US politician Jared Polis is going to protect the digital currency in the US and will fight against lawmakers that want to ban bitcoin.
Jared Polis, a 39-years-old politician and democrat, became known among the bitcoin enthusiasts after his response to the recent attempts of lawmakers to ban bitcoin.
In March, US congressman issued a letter to address federal regulators, in which he satirically called them to ban US dollar instead of bitcoin.
In the letter he wrote that “the exchange of dollar bills, including high denomination bills, is currently unregulated and has allowed users to participate in illicit activity.” The statements were quite similar to those made by the opponents of the digital currency.
After the move Polis became an ‘unofficial spokesperson’ for the cryptocurrency.
Polis could be elected for another two-year term this November. In his interview for CoinDesk, the politician said that he would be against any attempts of the authorities to ban bitcoin usage and to restrict the growth of the digital currency community.
He said: “If there was an agency that reacted in an irrationally negative way to digital currencies, I would be happy to rally support [in Congress] to restrict their funding.”
Polis has always been interested in the technologies and the Internet, although he still makes online payments using his credit cards.
When Polis studied in college, he founded his first firm, called American Information Systems, web hosting, an Internet access and application service provider.
After graduating from college, he co-founded Techstars company in Colorado in 2006. The firm provides $118,000 in seed funding and has a wide network of mentors, including Union Square Ventures partner and cryptocurrency investor Fred Wilson, I Can Has Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh.
Taking into account this involvement into the technology ecosystem, Polis states that he became immediately interested in the concept of the online currency free from governmental control. He said: “I certainly heard about online currencies and bitcoin for a long time, and I think my initial thought was, it’s about time.”
When the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) permitted the usage of bitcoin for political campaigns, Polis was among the first to start accepting the digital currency and raised $1,500 in the first weeks. Polis now says that during his campaign he obtained more than $2,000 in total.
Congress members are starting to express more interest in the virtual currencies due to the appeal of bitcoin. Polis says he is frequently asked by the members about bitcoin.
However, he thinks that the government may not permit further growth of the digital currency. Polis said: “We haven’t seen the full backlash yet, in part, because bitcoins aren’t fully mainstream. But, as they become more and more mainstream, inevitably, they are in some ways usurping the prerogative of nation states, and I fully expect to see more pushback from countries including [the US].”
“I’ll keep my eye on these things, and if I see issues and problems, we’ll try to bring them to the attention of the bitcoin community,” he added.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
