By
Polina Chernykh
December 25th, 2014
The political candidate hopes his bitcoin-only fundraising campaign will improve bitcoin awareness across Sweden.
Mathias Sundin is the deputy mayor of the Swedish city Norrköping and previously a member of parliament. He’s running a campaign this year for a place in Parliament to represent the county of Östergötland. The interesting fact is that his campaign accepts donations only in bitcoins.
He explained:
“Bitcoin – and other digital currencies – is a fantastic innovation. By accepting only bitcoin in my campaign … I want to spread the knowledge and also hope some new people will try it.”
Though Mr. Sundin didn’t mention any particular numbers, he pointed out that I the very beginning of the announcement about 30 donations was received.
Mr. Sundin said that it doesn’t matter how much funds will be raised as he is confident his Liberal People’s Party (Folkpartiet), along with his existing financing will help him out through the election, commenting:
“Even if I don’t get that many donations I will stick with bitcoin through this campaign, and I hope and I think that the bitcoin community will help me out. Even if the donations don’t stack up that high I will be able to run my campaign.”
Mr. Sundin could be the first to refuse donations in legal, fiat currency, his campaign is only accepting bitcoin, refusing dollars, euros or even Swedish kronas.
Many argued that bitcoin as a cryptocurrency has a greater use in emerging economies than in countries with developed and stable financial systems.
However, consumers from stable economies in North America and Europe can sooner use new bitcoin products and services as they have stronger currencies, better access to financial services and electricity infrastructure. He mentioned:
“Sweden has a pretty strong economy – a pretty good way compared to other Western countries. Our welfare and our human rights are not a given.”
He said his goal is to bring Sweden to the forefront of the bitcoin industry. Sundin also pointed out bitcoin’s role in the economy of Sweden, mentioning the potential for creating many and high-paying jobs.
Emerging economies don’t have the same benefits, he said:
“Bitcoin is a real chance for the emerging economies to catch up, but at the same time we see that the investment in bitcoin companies is in the US. We [Sweden] have a well-built startup infrastructure, but we also have strong interest that will put pressure on lawmakers to slow down bitcoin. That might not be the case in all the emerging economies.”
