2016 Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Endorses Bitcoin

Last Sunday, Gary Johnson became the 2016 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, and it is now possible to support him using Bitcoin.

Liberal Party Candidate "Wild Card" Accepts Bitcoin

Johnson ran for election in 2012 and as his support grew, his supporters called him a "wild card" and many people turned their attention away from the candidates of the major parties.

Recent polls show that nearly 8% of Republican voters are interested in finding an alternative to Donald Trump, four times the number of Democrats.

Johnson told MSNBC in March:

"If the Liberals don't do anything this time, they're not going to do anything in the future, and I don't think we're going to fail."

This month he claimed that all the isolated voters were starting to support him, and that's what he was seeing.

The potential for the Liberals to make big strides in 2016 bodes well for Bitcoin, as Johnson has long used Bitcoin as a way to raise funds. Donations to him can be made using Bitcoin through the BitPay service on his campaign website.

Like Rand Paul before him, Johnson’s rising power could help raise public awareness of bitcoin more broadly, both from a celebrity standpoint and from a policy perspective.

Johnson served as governor of New Mexico for nine years, leaving office in 2003 when the state was one of four to achieve a balanced budget.

He advocated a value-balanced policy and voted against Bill 750 during the Clinton and Bush administrations, earning him the nickname "Naysayer Johnson."

Political party trends

Johnson is not the only public supporter of Bitcoin, either at home or abroad. In recent years, the currency has become part of regime change conflicts in several countries outside the United States, most notably Iceland.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, leader of the Icelandic Pirate Party, once said that the handful of countries that take the evil path of banning Bitcoin should become part of the "Switzerland of bits" (Digital Switzerland, meaning Iceland, which remains neutral in the digital world).

Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge has also publicly supported this favorable environment, and the Pirate movement has made cryptocurrencies part of their policy.

Meanwhile in the United States, questions are being raised about the Liberal Party's ability to support a winning candidate.

At the party presidents' conference on Sunday, a Liberal candidate actually did a striptease during his two-minute statement.