Bitcoin Gains Further Penetration in Global Politics
Cryptocurrency can be used to sidestep international and US sanctions. This idea is currently resonating with Iranian and Russian lawmakers. The revelation was made by Mohammad-Reza Pourebrahimi, the Chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary Commission for Economic Affairs.
Discussions along these lines were made during a meeting in Moscow with Dmitry Mezentsev who is the Chair of the Federation Council committee on Economic Policy. Pourebrahimi disclosed that the Russians “share our opinion. We said that if we manage to move this work forward, then we will be the first countries that use digital currencies in the exchange of goods.”
A report from Iran’s government-owned media, Press TV, states that the country’s leadership “specifically started to look at Bitcoin as an alternative medium for use in trade after it became clear that European companies were going to stop trading with Iran over fears that they would fall afoul of US primary sanctions.”
It is interesting to know that the Iranian government that put in place bans aimed at preventing its citizens from having access to cryptocurrencies is seeking exactly that medium of access for itself. Just recently, the Iranian government had issued directives barring banks and traditional foreign currency exchange shops from dealing in cryptocurrencies. The new announcement comes as a report recently revealed that Iranian citizens have sent more than $2.5 billion out of the country for the purposes of purchasing cryptocurrencies.
On Monday, a candidate for a US congressional seat in San Francisco, Brian Forde celebrated his campaign’s raising of $100,000 in cryptocurrency donations. Forde, who was once the head of MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative and President Obama’s Senior Technology Advisor, is running for the congressional seat in California’s technology belt.
Meanwhile, Forde’s main Democratic challenger, a former SEC enforcement attorney, has taken out campaign ads in which he attacked Forde’s record on cryptocurrencies and his donors. The ads label Forde and his crypto backers as “Bitcoin speculators that oppose cracking down on drug deals and human trafficking.”
At the time of this publication, there is a Republican-Trump supporter and a Bitcoin enthusiast who is running for the newly vacant New York Attorney General position.
The race for the San Francisco congressional seat and the run for New York Attorney General position are been seen by some as a very good example of how cryptocurrencies can impact politics in America especially as the issue is garnering support from both sides of the US political divide.
