The Irish government is turning its attention toward dark money, i.e., Bitcoin, as the country is nearing elections. The Ministry for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage are drawing the new regulations before the elections. Many believe that it will ban political parties from receiving Bitcoin or altcoin donations. Ireland’s new decisions result from increasing cyber threats among world countries.
Darragh O’Brien, the Minister of Local Government, commissioned a task force last January to draft “electoral integrity” laws for the coming elections. The move was explicitly initiated to counter the digital attacks from Russian hackers and the aligned countries. In the last few years, especially after the US general election in 2016, have emerged new political terms like fake news and disinformation. In this interest, the task force will give a “comprehensive set of recommendations to build a legal and digital bulwark against malign interference in our elections.”
One of the critical suggestions by the task force is to ban Bitcoin donations to political parties or any organization which could significantly influence the elections. Since cryptocurrencies emphasize anonymity and financial freedom, the Irish government fears tracking would be more complicated than fiat money. Furthermore, the government intends to tighten policies on international donations while also reserves the right to remove any content from social media platforms. It is almost frightening that Russia remains a formidable thread for western governments despite being engaged in an outright war with Ukraine.
Russia trying to interfere with other countries is not new, as the western countries have been tackling this issue for over a decade now. The hackers and agencies from this Eastern European country have allegedly tried to manipulate election results in many countries, including the USA. Russia reportedly bought Facebook ads and made state actors act like Americans to spread its fake propaganda during the 2016 US elections. The community of American Intelligence Agencies confirmed that a media firm called RT America helped Russia with its plans.
Moreover, many other reports claim that the Russian hackers compromised several local county databases during the 2020 US general election. Russia’s Internet Agency allegedly used some of the US Treasury Department-approved cryptocurrency addresses to “undermine election integrity.” However, many crypto enthusiasts claim that blockchain is a public ledger, and any suspicious movement in the ledger can easily be recognized, making it harder to use for criminal activities. Blockchain networks are working to make Bitcoin crypto much more secure and transparent, which will address any existing drawbacks in the years to come.