Representative Mark Warden Utilizing Bitcoin for Campaign Donations

[marcus_of_augustus]

So someone has now donated 100 BTC which in market values is around USD $1100 ... I wonder if they have to declare who they are now (as per the >$100 rule)?

But if bitcoin is not really money, legally speaking then they probably don't since it is like donating glass beads, or interesting spam mail or some such ... not really money you see

Unless there is a court that is willing to recognize bitcoin as money somewhere ?? .... I didn't think so. Nice can of worms to open up on your campaign trail. Go monetary freedom.

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[Bitcoin Oz]

New Hampshire is my favourite US state by far.

Is Mark Warden part of the free state project ?

[ShireSilver]

New Hampshire is my favourite US state by far.

Is Mark Warden part of the free state project ?

Yes. He is the porcupine realtor and thus pretty much outed as such. He's also a great activist and a heck of a nice guy.

[Vladimir]

Bitcoin Magazine will sell like hotcakes in a book store across the street from The Congress. LOL

[etotheipi]

FYI,

After chatting with a lawyer friend of mine on this topic, we determined that nothing good will come out of this for Rep Mark Warden unless he starts requesting information from all donors.  A "best-faith effort" to keep in line with campaign financing laws will not be sufficient.  Even if he gets by it legally, he will be subject to accusations of foreign influence and shady financing practices.  As such, I wrote the following email:

On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 12:19 AM, etotheipi wrote:

    Dear Rep. Warden,

    I am inspired by your willingness to try Bitcoin in your fundraising.  I just donated 5 BTC with the hopes that you will succeed and help make people aware of Bitcoin.

    However, I wanted to warn you that I see no way for you to embrace Bitcoin this way without high legal risk.  I believe it is in your best interest to require identifying information for all Bitcoin donations, lest you be accused of accepting foreign donations and excessive donations.

    The fact that one person can send you 1000 different transactions of $100 each without submitting identification will be the reason that legal challenges to your fundraising will succeed.  Best-faith efforts to follow the law will not be satisfactory.  I think it is worth the inconvenience to your donors to give Bitcoin every chance to flourish in this environment.

    Similarly, if you do receive donations that you cannot identify within 30 days or exceed the limits, you should send those donations back to one of the sending addresses.

    For that reason, here is my identification for my donation:
    
    ...


    Thanks for supporting Bitcoin, and the best of luck in your campaign!

Surprisingly, I got a response back in less than 24 hours:

Alan,

Great advice. I sensed that there would be some unintended and unexpected legal land mines with this and basically I'm leaping before looking.

I will definitely add something to the site that requests the donor's name, address and employer. At my state level, I'm required to ask for the information, but not necessarily confirm it.

Thank you for your donation! I really appreciate your generosity.

I am fascinated by the BTC concept and want to see it succeed.

For liberty... and competing currencies,

Rep. Mark Warden

[proudhon]

FYI,

After chatting with a lawyer friend of mine on this topic, we determined that nothing good will come out of this for Rep Mark Warden unless he starts requesting information from all donors.  A "best-faith effort" to keep in line with campaign financing laws will not be sufficient.  Even if he gets by it legally, he will be subject to accusations of foreign influence and shady financing practices.  As such, I wrote the following email:

On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 12:19 AM, etotheipi wrote:

    Dear Rep. Warden,

    I am inspired by your willingness to try Bitcoin in your fundraising.  I just donated 5 BTC with the hopes that you will succeed and help make people aware of Bitcoin.

    However, I wanted to warn you that I see no way for you to embrace Bitcoin this way without high legal risk.  I believe it is in your best interest to require identifying information for all Bitcoin donations, lest you be accused of accepting foreign donations and excessive donations.

    The fact that one person can send you 1000 different transactions of $100 each without submitting identification will be the reason that legal challenges to your fundraising will succeed.  Best-faith efforts to follow the law will not be satisfactory.  I think it is worth the inconvenience to your donors to give Bitcoin every chance to flourish in this environment.

    Similarly, if you do receive donations that you cannot identify within 30 days or exceed the limits, you should send those donations back to one of the sending addresses.

