In the United States, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) were distributed for election campaigning to engage and receive support from young people.
NFTs for campaigning in the US: the case of Shrina Kurani
According to some politicians, it seems that NFTs are good tools to use for electoral campaigning in order to engage and get support from young people.
This is the case of Congressional candidate Shrina Kurani, who describes herself as the first to distribute NFTs to campaign donors through SolSea.
When I talked about wanting to launch a NFT for my campaign, I got blank stares. Most folks in the political world had no idea what I was talking about or only knew crypto as something criminals were involved with.
We’re bringing a fresh face to crypto. https://t.co/BJpcJVaofw
— Shrina Kurani for Congress (@shrinakurani) December 29, 2021
“When I talked about wanting to launch a NFT for my campaign, I got blank stares. Most folks in the political world had no idea what I was talking about or only knew crypto as something criminals were involved with. We’re bringing a fresh face to crypto. http://shrinakurani.solsea.io”
The Democrat, who is running in California’s 42nd congressional district, reportedly published 2,022 NFTs on Solana’s blockchain as a representation of potential Web 3 political agenda items.
Crypto increasingly in politics
The entry of NFTs into politics is just a consequence of what the whole crypto sector is doing: expanding.
Indeed, there are already cases in the US where candidates are accepting crypto donations to finance their election campaigns. To cite one, last November, US Senate candidate Katie Britt, for example, had already set up a dedicated section for donations in Bitcoin but also Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LITE) and USD Coin (USDC) for her campaign.
Not only that, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a leading cryptocurrency advocate in Congress, reportedly solicits and promotes campaign contributions through Bitcoin and is pushing legislatively to create rules and guidelines for the industry. Here’s what Lummis allegedly stated:
“Financial innovation is a good thing, including in politics. Digital assets are secure and easy to use, and while only a few Members of Congress currently accept digital asset campaign donations, I know that number will grow. We are at the start of the digital asset revolution, and I hope my fellow senators will join me in championing financial innovation, because it will be a key factor in America’s continued global financial leadership”.
Politics and Bitcoin: from election campaigns to salaries
Bitcoin remains at the centre of attention in US politics and does so not only for election campaigns, but also for salaries.
This very first week of the year, the new mayor of New York, Eric Adams, said that he is looking forward to receiving his salary in Bitcoin. Something that has been stated before, but that only from this first month of the year will finally come to fruition, as Adams has officially taken office in his role.
Meanwhile, the price of BTC is hovering around $40,000, hitting $39,900 yesterday, and quickly recovering. At the time of writing, BTC is worth $41,892.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/01/11/united-states-nft-election-campaign/