Crypto-Loving US Senate Candidate Forced to Return $130,000 Bitcoin Donation
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US Senate candidate Austin Petersen received a $130,000 bitcoin donation but was forced to return it due to federal regulations governing campaign contributions.
Petersen, a Republican who is hoping to unseat incumbent Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill during the mid-term election in November, said that an enthusiastic supporter attempted to donate $130,276 worth of bitcoins (~20 BTC) over the weekend, but his campaign had to refuse it since Federal Elections Commission (FEC) regulations restrict individual contributions to $5,400 per year
The candidate, a dark horse in the GOP primary who has nevertheless polled well against McCaskill, encouraged the enthusiastic supporter to start a political action committee (PAC), an organization which can use an unlimited amount of funds to promote candidates as long as it files reports with elections regulators and does not coordinate directly with political campaigns.
As CCN , Petersen, a self-described libertarian conservative, began accepting bitcoin donations last year through BitPay’s cryptocurrency donations platform. At the time, he told CCN that he believes cryptocurrency “represents the future of American creativity and American liberty.”
“bitcoin’s disruptive influence is just what our financial system needs at this time. For too long, the federal government has had exclusive control over currency, stymying competition and growth by falsely limiting consumer choice — a fact we would all be aware of were the Federal Reserve subject to the same kind of audits privately-held companies are. Cryptocurrency represents the future of American creativity and American liberty, and I’m delighted to accept campaign donations in this form.”
Notably, this wasn’t the first time that Petersen has been forced to return a large bitcoin donation. He that his campaign has twice been forced to refuse donations of approximately $250,000 for exceeding the FEC limit on individual campaign contributions.
In February, Petersen accepted the in federal election history. The 0.284 BTC donation was valued at $4,500 at the time, making it $900 below the individual limit.
Austin Petersen Image from Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
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In his book “,” author Tim Lea
highlights the evolution of smart contracts and their use ensuing from the
blockchain.
“The term smart contract was first coined by a
computer scientist Nick Szabo,” Lea writes. “In his 1996 article in the
magazine Extrophy, he broadly described a smart contract as the
ability to bring refined legal practices of contract law to the e-commerce
protocols between strangers and the internet.”
In their most basic form, smart contracts are
self-executing contracts that function within mutually agreed upon terms
between two or more parties. These agreements, which are written into lines of
computer code, exist as part of a distributed, decentralized blockchain network facilitating the
automatic execution of contractual terms with no further involvement from any
of the parties involved, including external third-party intermediaries.
This disruptive approach runs counter to the prevailing tradition of
drafting and enforcing deals through involvement with external players like
banks, lawyers and escrows. This practice is both time consuming and costly,
especially in cases involving overseas deals. While smart contract
technology helps to overcome these and other administrative and legal
roadblocks, a complex set of programming skills are required to draft
blockchain-based digital contracts.
Enter Confideal
One company that’s making major inroads in this new
age of smart contracts is , a platform for
managing and enforcing smart contracts. Based in Ireland, a hub for crypto
adoption in Europe, Confideal is forging a path toward the removal of barriers
to digital transactions throughout the world. The company champions
transparency, opening up essential business tools to those without legal or
coding skills.
“Confideal is a service designed for a wide audience
from individuals to business owners, and available for everyone,” said Petr Belousov, Confideal’s founder and
CEO.
“Our ultimate goal is mass adoption of blockchain among real sector businesses worldwide.”
Because Confideal’s data is encrypted and
protected by the Ethereum blockchain, the immutability of the agreement terms
is assured. In addition, Confideal offers the following value propositions:
• An internal arbitration module with top-rated arbiters
and unbiased ratings. Arbiters selected to resolve a dispute on the Confideal
platform are either a qualified third-party legal firm or a professional.
• A smart contract management option that provides
full control over transactions (e. g. close deals, end them, set up fines and
down payments).
• Cryptocurrencies are utilized to eliminate all
payment barriers. No need for intermediaries which results in lower costs.
With the groundbreaking advancements of blockchain
technology, Confideal is on a
steady path to bridge the gap between the smaller circle of computer
programmers and coders who understand the inner workings of the technology and
the larger population of average, everyday users. With efforts to move smart
contracts toward mainstream adoption, efficient models of user interface become
vital. With Confideal’s efforts as a visual smart contract builder, it’s clear
that momentum in this space is heading in the right direction. Of course,
Confideal is not only about the builder itself. The three main features of
Confideal are: smart contracts, built-in arbitration, and CDL tokens. There are
tons of projects out there that offer only one feature and often they don’t
even have a ready to use product. Confideal, on the other hand, does have a
product and the project created a complete ecosystem that comes together into a
harmonious product. The built-in arbitration module is used in case of a dispute and basically it means that a
third party arbitrator will help you resolve or mediate the dispute.
Confideal’s initial coin offering (ICO) will commence on November 2,
2017, under the token name “Confideal” or “CDL.” The total supply of CDL tokens
will be 100,000,000 with a price breakdown of 1,000 CDL to 1 ETH. The total
supply will never increase and no additional tokens will ever be released.
CDL tokens are the internal, native currency for the Confideal
platform. For all transactions made in CDL, 1 percent of the contract fee is
exempted. Moreover, token users can participate in voting for arbiters.
Of the total ICO supply, 74 percent of the tokens will be sold via the
ICO. The remainder will be distributed as follows: 6 percent were sold during
the pre-ICO; 10 percent have been set aside for the team behind the platform; 4
percent for promotional activities; 4 percent for advisors; and 2 percent for a
bounty campaign.
“Following our ICO, we have a detailed roadmap
planned for developing the product,” Belousov said. “It includes the launch
of the arbitration module, API and widget, implementation of multiple smart
contract templates for various purposes, multi-language support, integration
with other technologies and blockchains. It is with this that we are excited
about the future of smart contracts.”
You can reach out for more on Confideal through .
Note: Trading and investing in digital assets is speculative. Based on the shifting business and regulatory environment of such a new industry, this content should not be considered investment or legal advice.
