California Allows Cryptocurrency-Based Political Campaign Donations

Cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations will soon become accepted in the US state of California. This development happened following the approval of new rules last week.

We are delighted to learn about the US state of California permitting the acceptance of cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations by its politicians running for public office via this latest news.

We think our readers will also be interested in this update which demonstrates the increasing purposes of virtual currencies, so we are posting it on our website.

Based on the report posted online by the Santa Monica Daily Press, a news outlet based in Santa Monica, California, in the United States, the Fair Political Practices Commission conducted a votation last Thursday, July 21, 2022 to approve new regulations enabling cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations.

The latter are financial contributions in the form of Bitcoin and other crypto-assets. The new rules indicate that political candidates can accept cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations if they immediately convert the virtual currency into US dollars.

Additionally, political candidates for local and state offices in California must utilize a registered crypto-asset processor. The latter handles the transactions and collects every donor or contributor’s name, address, employer, and occupation.

California’s new rules allowing state and local office political candidates to accept cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations will take effect within two months or 60 days.

Based on a Fair Political Practices Commission staff report, twelve US states, plus Washington DC, allow cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations in some form.

California had been one of nine US states that banned virtual currency contributions, prohibiting the practice four years ago.

Nevertheless, political candidates running for federal office are already allowed to honor cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations.

We believe the acceptance of cryptocurrency-based political campaign contributions by government office candidates in California will find this newly adopted practice seamless and helpful.

After all, virtual currencies facilitate peer-to-peer transfers between online users without any intermediaries.

The cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations will not depend on banks as crypto-assets are designed to be free of central banks, governments, and other central financial authorities. The transactions are digitally recorded via blockchain technology.

We appreciate the US state of California’s new measure, letting political candidates accept political campaign contributions in the form of crypto-assets.

We think this development exhibits the increasing relevance of virtual currencies to people’s lives, including in the fields of finance, business, and in this report, politics and government.

We look forward to other US states adopting cryptocurrency-based political campaign donations. We believe this laudable practice will be advantageous for aspiring government officials, their supporters, and their constituents in the long haul.