Dathes
Molly WhiteIt’s finally time to release my newest project: https://www.followthecrypto.org/
This website provides a real-time lens into the cryptocurrency industry’s efforts to influence 2024 elections in the United States.
I have been working on this for the past two months, after growing increasingly concerned about the influence this industry is trying to exert. Did you know crypto companies have spent more this cycle than the oil or pharmaceutical industries, despite being a small fraction of the size?
There is more to come, including a bot that will post real-time updates about contributions or expenditures, which you can follow in advance at @[email protected]. You can also learn more in my announcement post over at Citation Needed: https://citationneeded.news/follow-the-crypto.
Please share widely! And, if you don’t already, consider supporting my work. This kind of independent research is what I do full-time, entirely thanks to support from people like you. https://www.mollywhite.net/support/
Mark@molly0xfff Chaos in the financial markets is good for Crypto so we know which candidate they support. Pity the retirees who depend on their 401Ks to live.
Cali@molly0xfff that is wild 😳
Noah Cook@molly0xfff For a bit of perspective, that "all health" spending is where it is in part because healthcare is 1/6 of the economy, but also because CMS's budget is a bit over $1 Trillion-with-a-T. That includes Medicare, the federal portions of Medicaid/CHIP, and other programs.
So $200 million in lobbying is perhaps understandable. What the hell does the crypto industry expect to get? I suspect that the answer is not entirely financial.
MarkV@UncivilServant @molly0xfff I wonder how much of this is “regular” domestic spend vs. foreign influence using crypto as a hard-to-trace backdoor to influence US elections.
Sophie Schmieg@UncivilServant @molly0xfff depends, does financial fraud count as being financial? In the end, that's how I would gauge most, if not all, cryptocurrency lobbying: attempts at making fraud and scam legal.
@sophieschmieg @molly0xfff Yes and no.
Obviously they want to do that, but most industries do not need to spend this much money to do so. In Medicine, you see a lot of money being spent in part because there's at least a trillion in federal spending involved, even without any new laws or regs that would affect an overall market a sixth of US GDP.
There's nothing remotely comparable at stake financially for crypto, so I assume they have broader sociopolitical goals and are buying access.
Ted Mielczarek@molly0xfff I was shocked at first by how low the defense sector spending is but I guess they've already got full regulatory capture and a near-$1T budget that never goes down no matter which party controls any branch of government so what are they even spending money lobbying for?
BlindMansBinary@tedmielczarek @molly0xfff Defense has regulatory capture the other way around -- it's practically a state-run industry by now, although Congress is trying to undo what they've done it's going to take years.
As for the budget, it's the lowest as a proportion of economic activity since before WW2, despite the growing threats to the country. We're sleepwalking into a catastrophe that will end up way more pricey than had we chose to do it right and deter war in the first place.
@BlindMansBinary @molly0xfff we still spend more than the next 5 countries combined so I don't think "spend more" is a reasonable answer.
@tedmielczarek @molly0xfff There are definitely structural reforms that need to happen (which is why Congress is trying to undo the things that have turned defense into a semi-state industry), but there's also only so much you can expect when the average highly-skilled American worker makes so much more than their peers in countries 2-5. The U.S. has to outspend its own non-defense private sector to be able to produce defense goods.
Allan Chow@molly0xfff crypto return on Opex is astronomically high so long as they can find more people to hold the bag and the US market is still less tapped than Asia and South america
aardvark
Kevin Karhan 
aproitzThe #Reasons, why the #Cryptoindustry pumps so much #Money into the #USElection and #Interestgroups would be very #interesting too.
Mark@molly0xfff what a waste
notsoloud@molly0xfff
What interest could the industry most closely linked to organized crime have in a US election?
What interest could the industry most closely linked to organized crime have in a US election?
Martin Vermeer FCD@molly0xfff Perhaps time to just ban crypto. It has no - or even negative - societal value.
Alexander@molly0xfff Is it really crypto, or could other lobby groups be behind what looks like "crypto" on the outside?
@Scriddie the site shows that the money is coming from cryptocurrency firms, or in some cases from VCs with investments in the crypto industry
Chris Kletsch
cryptax@molly0xfff Interesting. I suppose this is legal in the US? Do you see a reason the various parties use cryptocurrencies rather than USD? + how do you trace the sums: must be quite difficult to know *who* spends and *what* for, as transactions are usually anonymous... how do you do that? any research paper on that aspect?
@cryptax most of this spending is in dollars. where they do spend in crypto, they still have to report it to the FEC.
it's possible (likely, even) that there's dark spending happening that isn't being reported, but that's not what this site is tracking.
