Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has filed to close its political action committee (PAC) on April 3. According to a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) — the regulatory agency in charge of enforcing election laws — Coinbase’s PAC received no funds nor made any disbursements, and is seeking to terminate the PAC. Per FEC regulations, a PAC must file a termination report in order to cease operations once it no longer intends to make or receive contributions or expenditures. In the U.S., PACs are independent organizations, often representing different business, labor, or policy interests, that collect and …

On March 7, news broke that Denver is slated to become the second United States jurisdiction to pilot a blockchain-powered mobile voting platform in its upcoming municipal election. Absentee voting will start on March 23 and will run until the Election Day, May 7. The announcement came almost exactly one year after the first initiative of this kind — deployment of mobile voting solution in West Virginia primaries and then midterm elections — was made public in March 2018. Once again, it was the Tusk Philanthropy foundation that spearheaded the effort, while Boston-based technology company Voatz took care of the …

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) of Thailand has developed blockchain technology for e-voting, the Bangkok Post reports on Jan. 2. NECTEC is a statutory government organization that operates under the purview of the National Science and Technology Development Agency and the Ministry of Science and Technology. The organization chiefly promotes the development of computing, electronics, IT and telecommunications. The technology reportedly can be deployed in tandem with traditional voting as Thais become more technologically literate. According to NECTEC, once 5G is eventually adopted, all votes will be connected with the new technology. Chalee Vorakulpipat, the head of …

The ongoing controversy surrounding Malaysia’s proposed political cryptocurrency, Harapan Coin, is far from letting up. On Nov. 26, the country’s finance minister, Lim Guan Eng, weighed in on the issue by reiterating that any entity looking to issue a cryptocurrency should first refer to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Securities Commission: “Don’t do it without Bank Negara’s guidelines or directive on the matter to avoid doing something wrong and against the law.” During the same press conference, Lim Guan Eng also said that he had asked a government official — who has recently made a series of statements in …

The presidential candidate of Nigeria’s leading opposition party has promised to support blockchain and cryptocurrency, local news outlet the DailyPost article reported Nov. 24. The Nigerian news outlet reportedly analyzed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar’s “Get Nigeria Working Again” policy that he reportedly promised to enact if he is elected president February 16, 2019. DailyPost reports that in the document, the politician declared that “he aims to speed up the economy positively through blockchain and cryptocurrency.” According to DailyPost, Abubaka stated that to unlock “the potentials of the new economy” PDP “shall promote the production of a …

The Secretary of State of the U.S. state of West Virginia Mac Warner reported a successful first instance of remote blockchain voting in an official announcement Nov. 15. Warner stated that in the 2018 midterm elections, 144 military personnel stationed overseas from 24 counties were able to cast their ballots on a mobile, blockchain-based platform called Voatz, adding: “This is a first-in-the-nation project that allowed uniformed services members and overseas citizens to use a mobile application to cast a ballot secured by blockchain technology.” Voting for the general elections on the platform started in September, when absentee balloting opened in …

Every four years in November, about halfway into each presidential term, voters in the US head to the polls to fill 36 state governor seats, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and about one-third of the 100 US Senate offices. Widely considered a referendum on a sitting president, midterm elections often produce power shifts in Congress, especially if the head of the executive and his party are not particularly impressive early in the term. This time, Democrats were full of hopes to summon a ‘Blue Wave’ and break the unified Republican control of the government. While the …

A new survey by blockchain-oriented research firm Clovr showed that 60 percent of respondents think that cryptocurrency should be treated like fiat currency in political elections. In the course of its research, Clovr surveyed 1,023 eligible voters registered in the U.S. for their understanding of what impact virtual currency could exert on the political process. Per the survey, almost 60 percent of the voters surveyed answered that crypto and the U.S. dollar should be treated the same, while only 21 percent of respondents said the opposite. “60 percent of eligible voters believed that it should be legal to donate cryptocurrency …

Fernando Haddad, the presidential candidate for the Brazil Workers’ Party, has published his government plan via blockchain, per an announcement published on his website Oct. 14. According to the release, Haddad decided to use blockchain technology for disseminating information about his presidential campaign after a long-term struggle with fake news reports. As information stored on a blockchain cannot be altered or compromised, he decided to store the data on a decentralized platform. The release also notes that Haddad used “free software” in Sao Paulo where he served as mayor from 2013–2017. The software solutions monitored various city projects, including the …

On Sept. 20, the crypto community was rattled by the news that California’s political campaign regulator ruled in favor of an outright ban of any and all cryptocurrency donations. It came across as a surprise for many that the progressive state, which is home to the world’s largest technology hub as well as to a politician whom Bloomberg calls the ‘Crypto Candidate for Congress,’ has suddenly set such a hard-handed regulatory precedent in the run-up to November’s elections. If anything, the signals that emanated from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) up to this point were largely positive: Just …

West Virginians have begun using a blockchain-based mobile voting app for casting absentee ballots in the upcoming midterm elections, Slate reported September 25. Citizens of West Virginia that currently live overseas have reportedly started using a blockchain-enabled application for voting on Friday, September 21. The application — dubbed Voatz — will allow voters registered in 24 countries to cast absentee ballots via smartphone, mainly targeting military members stationed abroad. The pilot project for remote voting, which was only available to a select group of voters, started in March and was successfully completed on May 8, the day of West Virginia’s …

U.S. Senate candidate Austin Petersen, who is known for his Bitcoin (BTC) advocacy, lost the Republican primary election Aug. 7. According to unofficial results published by the Missouri Secretary of State, Petersen lost the battle to Attorney General Josh Hawley, who received 58.6 percent of the 663,553 votes. Hawley will go on to face to Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in the general election. Petersen tweeted: “Sorry I couldn't pull out a win for us, friends. My faults as a candidate are my own, and not the fault of our activists. I am not a perfect messenger. One day soon …