Report: Congressman Jared Polis vows to protect bitcoin

When it comes to political advocates for bitcoin, U.S. Congressman Jared Polis is at the front of the pack. As a member of the House of Representatives, Polis might not have the policy sway of a senator, but he has already proven that he’s willing to use what influence he has to keep bitcoin from becoming the whipping boy of the banking-industry aligned powers that be. He’s openly mocked those who would seek to ban bitcoin for less-than-substantial reasons, and he was first in line to try a bitcoin ATM in the Capital.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Polis confirmed that his interest in bitcoin isn’t just a passing fancy.

“If there was an agency that reacted in an irrationally negative way to digital currencies,” Polis told reporter Pete Rizzo, “I would be happy to rally support [in Congress] to restrict their funding.”

The CoinDesk profile outlines Polis’s long history with technology, starting in his teens during the very early bulletin-board system (BBS) era of the internet. Polis has long been a tech entrepreneur, co-founding companies like American Information Systems and Colorado-based startup accelerator Techstars. He’s one of the very few people in Congress who appears to see bitcoin’s future-shaping potential, telling CoinDesk: “I certainly [had] heard about online currencies and bitcoin for a long time, and I think my initial thought was, it’s about time.”

Polis also said that he expects bitcoin to become a much larger part of the political conversation, and that he fully expect to be “unpleasantly surprised” by future legislative developments around cryptocurrency.

“We haven’t seen the full backlash yet, in part, because bitcoins aren’t fully mainstream,” Polis told CoinDesk. “But, as they become more and more mainstream, inevitably, they are in some ways usurping the prerogative of nation states, and I fully expect to see more pushback from countries including [the US].”