In 2015, Rand Paul became the first major U.S. presidential candidate to accept Bitcoin for campaign donations . Several other candidates for lower office have accepted Bitcoin before and have since, leveraging its ease of use and ability to energize new donor bases.
CoinTelegraph spoke to several political candidates about their use of Bitcoin to fund their campaigns. Bitcoin-financed campaigns
Financing campaigns with cryptocurrency is still a relatively new concept. Mark Warden, former New Hampshire state representative, was one of the first politicians to employ Bitcoin, using it to help fund his 2010 campaign. “The designer for my campaign website asked to be paid in Bitcoin and I agreed. He then suggested we accept Bitcoin donations to the campaign. I thought it was a great idea and it was somewhat ground-breaking at the time (2010). I wanted to show support and solidarity for the Bitcoin revolution, which was expanding rapidly. We thought it would help the digi-currency become more mainstream if a State House campaign was adopting it.” When Andrew Hemingway ran for governor of New Hampshire in 2014, he chose to accept Bitcoin. None of his opponents did the same. “They tried to criticize me for doing it, claiming that it was fake money etc. I said that fiat was fake. At least Bitcoin has something backing it. They didn’t get or appreciate it.” Andrew Hemingway, Governor of New Hampshire Donations made easy
Using Bitcoin streamlines the process of receiving donations, both in terms of simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Darryl W. Perry, Libertarian candidate for U.S. president, finds using Bitcoin to be “much faster and easier than processing a credit card.” Caleb Dyer, a New Hampshire candidate for state representative, vastly prefers it to more typical donation forms. “I am able to have a Bitcoin QR code right on […]
