Crypto Donations to Political Parties in Japan Will Not Be Subject to Regulation

It may be hard to believe that this got past the parliament, but crypto donations to political parties have been deemed completely legal without having to adhere to any type of regulations.

But what are the regulations for donating to political parties? Disclosure, of course. Whenever an individual or a corporation makes a donation they need to specify what they are giving their funds to these particular politicians. It’s basically a very weak tool against corruption, where extremely wealthy people can simply pay politicians to pass a certain number of laws so that their business does not suffer.

Well, even that weak tool has now been jeopardized with the non-inclusion of cryptocurrencies in the regulation. However, Japan could be the only place where such a thing is possible, due to an extremely low number of cases where corruption was sighted.

Attempts abroad

There used to be talks about using cryptocurrencies for funding smaller political parties in various other countries as well, especially in Eastern Europe where democracy is still trying to solidify its footing.

However, there was a case in a country where anything other than democracy would be immediately rejected. And that country is Australia. There used to be talks about introducing cryptocurrencies as legal tender for donating to political parties, but it never reached the senate. That doesn’t mean it’s illegal though. Hundreds of people are still using cryptos as donations while avoiding regulation.

If the government would implement something remotely similar to what Japan just did it would be like a lobbyist's dream come true. Why? Because they would have absolutely nothing stopping them from “donating” large sums of funds to individual politicians rather than the government to help pass laws to solidify a monopoly that is already in the making.