First Ever Bitcoin PAC Launches Politicoin ICO to Support Candidates

BitPAC, the first ever Bitcoin (BTC) political action committee (PAC), will expand its candidate supporting program with an initial coin offering (ICO), Coindesk reports on Aug. 28.

Utility token, not a thing of value

Dan Backer, who founded BitPAC back in 2014, revealed that the committee will issue a utility token dubbed Politicoin, which will be used to support the PAC and its candidates running for public office. 

Backer emphasized that the upcoming Politicoin is a utility token, which will not function as a store of value, explaining that the purpose of the project is to provide token holders with some sort of voting right. Backer said:

“It’s a utility token, not a thing of value. I don’t care if people want to buy, sell trade their token, if an exchange wants to list it that’s fantastic. We have some larger scale, grand or long-term plans but we have to start somewhere.”

Backer also stressed that BitPAC has its own funds but they also want to do an ICO to grant anyone who donates the PAC with one Politicoin, the report notes.

Initially, BitPAC reportedly plans to support one single candidate, Dan Bishop, a North Carolina state senator running for the United States House of Representatives in a special election. 

However, in the future, the committee plans to build a platform to support any registered candidate from both Republican and Democratic parties.

Supporting candidates with crypto

According to the report, voters will be able to donate with cash. However, voters will have to contact Backer or another member of his team if they would like to donate cryptocurrency. 

This is due to the reporting requirements by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Backer elaborated:

“He could accept bitcoin, ether and a number of other cryptocurrencies as long as we’re able to identify the contributors and perform the compliance function with respect to FEC reporting requirements.”

In this regard, BitPAC was shut down in 2018 due to unclarity of reporting crypto donations. Backer explains that he decided to re-establish the PAC after he realized that is is still unclear how to report crypto donations.

In July, Humanity Forward Fund, which supports presidential candidate Andrew Yang, launched Bitcoin donations through Lightning Network.