New Party in Ukraine to Fund Itself Only with Cryptos

A newly formed party in Ukraine has vowed to rely only on cryptocurrency contributions to sustain its activity and never to accept money from the oligarchs. Weakening state control over economy and expanding civil liberties are among its main political priorities. The party wants to protect the interests of people and companies from the IT sector, as well those of small and medium-sized Ukrainian businesses in other industries.

Also read: Ukraine to Compensate a Citizen in Bitcoin – for “Moral Damages”

Serious Ideas, Funny Faces

Several prominent Ukrainian bloggers have announced the formation of arguably the world’s first political party which will fund its activities exclusively through crypto contributions. The new right-wing, liberal political force, called “Democratic Horde”, intends to achieve its political goals mainly through Internet trolling, as stated on its website.

According to its founders, the party will work to weaken state control over Ukrainian economy and fight to expand the civil liberties in the country, Forklog reported. The main PR-strategy comes down to “ruthless banter and playing with the images of modern pop culture”. Members of the party’s so-called “Orc-committee” are some famous Ukrainian bloggers – Yuri Gudimenko, Anton Shvets, Igor Shtedrin, Alexander Noinets, and Victor Tregubov. According to Igor Shtedrin:

It is better to carry serious ideas with a funny face than funny ideas with a serious face. It’s necessary to protect the interests of those who work, and not those who collect. Our world views, our methods differ from those of present day politicians. They live solely on money they get from the oligarchs. We have found a way to depend only on our supporters.

Shtedrin pointed out that “Democratic Horde” is world’s first party to consider crypto mining as an alternative to political contributions in fiat money. Its members have developed an application, which can be used by supporters to generate cryptocurrency “for the good of the party”. They will be mining “orccoins”. In the future, the digital tokens will also be used in voting within the party.

Petition Calls for Moratorium on Regulations

Members of the crypto community in Ukraine, and a number of Ukrainian officials, have called for legalizing cryptocurrencies in the country. Several bills have been introduced in the Rada, but no comprehensive regulations have been adopted yet.

A cybersecurity meeting in January discussed cryptocurrencies, and the National Security Council set up a working group tasked with finalizing the regulatory proposals. The country’s justice minister and the State Financial Monitoring Service have already expressed their views on cryptocurrencies. The parliament in Kiev, however, has not advanced towards adopting the necessary legal framework.

Meanwhile, a petition calling on the government to refrain from regulating cryptocurrencies like bitcoin has been gaining support at Change.org. The author, a female Ukrainian user with the nickname Mary Lee, insists that it’s legally and technically impossible to regulate cryptocurrencies.

“Officials will once again regulate investors, traders, entrepreneurs, and ordinary crypto users, but they can’t regulate cryptocurrencies,” she says, calling to “Leave people and their money alone.”

Several other petitions have been collecting signatures in Ukraine. One calling for the legalization of cryptocurrencies was registered on the website of Ukraine’s presidency earlier this year. It needs 25,000 signatories to be accepted by the presidential administration. Another petition on the Change.org platform calls for setting up a working group to develop a comprehensive regulatory concept for the cryptocurrency market.

Do you believe that political and civic action can change the attitude of authorities towards crypto regulation? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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