Libertarian Party and Bitcoin

Libertarian Party and Bitcoin explained by professional forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team.

Is the Libertarian Party THE Party of Bitcoin?

When the recent United States election season began, I invited each candidate from both of the leading parties (currently the Democratic and Republican parties) to contact me with their stands on Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.

Not one candidate was willing to take a stand on where they stood regarding Bitcoin.

In the early stages of the election season, there were only two candidates who gave some indication of their support, or at least recognition of Bitcoin.

Rick Perry, who was a Republican Party candidate for President, stated that he supports “regulatory breathing room for digital currencies such as bitcoin”. Another Republican Party candidate, Rand Paul, was the first candidate to accept bitcoin donations for his Presidential campaign, but was not willing to make any “bold” statements on his views of whether or not he would even evaluate the digital currency if he wins the election.

Both candidates are no longer in the race. However, given this crazy election season and calls for a contested convention, at this point, that may not mean a thing, as either of these candidates could become the Republican Party nominee.So stay tuned!

If you were willing to look beyond just the two “major” parties, you would have noticed that there was a past Presidential candidate who is once again looking to run and had already announced his interest in Bitcoin.

Gary Johnson, who ran for President as the Libertarian Party candidate four years ago, and is doing so again this year, is seeking to use the digital currency to support his Fair Debates Initiative, which seeks to break the hold on the two party “monopoly” that exists in our country.

There’s no denying that many of the early adopters on Bitcoin did so out of their libertarian beliefs.

In 2013, a survey by Lui Smyth, a University College London researcher, found that 44.3 percent of Bitcoin users identified themselves as “libertarian / anarcho-capitalist.”

Bitcoin appealed to libertarians because of the exclusion of a centralized banking controlling entity. Rand Paul’s father, Ron Paul, who ran for President as well, said that Bitcoin enthusiasts “seem to be very free market oriented,” and even thought that the technology might one day “compete with the Federal Reserve system.”

The libertarian interest in Bitcoin wasn’t lost on people such as Marc Andresson, whose has been a major influence in the birth and growth of Bitcoin. Andresson in 2014 acknowledged the appeal of Bitcoin to libertarians but also said at a San Francisco Bitcoin Conference, “My prediction is that libertarians are going to turn on Bitcoin. That’ll be in about two years, when it’ll be mainstream.”

Now two years after Andresson’s prediction, it’s debatable whether or not Bitcoin can be considered mainstream but the reality is that the libertarians aren’t turning their backs on Bitcoin.

The Libertarian party is now the only party that is currently accepting bitcoin donations for their party in the upcoming Presidential election.

But the interest in bitcoin for libertarians actually goes beyond just its function as currency. The Libertarian Party of Texas recently announced that they will incorporate blockchain technology into their vote counting process as they help to identify the party’s Presidential candidate.

John Wilford, treasurer of the Libertarian Party of Texas, told CoinDesk,”The idea is that after the balloting is collected, the records will be uploaded to the blockchain for future generations and accountability.”

The Libertarian Party currently has fifteen candidates vying for the Party’s nomination as President in the upcoming election, including Gary Johnson, who has run in the past as the Party’s candidate and John McAfee, creator of the leading anti-virus software for personal computers.

As we’ve had none of the candidates from the Republican or Democratic party respond to my request on their opinion and stand on Bitcoin (at least not yet), I’d like to invite any of these Libertarian Party candidates and their teams to provide at least an opinion on Bitcoin and Blockchain, and address the following questions:

What is your opinion of bitcoin?

Is bitcoin something that you will evaluate if you become President?
What impact do you think blockchain technology will have on the current financial systems?
How do you see bitcoin and blockchain innovations impacting America? Will you take a proactive or reactive role to evaluating how they may impact America?

I ask that any candidates or their teams that wish to address these questions and take a stance on this issue do so by tweeting me. Those who do so will find their opinions and remarks in a subsequent article here on this site.

This goes for the remaining candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as those from other parties as well.