At a time when third-party actors influence the voting in corporations, cryptocurrency is slowly moving to the state elections. This makes it difficult for regulators and officials to be held accountable for maintaining the integrity of the elections because there is another factor to be taken into account; such as digital finance.
According to the Center for public honesty, there are at least 20 candidates who request or receive cryptocurrency support for their campaigns. Three candidates from them represented states, in which cryptocurrency is prohibited in principle.
Despite the fact that the financing by means of cryptocurrency is widespread, for it at present there are no uniform rules.
“Cryptocurrency is similar to the Wild West in terms of regulation,” commented Joseph Argiro, a cryptocurrency analyst at ICO Alert. “This is a new way to collect money. No wonder politicians are rushing aboard. ”
Since its inception in 2008, the crypt has been associated with illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud. Since the owners of cryptocurrency can use aliases for international transfers, the sources of some transactions remain unknown, and this hinders political transparency.
While many political experts believe bitcoin is preventing transparency in public elections, most experts believe Bitcoin can actually help create a transparent system. With this currency, officials can track money using the latest tools and technologies.
However, according to Joseph Argiro, if regulators do not decide on certain digital currencies, the process will not be so smooth. With more than 2,000 different digital tokens, it would be a problem to ensure that no external force has any effect on the voting process. In fact, the Center for public honesty found that it is almost impossible to identify actual contributions for the use of cryptocurrency in some reports on the financing of public campaigns.
“It is definitely important for States to have political oversight over these types of contributions to the campaign,” Argiro said. “But the industry is so new that tools are still being developed to facilitate this observation. That’s why people are afraid. ”
Most candidates use BitPay to simplify the task. This helps Polzovatelejam to take cryptocurrency. To accept payments, donors must create an account with their name and address. Unfortunately, this does not help transparency, because everyone can use fake credentials and register as a donor.
When it comes to tracking the financing of cryptocurrency at the state level, the process becomes tougher. There is no organization that tracks funding for political campaigns. This, in turn, makes it difficult to understand how much money was received during the elections in the states and local government.
According to BitPay’s representative Jan Yahoski, BitPay’s donations doubled over the past year to more than 26 million dollars from 743 donors. However, most states have recently put a ban on the financing of cryptocurrency or have set a limit for this.
With California, which prohibits the financing of Bitcoin in the elections, it will be interesting to see if other states follow in its footsteps.
