The US Elections Bureau approves the use of NFTs as an incentive for campaign fundraising
The US Federal Election Commission (FEC) has issued an advisory statement that DataVault Holdings may use non-fungible tokens for fundraising efforts.
In a Dec. 15 announcement, the FEC said it was “permissible” for DataVault holdings to send non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to political campaign contributors without violating corporate contribution rules. According to the electoral agency, DataVault will receive “reasonable compensation” for each NFT issued to contributors, as well as track all tokens issued for its own records.
“The Commission concludes that DataVault’s proposal to provide political committees with NFTs on the same terms as they regularly offer their non-political clients would be a permissible extension of credit by DataVault in the ordinary course of business,” FEC Chairman Allen Dickerson said. “Pursuant to the Act and Commission regulations, an incorporated commercial vendor may extend credit to political committees on terms substantially similar to those offered by the vendor to non-political debtors. DataVault is a ‘commercial vendor’ because its ordinary and normal business involves the provision of the same services which it proposes to offer to political committees.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph, DataVault CEO Nathaniel Bradley said:
“We are very pleased with the unanimous approval by the FEC of our patented DataVault platform for use by political campaigns here in the United States. In a broader view, we believe, Blockchain technology represents the future of elections that seek to be reliable and transparent in the results in the future.
In September, DataVault’s legal team proposed that the firm should be allowed to send NFTs as souvenirs — “in a manner similar to a campaign hat” — to people who contributed to political committees. The tokens will also allow token holders to use them to promote a campaign “strictly on a voluntary basis and without compensation.” Any fees from issuing NFTs or transactions will be reported as a “collection expense”, according to DataVault.
The FEC issued a similar advisory opinion in 2019 on blockchain tokens, saying that certain were “essentially indistinguishable from traditional forms of campaign souvenirs.” In that case, congressional candidate Omar Reyes’ tokens had “no monetary value” and were used as an incentive to participate in campaign volunteer activities.
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NFTs have sometimes been linked to political campaigns globally. In South Korea, the campaign behind Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung said in January it would issue NFTs showing photos of the politician and his campaign promises to those who made donations.
