomes how government then need to KYC all donations to ensure that politicians are not being bribed by certain interested parties that want to abuse a politicians power.

so i actually think that for those not wanting too much government over-reach. people should not be applauding when they read news that governments will accept your tax payments/donations in crypto.

its much like US SEC do not accept the swiss franc as legal tender in the US or as something the IRS will accept to pay for taxes. which is why many elite americans hoard their wealth in offshore accounts in swiss francs to avoid taxes and audits

[rugrats]

Source

In particular, Ireland is concerned that crypto donations can conceal the identity of a donor and increase the likelihood of dark money entering campaigns via foreign governments.

This is the biggest concern that I think the Irish government is afraid of. This decision is not welcome, but it is entirely reasonable that Ireland has made the right decision.
If political donations are used in cryptocurrency, it will be very difficult to control the amount of dark money that is brought in to disrupt or interfere with election campaigns. This is simply a decision intended to prevent foreign organizations from meddling in a country's political apparatus.

[davis196]

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

It's not about Bitcoin.It's about cryptocurrencies in general.
I wish good luck to the Irish authorities,when they try to impose this new rule.How are they doing to track down all the crypto donations that are being sent to the Irish political parties?There's no way.
Anyway,I don't think that Russia is interested in the elections in Ireland.The Russians are aiming for the bigger targets-The upcoming US elections for the Congress and Senate and the presidential elections in France.
Ireland is just too small and insignificant.
Bitcoin will always get a lot of negative exposure.I hope that some altcoins would also get a part of the negative exposure.Putting all the blame on Bitcoin for the sins of the entire crypto industry is simply stupid.

[pakhitheboss]

But don't you think it is quite easy to go around this new policy? If somebody wanted to donate cryptocurrency to a particular candidate or party but cannot because it is prohibited, then he/she could just easily convert his/her crypto first before donating it. And then it's all good. Or if somebody from Russia is instructed to make huge donations to a candidate they are supporting, isn't it easy to channel such fund through another person from Ireland?

There are loopholes to everything but in this news they are trying to portray Bitcoin bad that what OP meant.

I think this will be a temporary ban till the election has been concluded after the ele tion the ban might get removed. This sort of news are meant to generate bad publicity for Bitcoin. We have seen so many in the past but nothing can stop the growth of Bitcoin.

[avikz]

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

What about the hacking attacks? What about the ransomware attacks? What about the black market operations? Bitcoin was inevitable involved into all these wrongdoings. Didn't that exposure bring down the reputation of bitcoin? Now don't tell me,  fiat is responsible for such things.a lot of people throw such arguments.

The matter of fact is that majority of the financial and cyber crimes around the world involves bitcoin. Ireland is just trying to save their own reputation and integrity of their own electoral procedures. If a country wants to interfere with other country's election, they can very well do so with fiat as well.

[Bttzed03]

If it wasn't for the conflict, will they still stop these types of donations even if it comes from other countries? It sounds like anything they can use against Russia and crypto

~
I wish good luck to the Irish authorities,when they try to impose this new rule.How are they doing to track down all the crypto donations that are being sent to the Irish political parties?There's no way.

They cannot prevent the transfer but they can still do something about conversion of crypto to fiat. If these crypto donations are meant to fund campaign rallies, these politicians will have a harder time spending them if the plan to ban is approved.

[cabron]

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

And its getting worse too because everyone who has BTC in their wallet might be blocked through the regulations  that are coming. The Canada truckers are just examples of what governments can do that even the exchanges were told to freeze accounts linked to the BTC of the truckers.

Organization had been meddling Ireland politics since. There were movies about IRA, some information are not actually factual but because Irish are passionate people, simple words can be twisted to rage a civil war already.

[crwth]

That's the thing with banning it, how would you know that it's not going to be still used? If someone wants to donate money to a politician for their campaign etc, they can just convert it into Fiat and donate it. It just doesn't make sense really, why would they ban a certain thing that could be worked around by doing the conversion. They are probably out there to discourage the use of crypto.

[Poker Player]

And its getting worse too because everyone who has BTC in their wallet might be blocked through the regulations  that are coming. The Canada truckers are just examples of what governments can do that even the exchanges were told to freeze accounts linked to the BTC of the truckers.

I don't like, at all, the news lately in this regard.

That's the thing with banning it, how would you know that it's not going to be still used? If someone wants to donate money to a politician for their campaign etc, they can just convert it into Fiat and donate it. It just doesn't make sense really, why would they ban a certain thing that could be worked around by doing the conversion. They are probably out there to discourage the use of crypto.

I think so. Obviously, we will always have P2P, but just a year ago we were seeing how Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were spreading without the restrictive regulations and bans like this that we are seeing in recent months. I see the future looking blacker than I did this time last year.

