AUGUSTA — In a first for Maine, two 2014 political campaigns have decided to accept Bitcoin, a digital currency, absent official word from election watchdogs at the state and federal levels.

The candidates – Republican Eric Brakey, a state Senate candidate from New Gloucester; and Blaine Richardson, an independent Belfast conservative running to represent Maine’s 2nd Congressional District – made the announcements earlier this month.

About two weeks ago, Brakey tweeted a screen shot of the state’s first Bitcoin campaign contribution: 0.1133 Bitcoin, or about $91 at its Friday price.

In an early January news release, Brakey touted his raising of more than $21,000 in 2013, more money than any past Maine legislative campaign had raised to that point in an election cycle. While Brakey said only “several hundred” dollars had come in Bitcoin, he said it’s still worthwhile.

“It’s attracted a lot of young people who are digitally savvy, and it’s just a constituency that Bitcoin is attractive to.”

Matthew McDonald, Richardson’s campaign manager, said the campaign has only 0.13 Bitcoin, or about $105, as of Friday. He said it’s not necessarily the money, but the buzz surrounding Bitcoin that makes accepting it beneficial.

“It’s cutting-edge,” McDonald said. “Our campaign’s experimenting with technology and avenues that no campaign in Maine’s history has ever dealt with.”

Bitcoin, launched in 2009, is underpinned by a peer-to-peer computer network. Users of the network can “mine” coins by using software to solve complicated mathematical problems that release coins.

However, unlike normal currency, there’s no central authority controlling supply, and only 21 million coins will ever be released. About 12 million are in circulation now, and they’re designed to get harder to find as time goes on, with the last new Bitcoin expected to be found in the year 2140.

In that way, the system negates the effect of monetary inflation because finding new coins doesn’t devalue the ones in circulation. That arrangement has made Bitcoin popular in many circles, especially among libertarians distrustful of centralized currency systems. For example, the national Libertarian Party platform calls for ending “inflationary monetary policies” federally.

Brakey runs the libertarian Defense of Liberty political action committee and was the Maine director of the 2012 presidential campaign of Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican who used to represent part of Texas in Congress and wrote a 2009 book, “End the Fed,” which advocates abolishing the Federal Reserve, the United States’ central banking system. McDonald also was a Paul supporter in 2012.

“I think a lot of people are very frustrated with the way the Federal Reserve is printing money, devaluing money,” Brakey said.

Both Brakey and McDonald said they have small amounts of Bitcoin themselves, and McDonald says its appeal among many stems from its being “pure capitalistic currency.”

But Bitcoin isn’t officially recognized as currency, even though many businesses, such as Overstock.com, have started to accept it as payment.

That’s part of the reason why its entry into electioneering has caught regulators somewhat off-guard.

Michael Shepherd can be contacted at 370-7652 or at:



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