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Comment by heavyset_go | Hacker News Reader

> It seems to me that the Coinbase case just doubles down on this attitude.

It isn't just that attitude that's the problem, it's the insistence by Coinbase that they're apolitical, yet the company makes significant political contributions themselves[1].

[1] https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?...

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Looking through these entries, I believe these are contributions made using Coinbase, not by Coinbase. I.e: political donations processed using cryptocurrency, not ones made by the company or its employees.

Just speculating here based on the repeated small dollar amounts.

I doubt it. There are a lot of $5k+ donations, and a $21k donation. The dozens of $2k and $5k donations are mostly to Brian Forde's campaign, famous for his Bitcoin connections[1]. Upon looking at the smallest donations, the majority go to Brian Forde, too.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-08/bitcoin-s...

Right, so bitcoin users using a bitcoin site are making contributions to a bitcoin-friendly politician. I'm not seeing anything anomalous here.

Do you have evidence that suggests that the FEC was deceived about the source of their financial data?

They're not deceived, it just looks like a display error. If you open up an individual item, many have an "Open Image" button next to them that show the full filing document.

Here's a random example: https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201811269133824807

Includes the individual's name & his employer, which isn't listed as Coinbase.

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