[stompix]

But don't you think it is quite easy to go around this new policy? If somebody wanted to donate cryptocurrency to a particular candidate or party but cannot because it is prohibited, then he/she could just easily convert his/her crypto first before donating it.

That's the whole point of the restriction, identifying the donor.

Or if somebody from Russia is instructed to make huge donations to a candidate they are supporting, isn't it easy to channel such fund through another person from Ireland?

There are limits in place, you will need to find a lot of people to donate small amounts, and when a lot of them do it is easier to trace where the money is coming from, one or two transactions can get unnoticed but when thousands of people suddenly start receiving money from abroad and donating for the first time it gets suspicious.
With crypto donation it was simple, you could donate millions in 10$ batches from millions of addresses anonymously.
Plus, political parties and candidates have to reveal how much they've got, cryptos allowed them to bypass this and use money from donations for themselves.

[bakasabo]

For me political donation in cryptocurrency equals money laundering or bribe. All the politicians must be white, have clean reputation and their income must be transparent. They are  power of a country. But if they are involved in anonymous money transactions, then it is definitely something shady behind this. No one with good intentions would use such anonymous way to make a donation. It is simply unfair, if a regular citizen must report every single cent hi get to tax office, and politician get crypto donations.

[TheNineClub]

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

True, there was a fair amount of initial negative press, but when it was shown that Russia will not gain much out of crypto itself, the tides kinda changed with a lot of donations for Ukraine coming within the crypto community and through crypto. I think that what Ireland is doing is more in the lines if what I would expect even if there wasn't a war in Europe, it's just their knee-jerk reaction of wanting to have political donations as transparent as possible.

[Dunamisx]

Source

Ireland plans to prohibit cryptocurrency donations to political parties amid fears of Russian election interference in an upcoming set of amendments to its Electoral Reform Bill 2022.

“The appalling invasion of the Ukraine and insidious disinformation war highlight the ongoing fundamental threats faced by all democracies,” said Irish Local Government Minister Darragh O’Brien, who is spearheading electoral reform.

New political integrity rules proposed for the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 will revise political donation rules to minimize the risk of foreign meddling and will also introduce safeguards against malicious disinformation campaigns targeting Irish elections.

In particular, Ireland is concerned that crypto donations can conceal the identity of a donor and increase the likelihood of dark money entering campaigns via foreign governments.

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

Not only on that, i think the challenges bitcoin will be facing is going to be concentrated on any Involvement with Russia as a means to wave the swift sanction, i red a news talking about how the US government is giving a sanction on a Mining company in Russian over a suspicious moves to help assist Russia byepass the implemented sanction from US, EU allies and the entire world respectively, any entity found having or creating ties that could led to Russia byepass the swift sanction will faces an alleged sanction as well.

“The United States is committed to ensuring that no asset, no matter how complex, becomes a mechanism for the Putin regime to offset the impact of sanctions”.https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/04/21/bitcoin-mining-company-punished-russia-sanctions/?utm_source=thecryptoapp

[bitzizzix]

The ban is not as severe as countries that expressly prohibit the use of crypto for anything, and it is possible that Ireland's decision to ban donations to new politics in cryptocurrencies has concerns or has something to do with the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Actually, crypto news related to politics as a ban or certain rules in various countries is not new, but this news just disappears and crypto is still running and growing and can't be stopped.

[crwth]

I think so. Obviously, we will always have P2P, but just a year ago we were seeing how Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were spreading without the restrictive regulations and bans like this that we are seeing in recent months. I see the future looking blacker than I did this time last year.

Maybe they are just doing this so that when the price goes down, they would buy more of it? Don't you think? Or it's just that they have no trust with it or they do not want to show the "transparency" that we all want because they might see what they are doing with donation funds or something.

[Henrobakkara]

When the war started, I was making a prediction that Bitcoin can get a lot of negative exposure if it will become associated with Russia, seems like my prediction is coming true. On the other hand, it's inevitable that the government will want to restrict the unchecked flow of money via Bitcoin, perhaps Russia just catalyzed it.

I think bitcoin managed to hold out pretty well in this war,After the initial dump people thought bitcoin was doomed but it recovered pretty fast.

Banning donation via bitcoin will only hurt ukrain tbh and wouldn't do much to russia as they have other means of doing transactions.

This doesn't have anything to do with Ukraine or Russia but an Irish issue and I would understand why they fell that way, after all, they clearly stated what their concerns were;  

In particular, Ireland is concerned that crypto donations can conceal the identity of a donor and increase the likelihood of dark money entering campaigns via foreign governments.

No nation would want an external influence in their national electoral decisions through the influence of money in any form and that is what is most likely the issue here if crypto donations are encouraged.