RandPaulCoin to Fund 2016 Presidential Campaign
Sen. Rand Paul was one of the first Republican Senators to announce they would be voting for the resolution to rein in Donald Trump's unconstitutional executive order. | Source: Shutterstock
RandPaulCoin is a Bitshares fork that seeks to promote the American libertarian movement by creating a Rand Paul-branded crypto-platform. Eventually, developers hope RandPaulCoin can be used to help fund a future presidential campaign for the politician.
Bitshares Fork RandPaulCoin Seeks to Fund 2016 Presidential Campaign
RonPaulCoin launched in December 2013 to promote economic freedom and honor the man who served as the liberty movement’s primary voice in United States politics. Since Ron Paul has retired and RonPaulCoin has effectively died, it was only a matter of time until someone released a coin for his son and fellow libertarian-leaning politician Rand.
Unlike RonPaulCoin, which is a Litecoin fork, the RandPaulCoin developers chose to clone Bitshares to–at least partially–fulfill the Kentucky senator’s desire to have a cryptocurrency backed by stocks. Although RandPaulCoins are not backed by physical stocks, users can utilize the Bitshares-based system to create market pegs for items such as gold and silver.
The developers are not shy about their mission, stating in their BitcoinTalk announcement they want to use cryptocurrency to support economic freedom.
This is being done to forward the ideals and goals of the Libertarian Movement,…to honor Ron Paul’s son and his message of Liberty with a coin of his own,… in hopes of building a platform for donations,…in hopes of becoming the first Decentralized Autonomous Entity to make a direct political contribution,…to provide a currency where the natural right to privacy is honored in transactions between people,…to help further the understanding of Delegated Proof of Stake and what the Bitshares system provides,…[and] to further Liberty and Prosperity with the tenets of Austrian Economics.
Elsewhere, developers state they want to use the coin to help fund a presidential campaign for Paul. Initially, this will require Paul to accept bitcoin donations. If he decides to accept bitcoin, supporters can send RandPaulCoins to his bitcoin address and his staffers can redeem them using the bitcoin address’ private key. However, developers plan to create a system to support Paul’s potential campaign more directly.
Distribution
Since RandPaulCoin utilizes Bitshares’ Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS), the coin is not mineable. Rather, developers will distribute the 1,000,000 RandPaulCoins via a sharedrop . Half of the coins will go to RonPaulCoin holders according to a blockchain snapshot on November 27. Another 20% will go to bitcoin holders. Developers will distribute the remaining 300,000 coins to Dogecoin, Protoshares, and Aegis coin holders (snapshot date TBD).
Analysis
To date, cryptocurrency donations have had not had a widespread impact on political campaigns. Part of the reason for this–at least in the United States–is that the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has issued confusing statements about the legality of cryptocurrency contributions. Nevertheless, bitcoin is making inroads into politics, and it seems likely cryptocurrency could play a significant role in campaign donations within the next couple election cycles. However, it is doubtful RandPaulCoin–or any other politician-branded altcoin–will bring that change. Rather, bitcoin will probably continue to seep into politics as it becomes increasingly mainstream.
What do you think of this Rand Paul-branded crypto-platform to promote the American Libertarian movement? Comment below!
Images from RandPaulCoin, Christopher Halloran and Shutterstock