Mark Krueger@molly0xfff Thank you for this incredible resource! Following the money is always one of the best ways to understand politicians; and it is appalling how much influence crypto organizations are peddling.
Stuart Langridge@molly0xfff how interesting! Nice work; this sort of transparency around payments into politics can only be a good thing. Is it tracking this by officially declared payments from organisations to a political party/person, or is it doing it by looking at blockchain transactions between bitcoin wallets (or by correlating the two)? (My limited understanding is that looking at transactions like this is possible but of it’s not, sorry! And quite possibly the payments are being made in real money ofc)
@sil the former. most of the spending happens in dollars
@molly0xfff ah, fair enough! One avenue of tracking this stuff closed off. But it's an excellent thing you've put together: nice one.
Glyph@molly0xfff this looks like fantastic work but I confess I am not sure what to do with this but feel vaguely nauseated
@molly0xfff like is there any way to interfere with or block this spending? it seems like a fait accompli at this point ☹️
@glyph overturning citizens united sure would help
but generally I think awareness is the first step — hence the site. we can't fight it if we don't know it's happening.
@molly0xfff okay I will get right on that
But yes, I agree that having the information is the necessary first step and I really appreciate your work in compiling it. This is truly nightmarish, I hope you didn’t take too much psychic damage doing it.
@molly0xfff OFC #KatiePorter being in favour of #WageWorkers is making her a target of said #CryptoBros...
Very #interesting, although the #Resolution of the #Chart is somehow #blurry.
They try to take heavy #Influence on the #Parties. Very good #Work. 👏
JonathanInteresting stuff. Katie Porter had $10 million raised by crypto interests thrown against her campaign.
Josh@molly0xfff @ReticentTurnip 1. I love this ❤️
2. They’ve probably spent that $38M additionally in public funded utilities and eco-credits to mine the damn things. 😡
2. They’ve probably spent that $38M additionally in public funded utilities and eco-credits to mine the damn things. 😡
kira :3@molly0xfff oh this is incredible, we love it
PetterOfCats@molly0xfff that’s a lot of money laundering.
wrwHave you (or anyone else) extended this investigation to other countries and their upcoming elections? I think it might be interesting to see if cryptocurrency is being used to dodge rules around political spending in Canada with its upcoming federal election. Especially since Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the conservative party has been a booster of cryptocurrency in the past.
@wrw this project tracks election spending by the cryptocurrency industry rather than election spending using crypto
KChernecky For Democracy
Zorro Notorious MEB 🪷🪷🪷
DamonGang@molly0xfff interesting idea
scott f@molly0xfff Love this. Will you incorporate local races as well? Chris Larsen has been a big spender here in San Francisco, notably on a measure that rolled back police accountability. https://missionlocal.org/2024/02/prop-e-police-surveillance-sf/
LaLuneArgent@molly0xfff Great tool!
If I may offer a possible correction? When you click on Minnesota, it says "FairShake spent $118,034 to support Tom Emmer in the Democratic primary."
Emmer is a Republican.
The next line down the page (correctly) says "Tom Emmer has an upcoming Republican primary on August 13, 2024."
@LaLuneArgent thank you!
Polygonien@molly0xfff great work 👏
Speed demon 🇪🇺 🇳🇴🇺🇦🇵🇸@molly0xfff
Like several others, I find the why interesting. Apart from the most obvious, I'd say the international crackdown on tax-havens and ending the race to the bottom on marginal tax rates, will worry the crypo-industry.
Like several others, I find the why interesting. Apart from the most obvious, I'd say the international crackdown on tax-havens and ending the race to the bottom on marginal tax rates, will worry the crypo-industry.
robert daniel pickard@molly0xfff this is fantastic
Melissa 
@molly0xfff very interesting data - thank you!
Ahmed Ibrahim@molly0xfff Despite this, crypto is not more influential than AIPAC.
Candidates like Jamaal bowman and Katie porters were not defeated because of the crypto lobby (at least only), but also for their opposition to the crimes of the terrorist state of Israel.
See here, Miss Harvard
https://www.aipacpac.org/home
Crypto is a liberation movement. Yes, there are lots of parasites who want to make a quick buck out of it, but in its entirety, it's a good move for humanity. God created money decentralized!
Dan York@molly0xfff Amazing work. Thanks!
Democracy Matters 
Frances LarinaNot quite fair, as it was fellow Democrat Adam Schiff that bought ads for Republicans to knock Katie Porter out of the running.
Michael Hughes@molly0xfff “This is blackmail” - Elon Musk
⚡️ axeshun ⚡️ 
@molly0xfff
I've been waiting for someone to break the seal on this one! Thank you!!
I've been waiting for someone to break the seal on this one! Thank you!!