    For that reason, here is my identification for my donation:
    
    ...


    Thanks for supporting Bitcoin, and the best of luck in your campaign!

Surprisingly, I got a response back in less than 24 hours:

Alan,

Great advice. I sensed that there would be some unintended and unexpected legal land mines with this and basically I'm leaping before looking.

I will definitely add something to the site that requests the donor's name, address and employer. At my state level, I'm required to ask for the information, but not necessarily confirm it.

Thank you for your donation! I really appreciate your generosity.

I am fascinated by the BTC concept and want to see it succeed.

For liberty... and competing currencies,

Rep. Mark Warden

Nice job etotheipi.  This is very cool.

[Philj]

I donated my 1.337 BTC

[error]

New Hampshire is not like other places. Here, when you try to get hold of your state rep, you dial the phone number, and you're talking to them. At home.

[Bitcoin Oz]

New Hampshire is not like other places. Here, when you try to get hold of your state rep, you dial the phone number, and you're talking to them. At home.

Usually if we try and contact the rep they put you on the terrorist watchlist 

[Shadow383]

He just changed the address and somebody's donated 120BTC 

https://blockchain.info/address/1GYKza1DDdBFTwHD1Hr1hYLd5csRGDvqVZ

So what do they do about the info requirements? 

[Bitcoin Oz]

He just changed the address and somebody's donated 120BTC 

https://blockchain.info/address/1GYKza1DDdBFTwHD1Hr1hYLd5csRGDvqVZ

So what do they do about the info requirements? 

We dont know if they provided them or not. Perhaps they did.

You cant  prevent anyone from sending you coins to a public address you would have to get their info first then give them an address to donate too in that case.

[niko]

Can anyone here comment on how things work with donations other than dollars? Can you contribute coins? A used car?

[Bitcoin Oz]

Can anyone here comment on how things work with donations other than dollars? Can you contribute coins? A used car?

Im sure he would probably accept silver and gold coins. Bit hard to donate them over the internet though.

[marcus_of_augustus]

I wonder if "DreadPirateRoberts" qualifies as identifying information? 

etotheipi, what does your legal guru think?

IMHO, people who think they can shoehorn bitcoin into currently regulatory structures are heading for fail ... it's got more facets than a diamond, trying to cover all the bases is futile ... but go ahead, futile efforts can sometimes be amusing.

[NRF]

So.....

Who voluntears to send him 1 BTC and put "al Qaeda, Pakistan" in the comment field?

[kibblesnbits]

Alan,

Great advice. I sensed that there would be some unintended and unexpected legal land mines with this and basically I'm leaping before looking.

I will definitely add something to the site that requests the donor's name, address and employer. At my state level, I'm required to ask for the information, but not necessarily confirm it.

Thank you for your donation! I really appreciate your generosity.

I am fascinated by the BTC concept and want to see it succeed.

For liberty... and competing currencies,

Rep. Mark Warden

Wow.  I think for this alone he's gonna get a few of my coins.

[Kluge]

Hm. I'm not sure if state reps are under the same no-foreign-contributions limit as federal candidates. I don't see anything on the NH campaign finance law website about it.

- And, yeah, even though Bitcoins aren't legal tender, it's counted for FMV, so anything going over $1k FMV requires info In typIcal condItIons. He's already violated this, it seems, so I'd imagine he should return those until they provide adequate info. It'd probably be way less messy if he used Bit-Pay, unless he actually planned on trying to hide everything by "quietly" converting the BTC to USD. IANAL, though. Interested in seeing what happens.

[niko]

Anyone attemting to get him in trouble over this would be also legitimizing bitcoin as a currency.

[Melbustus]

I'll donate...once he gets the info form up. Will my donation be considered legitimate if I don't live in NH (but still the US), though? Regardless, if he gets tons of donations totaling some noteworthy amount of money, it'll be interesting (probably good) publicity for bitcoin, and also Rep Warden's agenda, which seems spot on.

[Bitcoin Oz]

I was just wondering if this is a form of lobbying. Like JP Morgan "donating" to politicians.

Maybe he will introduce bitcoin friendly legislation if he gets enough coins.....