[Cryptography] Bitcoins and lobbyists

[Henry Baker]

(I'm going to use the term "Bitcoin" here as the best-known examplar of many block-chain-based cryptocurrencies.)<br>

I was listening to a radio program where an investigative reporter was describing the (laborious) process by which she traced campaign contributions using the various disclosure statements required by the U.S. government.<br>

It occurred to me that she was performing -- by hand -- many of the same steps that a Bitcoin miner has to perform, by tracing the sources and sinks of the various money flows through individuals, corporations, LLC's, law firms, etc.<br>

If these money flows had all been Bitcoin-based, her job would have been trivial: the government would simply require the disclosure of the Bitcoin addresses of the various participants, and the Bitcoin miners (and the various Bitcoin tracing technologies) would do the rest.<br>

Thus, instead of *resisting* Bitcoins & blockchain technologies, perhaps democracies interested in "open" governments should *embrace* Bitcoins, and indeed, *require* Bitcoins for all lobbying transactions.<br>

Thus, the "Fourth Estate" -- the press -- performs "mining" for the control of democratic governments themselves.<br>

Thomas Carlyle and Edmund Burke would have approved.<br>