Candidates testing the waters of bitcoin fundraising are following different sets of rules as they go along, a function of both the freewheeling culture of the digital currency world and of mixed signals from the Federal Election Commission. The FEC approved bitcoin fundraising in a unanimous advisory opinion on May 8, but the agency’s six commissioners immediately began a public dispute over what that decision actually means. At issue is whether digital currency contributions must be capped at $100 per election per donor, or whether candidates, political action committees and parties may accept the virtual currency in larger amounts. The commission’s three Democrats maintain that they approved of bitcoin fundraising only to the $100 cap, and in a statement cited “serious concerns” about the potential difficulty verifying virtual transactions. But the commission’s GOP chairman, Lee E. Goodman, countered in his own statement that bitcoins are in-kind donations, and must therefore be capped only at existing contribution limits — $2,600 for a candidate and $5,000 for a PAC per election. “Innovation and technology should not and will not stand idly by while the commission dithers,” he declared.
The upshot is that some political players say they’ll collect large, even unlimited, virtual contributions, and others will be capping bitcoins at $100. The political action committee known as Bit PAC, for one, will take donations well over $100, said its treasurer, GOP election lawyer Dan Backer. Bit PAC operates both a conventional PAC and an unrestricted super PAC, and will therefore take bitcoins donations up to $5,000 in one account, and unlimited virtual donations in another.
“The whole purpose of Bit PAC is to push the envelope” and “to move the ball on the full normalization of bitcoins in campaign finance,” Backer said in an interview with CQ Roll Call. Backer was the first to ask the FEC about bitcoin fundraising last fall. At that time, the commission deadlocked 3-3 and took no action.
Full Article: FEC Distpute Over Bitcoins Leaves Candidates in the Dark.