For Hillary Clinton’s campaign, accepting bitcoin was "too libertarian". That’s what we learned last week when it was revealed senior campaign aides for the US presidential candidate considered taking bitcoin campaign donations, but dismissed the idea. The email was part of the cache released by Wikileaks, but came to light via a social media thread dedicated to sharing noteworthy content from the many thousands of leaked messages. For some market observers, the content of the conversation raised questions about the Clinton campaign and its knowledge of the technology. That’s because, back in June, the Clinton campaign declared that its candidate supported public service blockchain applications . The claim implied some familiarity with the mechanics of bitcoin (it’s the first implementation of blockchain technology, after all), even though the policy seems more likely to have been written by a tech-savvy advisor. So what is the Democratic hopeful’s position on bitcoin? The campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but other analysts shared ideas. Brian Forde, former technology advisor to the White House and a senior lecturer at MIT, believes the potential future president has a genuine commitment. Forde told CoinDesk: "Clinton has been a fierce advocate for Internet freedom, and I think, similarly, she will make the right decisions to allow for cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based applications to succeed in the US." He suggested that this support might take the form of funding for cryptocurrency research, supporting the adoption of blockchain applications in government and working with experts to develop a regulatory framework that would stimulate industry growth. In this light, conversations with industry observers suggest there may be a simpler answer for the decision – bitcoin as it stands just isn’t that usable for campaign donations today. Low caps on bitcoin Funding a modern electoral campaign requires enormous resources, […]
