Despite being frowned upon by some sectors in the past, it is becoming increasingly normal that a candidate for a political position accepts cryptocurrency via donations with the intention of funding his or her campaign. It has to do with digital assets positioning themselves in the economic landscape in more and more locations.

Now, the most recent report is coming from the United States of America, a country that will host a presidential election process next year. A new PAC (a term that refers to a Political Action Committee) that supports candidate Andrew Yang will take donations in Bitcoin (BTC) through the Lightning Network.

Meet the Humanity Forward Fund

The PAC has been dubbed the Humanity Forward Fund (Humanity FWD,) and this week, it published its Bitcoin-based fundraising project. It is called “21 Days of Bitcoin for the 21st Century” and it will keep taking donations in BTC until August 14th, according to the entity’s website, https://www.humanityfwd.org/.

The website states that “21st Century Problems require 21st Century Solutions. This includes transforming the future of work in a world of rapid advances in automation and technology; tackling the existential threat of climate change and recognizing healthcare and basic economic security as human rights.”

Yang is a candidate for the Democratic Party. His followers launched the Humanity FWD initiative this week in order to support his candidacy for the US presidency in the 2020 elections, according to a specialized crypto news site.

A Partnership with OpenNode

Humanity FWD, with the intention of reaching its fundraising goal and enabling the Bitcoin-powered network to accept the donations, established a partnership with OpenNode, a payment processor. Bitcoin from lightning wallets will be accepted.

“The super PAC obviously wants to receive donations as large as possible. But at the same time, individuals who want to donate just a bit to Yang’s platform now have that opportunity,” were the words of OpenNode CEO Afnan Rahman to the mentioned site. “It allows the donors to have all of the amount go toward the actual donation rather than miner fees.”

Seth Cohen, the Founder of Humanity FWD, observed that the initiative will only accept BTC for the first 21 days. Donations in fiat currency will be accepted after that, as well. As for the future of the BTC funds raised, Cohen said that “potentially earning or losing money creates additional regulatory requirements.”

According to Cohen, OpenNode has a tiny and convenient 1% processing fee, which would be inferior to that of a regular credit card processor.

Crypto Donations in the United States

Crypto donations have been occurring in the United States for a several years now; the 2020 process may be the first one in which a Bitcoin-centered PAC takes the scene to ask for support for a specific candidate, in this case Andrew Yang.

Yang has been earning a reputation in recent months as the most pro-crypto candidate of all. He has listed an official promise in his website that will “promote legislation that provides clarity” to the current states of things regarding cryptocurrencies.

By Andres Chavez

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