Sending a bitcoin isn’t that hard – if you know what you’re doing. But since the Federal Election Commission OKed the use of bitcoin by political action committees, things have gotten a little hairy. CoinVox, a service created by Christopher David, is looking to smooth the path from your bitcoin wallet to your favorite politician’s war chest.
The service is fairly simple: you sign up for a limited number of accounts and then announce you’re accepting bitcoin via CoinVox. The service simply takes the BTC and forwards the cash to the particular PAC. Easy peasy. What it’s really selling, however, are compliance and advisory tools in order to ensure everything is done by the book.
“In addition to its donation platform CoinVox offers technical support advice and access to the best legal experts, donors, and consultants from the Bitcoin community,” said David. “We plan to be the one-stop shop for connecting politicians and nonprofits to the Bitcoin economy.”
By working with campaign finance attorneys, the pair can ensure that the money is properly reported and accounted for. It also provides data on donors to maintain compliance with Federal Election Commission rules.
The laws regarding cryptocurrency in political financing are only now becoming clearer. For example, the generally accepted maximum donation is $100 in BTC to any one candidate, an arguably wee number. But the FEC also stated that total BTC donations would be capped at $2,600 per campaign and $5,000 per PAC as well as nearly $100,000 for national party committees. But, according to campaign law, the thinking is that no one will be sued for sending more than $100 in bitcoin. If that sounds confusing, that’s mostly why CoinVox is in business.
“We charge no added fees per transaction. For the remainder of the 2014 election cycle we will charge no setup fees for our basic donation platform. We will only charge for advanced integration or consulting,” said David. He thinks of the service as a sort of Bitcoin outreach for Washington.
“In addition to its donation platform CoinVox offers technical support advice and access to the best legal experts, donors, and consultants from the Bitcoin community,” he said. Considering the maze of campaign finance law, everyone needs all the help they can get.