Bernie Sanders led an impressive campaign run mostly off of small donations, though he failed to help the poor. If he had invested that money in cryptocurrency, the world would be a much better place.
Sanders’ campaign contributed to Google, Facebook and Verizon
Bernie Sanders, US presidential candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination and favorite of the poor and equality-centered, failed to defeat his rival Hillary Clinton, long painted as the Wall Street candidate.
However, during the course of his campaign Sanders did amass a large sum in excess of $200 million, mostly from small donors seeking a more economically-just society.
However, effort may have had the opposite effect intended. As it is, the vast majority of funds raised by Sanders ended up being spent by the campaign, for operating costs such as food, travel, lodging, and advertisements. This has ended up meaning a vast wealth redistribution to large corporations from which the campaign bought services, including some of the world’s largest corporations like Google, Facebook, Comcast, and Verizon.
What if, instead of running an ultimately failed presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders had raised that $200 million to invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups?
What $200 million looks like in the Bitcoin world
The amount of money raised by Bernie Sanders ranks significant in the relatively new world of cryptocurrency. At a total market cap of around $13 billion, with a record high of just under $16 billion, a number in the hundreds of millions could send significant ripples through the cryptocurrency world.
The funds accrued by the Sanders campaign could have bought the entire supply of all cryptocurrencies excluding the top 25, or entirely bought out any cryptocurrency not including the top four (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Steem, and Ripple). Additionally, if thrown directly into the king of cryptocurrency, that sum would have been able to purchase over 300,000 Bitcoins. This would be enough to give every single member of a small nation like Iceland or Belize a whole Bitcoin, or give every citizen of Burundi, consistently ranked among the three poorest countries in the world, 30 Bitcoins each.
Blockchain entrepreneurs on what $200 million could do
Several entrepreneurs working in cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and decentralized applications weighed in on how they would use the amount of money raised by the Sanders campaign. Christopher David, CEO of ride-sharing app Arcade City, sees limitless potential for the funding.
“Overkill. The perfect app. We'd conquer the world, have millions of people using Bitcoin etc. Even 20 million and we'd encircle the world easy.”
Mike Vine, Technology Evangelist for decentralized blockchain-based content-sharing platform LBRY, thinks such an investment would be able to topple media corporations and restore power over online content to the people.
“With $200 million, we would reshape content delivery across the internet – dramatically lowering costs to host and purchase movies, music, software, ebooks, and more. With that level of investment, we could confidently take on the corporate titans who tightly control media distribution today. We would truly put power back in the hands of everyday people – what Bernie claimed he wanted to do.”
For Robert Genito, CEO of peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Wall of Coins, $200 million would be able to help the world in many ways, including feeding the hungry.
“Oh jeez, can't you feed like 1 billion people for a day? Or plant an orchard of fruit trees to feed communities around the world for free?”
In the realm of cryptocurrency, Genito sees an investment of the size of the Sanders campaign war chest as able to bring cryptocurrency adoption to the masses several times over.
“Well, I believe we can bring create an ecosystem that brings everyone off fiat with less than $10m. And we have a 90 page business plan explaining how we have done it, are doing it now, and will accelerate it in the future.”