Representative Mark Warden Utilizing Bitcoin for Campaign Donations

[Lethos]

I think it is great to see bitcoin being used in this way, gets it noticed in the public eye more. Just hope it doesn't screw him over for taking the risk.
He probably should of thought it through a little more in how he setup donations to be sent via bitcoins, like asking for atleast a statement of whom you are before showing the address, but no ones perfect he is the first to do it.

[waspoza]

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.

Yeah, i sent him coins and thank you letter.

[Elwar]

He needs to set it up to create an address for each new donor and allow for the donor to supply their identifiable information along with that address. And refund anything over an equivalent maximum in dollars.


I was thinking about this one though.

It would be great if someone were to start running now for US House/Senate or whichever where they would need a lot of money to win, focusing on 2014 or 2016. But for every donation he receives, he converts that money to Bitcoin to be spent the year that he campaigns.

Imagine someone accumulating $100k when the price was at $2/BTC. And imagine if the price in 2016 was $200/BTC. He would have a $10 million war chest going into the election. And he can pledge to pay for all advertising/campaign material in bitcoins.

[ben-abuya]

Thanks for the great feedback, everyone! There's an update here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102022.0

Anybody who contributed Bitcoins, please be in touch with me. We need to verify that you are a US citizen or resident, and if you gave more thatn $25 worth, we'll need your name and address. If you don't want to give out that info, we need a Bitcoin address to return the funds to.

[Stephen Gornick]

We need to verify that you are a US citizen or resident, and if you gave more thatn $25 worth, we'll need your name and address.

It will be tough for Bitcoin to rise to the level that credit cards offer for accepting campaign donations.  At least when accepting donations with credit card your campaign staff will know not to accept donations where the IP address is from Pakistan, or the name on the credit card is: "Osama Bin Laden":

 - http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obama-accepts-osama-bin-laden-donations/

[niko]

We need to verify that you are a US citizen or resident, and if you gave more thatn $25 worth, we'll need your name and address.

It will be tough for Bitcoin to rise to the level that credit cards offer for accepting campaign donations.  At least when accepting donations with credit card your campaign staff will know not to accept donations where the IP address is from Pakistan, or the name on the credit card is: "Osama Bin Laden":

 - http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obama-accepts-osama-bin-laden-donations/

Also, consumer tracking offers precious insights to the campaign. They literally try to scrutinize every little spend, as it turns out lots of it correlates with your voting record. Targeted nagging presumably reduces the cost of the campaign, or increases efficiency for a dollar spent.

[Vladimir]

FYI, Bitcoin Magazine issue #4 (November 2012) contains an interview with Mark Warden and an article about this topic that is feature on the cover.

[tiberiandusk]

The quotes on his website are hilarious.

"He supports my right to not wear a helmet on my motorcycle."

Does he support the right of the first responders to not have to scrape his brain off the road or the people at the hospital that could use their time better than trying to sew his face and jaw back on? What about the people at the assisted living place that have to wipe his vegetative ass and the people paying more for healthcare if he doesn't have insurance? What about the therapy for the little kid that just saw a guy's head explode all over the intersection? If you don't wear a helmet you're not just endangering your life but you're fucking up other people's lives and that's where liberty stops. Having liberty doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want to and fuck everyone else.

[deeplink]

The quotes on his website are hilarious.

"He supports my right to not wear a helmet on my motorcycle."

Does he support the right of the first responders to not have to scrape his brain off the road or the people at the hospital that could use their time better than trying to sew his face and jaw back on? What about the people at the assisted living place that have to wipe his vegetative ass and the people paying more for healthcare if he doesn't have insurance? What about the therapy for the little kid that just saw a guy's head explode all over the intersection? If you don't wear a helmet you're not just endangering your life but you're fucking up other people's lives and that's where liberty stops. Having liberty doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want to and fuck everyone else.

It's not everyone's opinion that other people may decide what they are allowed to do.

[giszmo]

The quotes on his website are hilarious.

"He supports my right to not wear a helmet on my motorcycle."

Does he support the right of the first responders to not have to scrape his brain off the road or the people at the hospital that could use their time better than trying to sew his face and jaw back on? What about the people at the assisted living place that have to wipe his vegetative ass and the people paying more for healthcare if he doesn't have insurance? What about the therapy for the little kid that just saw a guy's head explode all over the intersection? If you don't wear a helmet you're not just endangering your life but you're fucking up other people's lives and that's where liberty stops. Having liberty doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want to and fuck everyone else.

As far as burden to society is concerned, do you really think that a person without helmet will cost more than one with helmet? I guess it is the contrary but maybe you can quote some research on that topic.

I'm more a biker than a motor-biker and see how many cities now step back from forcing people to wear a helmet exactly because the impact to society is negative. Car drivers overtake helmet-users with less distance than others and beyond a certain speed, injuries of helmet-users are just as severe as without helmet.
Far harder to measure is the impact on how much sport people do when you tell them by a law that riding a bike is dangerous.

[ben-abuya]

Risk compensation (also Peltzman effect, risk homeostasis) is an observed effect in ethology whereby people tend to adjust their behavior in response to perceived level of risk, behaving less cautiously where they feel more protected and more cautiously where they feel a higher level of risk. The theory emerged out of road safety research after it was observed that many interventions failed to achieve the expected level of benefits but has since found application in many other fields.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

[thezerg]

The quotes on his website are hilarious.

"He supports my right to not wear a helmet on my motorcycle."

Does he support the right of the first responders to not have to scrape his brain off the road or the people at the hospital that could use their time better than trying to sew his face and jaw back on? What about the people at the assisted living place that have to wipe his vegetative ass and the people paying more for healthcare if he doesn't have insurance? What about the therapy for the little kid that just saw a guy's head explode all over the intersection? If you don't wear a helmet you're not just endangering your life but you're fucking up other people's lives and that's where liberty stops. Having liberty doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want to and fuck everyone else.

Welcome to new hampshire!  You saw the fall colors, you bought some real maple syrup.  Now go back to your high income tax nearly bankrupt state and take your opinions with you.

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Tiberiandusk is right insofar as there are many other laws requiring the rest of us to pay for medical expenses of those who are reckless or can't afford it. Going partway with libertarianism doesn't necessarily produce an improvement, since certain laws may actually counteract other worse laws. The only thing guaranteed to produce a more peaceful and prosperous society is taking away the state monopoly on the creation of law entirely.

TL; DR: If you're anti-state, don't argue for partial solutions (unless they simply shrink the state - e.g., lower taxes). It just gives statists an easy out.

[bytedisorder]

He didn't say anywhere that you can't wear a helmet. It's called freedom, where you have to make your own decisions about your safety, and nanny Bloomberg doesn't tell you what size soda you can buy. If you want a nanny state try NYC or Chicago, where there are fees, fines, taxes, permits, licences and penalties for EVERYTHING (even fishing in the ocean for recreational purposes).