US Congress Candidates Now Adopting NFTs For Campaign Funding

What does this new development mean for NFTs now that intending lawmakers are beginning to embrace the realities of campaigning through web3?

Future Policy Changes?

If you’ve been paying attention to the crypto community and cryptocurrencies, you would know just how much crypto-related endeavours are disliked in Washington DC and across most other world capitals. It’s not hard to work out why significant economies that have built their wealth through fiat currencies and commodities refuse to allow decentralized currencies to compromise their dominance.

As much pushback as the crypto community has had to deal with, it’s evident to everyone that it’s only a matter of time until cryptocurrencies become dominant. It came as a surprise to a lot of us when we learned that a considerable amount of US Congress hopefuls are turning to NFTs as a means of raising campaign funds.

https://twitter.com/crypto/status/1480604822701330437

During the 2022 election cycle, a few Congress hopefuls have tried to fund their campaigns by selling NFTs with varying degrees of success. Blake Masters, a US Senate candidate from Arizona, reportedly raised $574,200 by rewarding donors with 99 NFTs based on one of his books. On the other hand, Shrina Kurani, a web3 advocate and US Congress candidate for CA-42, offered 2,022 Solana NFTS but could only sell about 11 of them and ultimately raised $6,610 by the time her offer ended.

The Unexpected Interaction Between Politics and NFTs

If one thing has stopped the acceptance of crypto technology and web3, it would be decentralization. Decentralization has always been the major stumbling block that has gotten this technology banned or heavily monitored in some countries.

It’s a bit of a puzzle to see US Congress candidates utilizing NFTs as a way to finance their campaigns. Interestingly, this trend doesn’t just occur in the USA; Lee Jae Myung, a South Korean presidential candidate, used NFTs to raise funds for their campaign. He aims to connect with the young generation of South Koreans in their 20’s and 30’s that are interested in virtual assets.

Many people in the crypto space are optimistic that if enough lawmakers adopt NFTs and related technologies, it’ll better understand the political elites. If this happens, the possibilities are endless.

https://twitter.com/cryptscp/status/1480968036064526337?s=21

With this in mind, Dapper Labs filed a registration to lobby in Washington DC on issues directly related to NFTs, and they’re not going to be the last Web3 player to make such a move.

The Future of NFTs in Politics

NFTs have been helping us redefine how we interact with the virtual world and confer value; some people feel like the recent adoption of NFTs by politicians is a welcome change and a representation of what the future might hold for this technology.

Others feel like the current NFT “trend” among politicians might be a way to pander to the hype currently surrounding NFTS. Whether NFTs are here to redefine the way we do politics or this is just a short-term façade by politicians, only time will tell.