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On the heels of Tuesday’s news that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) would be considering allowing bitcoin donations to campaigns comes the news that the oversight group has delayed a formal vote.
The consideration comes following a request submitted by non-partisan political group Make Your Laws, who aimed to get FED approval to allow citizens to donate a maximum of $100 worth of bitcoin per candidate.
“I have serious concerns about allowing unlimited bitcoin political contributions,” said Ann Ravel, Vice Chairwoman at the FEC, according to The Hill.
Idea of allowing for unlimited amounts of bitcoin to be donated to a campaign doesn’t exactly sound appealing to Ravel.
“[Bitcoin] allows for anonymous and untraceable transactions, which would clearly undermine what is the most important, in my mind, purpose of campaign finance laws, and that is transparency and the disclosure of political spending,” she continued. “I am definitely unwilling to go that far.”
Ravel was previously in opposition to the idea of allowing bitcoin contributions to political campaigns due to what she thought was a lack of transparency.
Ravel did, however, state that she “would support here today” a response that would limit bitcoin contributions to $100. Political contributions paid for in cash are also allowed at $100 maximum per donor.
Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said that the request “sounds like [something] a majority of commissioners would be prepared to say yes to.”
Regardless of the current FEC stance on political bitcoin contributions, it’s not against the law. As such, two Texas politicians have started accepting bitcoin donations.
Representative Steve Stockman (who is running for a Senate seat) is one. The second is Greg Abbott, gubernatorial candidate.
More developments on this as they become available.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source[/textmarker] The Hill
