The Finnish Pirate Party, also known as Piraattipuolue in Finnish, ran in the Finnish Parliment elections on Sunday, April 19th, 2015. Bitcoin donations to the party have skyrocketed in the last month, exceeding over 10,000 Euros of BTC, more than the 4,000 Euros they received from all donation channels last year. This shows not only that the party is growing significantly, but also that Bitcoin is increasing in popularity within the party. The FPP’s platform focuses on liberty, privacy, transparency of government, and more social freedoms, all of which line up with the principles of Cryptocurrency.
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The significant increase in donations signifies an increase in popularity of both Bitcoin and the FPP itself. The FPP’s platform of core values (from the organization’s site) is as follows:
- a party with a focus on information society topics which values openness and liberty and defends the freedom of speech, privacy and justice.
- wants to promote freedom of information by removing excessive copyright restrictions, abolishing the current patent system and by promoting the spread and openness of government and scientific data.
- demands more openness in public decision-making and more possibilities for citizens to participate in political processes.
- wants a reasonable information society policy according to which public money would be used more efficiently, and which would promote free sharing of information.
- wants to cut bureaucracy and the power of public authorities and give people more choice in their lives. For this and other reasons Piraattipuolue wants to see the current social security system replaced by a basic income scheme.
- Piraattipuolue aims to get elected into the Finnish parliament, municipal councils and the European Parliament. Regarding policies not covered by the party manifesto, when elected into office, pirate delegates are free to make decisions according to their own conscience.
Janne Paalijärvi, a member of the party, has been in charge of Bitcoin donations. Recently, Paalijärvi wrote a blog post in Finnish about the importance of Bitcoin in the party’s funding. As of right now, the FPP is the largest party outside the parliament. Though still very young, the FPP is gaining a massive amount of attention and support across the nation. The party’s donation address can be viewed here. And the balance of that address can be viewed here.
What do you think about the Finnish Pirate Party accepting Bitcoin donations? Comment below!
Images via FPP and Pixabay.
