By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 12th, 2024
The endorsement for blockchain technology and skepticism of exisiting technologies is reflected in Yang’s campaign website which states that traditionally used machines are vulnerable to tampering and hacking, when compared to the world’s latest available technologies.
One of the candidates for the 2020 presidential election in the U.S., Andrew Yang, says he wants to modernize voting with the little help of a blockchain technology.
He claims that considering the advances in technology, there is no reason why people should still be waiting in line at polling stations to cast votes.
He says the machines that are being used in most locales are also as vulnerable to tampering and hacking as the modern technologies.
He stated:
“Americans should be able to vote via their mobile device, with verification done via blockchain. This would dramatically increase participation in all elections, whether local, state or federal.”
Yang added that it is 100% technically possible to have fraud-proof voting on mobile phones today using the blockchain noting that people without smartphones could use the legacy system and lines would be very short.
If he was to be elected, Yang promises to do everything in order to modernize U.S. voting infrastructure by utilizing modern technology so it becomes easier and more secure to vote. Also, he hoes that these measures could increase the number of Americans participating in elections.
Yang is one of the rare crypto-friendly presidential candidates. Last month, Humanity Forward Fund, a Super PAC has partnered with OpenNode to exclusively accept Bitcoin donations for the first 21 days. After that, it will also accept donations in fiat. The fund vouches to refuse all “dark money” and disclose exactly how the money is spent.
According to the founder Seth Cohen, Bitcoin donations will be processed by OpenNode, that also supports payments through the Lightning Network. OpenNode charges only 1% processing fee, which is pretty much lower than what card processors charge.
Yang also called for “clear guidelines” on cryptocurrencies earlier this year. He called out U.S. national framework for failing to regulate these assets and several federal agencies for claiming conflicting jurisdictions.
He also mentioned that at the same time, states have come up with a patchwork of varying regulations that make it difficult for the US cryptocurrency markets to compete with Asian or European ones.
He said:
“Investment in cryptocurrencies and digital assets has far outpaced our regulatory frameworks in the US. We should let investors, companies, and individuals know what the landscape and treatment will be moving forward to support innovation and development. The blockchain has vast potential.”
Yang promised, that if elected for president he would promote legislation that provides clarity in the cryptocurrency/digital asset market space.
Among those measures he included defining of a token per se (when it is a security, recognizing “utility tokens”, etc.), defining of which federal agencies have regulatory power over the crypto/digital assets space, providing for consumer protections in the space, clarifying the tax implications of owning, selling, and trading digital assets, promoting the nationwide adoption of recognition of protections afforded by a series LLC and preempting state regulations, when possible, to create one national framework. Also, he said he would work with the sponsors of the Token Taxonomy Act and Wyoming legislators to promote the above, largely modeled after their work.
Yang is not the only candidate interested in crypto. Fellow Democratic candidate Eric Swalwell’s campaign (who recently stepped out from the race) said he would accept donations in BTC, BCH, BSV, ETH, XLM, and stablecoin WSD.
However, back in 2016, Rand Paul was accepting Bitcoin donations as well. Also, Yang’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, Tulsi Gabbard, obviously believes in the power of crypto as well since she was listed on an official Financial Disclosure Report as having purchased Ethereum and Litecoin in 2017.
Of course, we shouldn’t forget a rebellious John McAffee who recently doubled down on his $1 million by 2020 prediction for Bitcoin (BTC).
Bitcoin is at the mid 10's and people worry. LMFAO!! Why do you pay attention to weekly fluctuations? Look at the past few months FFS! It's rising drastically. I'm still positive about my $1 mil BTC price by the end of 2020. Alt coins like MTC and Apollo will rise ten times more.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) July 14, 2019
Be it as it may, it would have been nice to see someone who is more advanced than the one who thinks of Bitcoin as of “thin air”.