The US FEC (Federal Election Commission) practically decided to allow the mining pools to donate funds to the political campaigns. This controversial news was released through a website memo.
FEC practically decided to address the request made by OsiaNetwork LLC for advisory opinion. OsiaNetwork asked for official confirmation of the business plan of the business. Little public information is available at the moment about the startup. However the decision can become a true deal breaker for the existence of the company.
OsiaNetwork practically proposed a business model that would:
…enable individuals to support federal political committees by volunteering the processing power of their internet enabled devices to mine cryptocurrencies.
The US FEC did respond in a move that could be quite big trouble for the OsiaNetwork. Ultimately, it does add dynamism to the entire space. The FEC practically stated that:
Although the proposed cryptocurrency mining pool as described in the request is itself permissible under the Act and Commission regulations, the activities of the individuals do not fall within the volunteer internet activities exception, and would therefore result in contributions from them and from OsiaNetwork to the participating political committees.
To put things as simple as possible, the idea showcased is that mining pools are allowed to donate to the political campaigns. OsiaNetwork is actually going to be allowed to practically set up such mining pools. However, it is not allowed to enter extended relationships so they cannot act as middleman.
OsiaNetwork will not be allowed to make the actual campaign contributions. Due to this the question of whether or not a long-term relationship inside the set up pool can be established becomes natural. However, if the political committees are OsiaNetwork clients, it will be possible.
The fact that the FEC practically banned the proposed OsiaNetwork relationship model (Osia donating on behalf of the client), private donations are allowed. They are going to offer increased flexibility for people that want to donate cryptocurrency to the parties through mining pools. The plan by OsiaNetwork is to make money from a scheme that is centered around it becoming an official institutionalized actor for the mining pools that would be set up to give political cryptocurrency donations. Even so, the donations are officially allowed when being decentralized.
