UPDATE (26th August 19:55 BST): This article has been updated with comment from Perianne Boring.
The Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) has revealed that it intends to form a political action committee (PAC) to help further the interests of the bitcoin industry in Washington, DC.
The government affairs office, led by bitcoin advocate Perianne Boring, first filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this month to create its committee.
The PAC, as reported by The Hill, will enable the CDC to provide campaign donations to political candidates that support digital currency.
Boring commented that the group is at the beginning of the PAC formation process, and that the broader goals of the group are still being established. She later explained that by creating a PAC, the CDC can play a stronger ground game in Washington.
Boring told CoinDesk:
“Making campaign contributions to one’s political sympathizers is absolutely crucial to being taken seriously in Washington, DC. Rightly so. As Jesse Unruh once remarked, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.” Our industry needs to grow up, fast, and play by the real world rules. A PAC is part of that.”
The announcement positions the CDC to influence a growing part of the US political process, as PACs have come to serve a prominent, and sometimes controversial, role in local, state and national US elections.
Tools for bitcoin activism
By establishing a PAC, the CDC will be able to put its money to work supporting candidates who are more active on the issue of digital currency. The PAC may donate funds to support bitcoin initiatives and events throughout the US, or even other similar PACs that could form in the future.
Such groups are allowed to give thousands of dollars to individual candidates or other PACs each election cycle.
Boring told The Hill that the operational scope of the PAC is still being determined, but she said that its agenda will fit into the broader goals of the CDC.
Sights on 2015
The latest announcement from the CDC comes days after the group submitted comment to the New York Department of Financial Service on its proposed BitLicense framework.
At the time, the group proposed that the NYDFS should put in place exemptions for small businesses and startups in the digital currency space or else risk stifling innovation.
Still, Boring noted that the PAC is unlikely to influence any broader US policy in the short term, adding:
“We’re just being prepared for next year, is really what we’re doing.”
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