Jared Polis Became the First Congressman to Accept Bitcoin Donations After FEC's Approval

Open up your eWallets! Last week, in a vote of 6 to 0, the FEC ruled people can donate as much as $100 worth of Bitcoins to political committees. Colorado Rep. Jared Polis (D) became the first congressman to invite Bitcoin donations and, according to TIME, racked up "well over" $1,000 worth of the cryptocurrency in 24 hours. 

Reason TV recently sat down with the tech savvy 38 year-old congressman to talk about his lifelong love of ecommerce, video gaming, and Internet culture.

"A Gamer in Congress: Q&A with Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)" was originally published as part of our special Video Game Nation package on May 7, 2014.  The original text is below:

Rep. Jared Polis represents the 2nd District of Colorado. A conventional Democrat in some respects, he also supports many causes that matter to libertarians: legalizing marijuana and hemp, restraining NSA surveillance, reforming copyright and patent laws, and making space for the virtual currency Bitcoin.

His background as a businessman is in Internet commerce and his background as a child of the 1980s is video games. Indeed, Polis is not just a congressman but an avid gamer. And when legislation such as the Stop Online Privacy Act threatened gaming culture and free expression more generally, he asked gamers to help him put the proposal on ice.

Reason's Scott Shackford recently sat down with Polis in his Washington, D.C. office to discuss video games, his positions on surveillance, and why he thinks gamers skew libertarian. Read Shackford's profile of Polis in the June issue of Reason magazine.

About 12 minutes.

Camera by Amanda Winkler and Joshua Swain. Edited by Alex Manning.