Crypto owners and investors of both parties have strong opinions of the future of the crypto ecosystem. They are set to put those opinions in their ballots at the upcoming election in 4 major US swing states on November 8.
Ahead of the U.S. mid-term elections, companies are polling the electorate to determine if any concepts could give their party an edge. In late September, venture capital company Haun Ventures surveyed handling information and cryptocurrency. The focus was on four key swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Nevada. The focus was on web3. Web3 is a new iteration of the world wide web that incorporates the idea of decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics such as cryptocurrency.
The survey made it clear that U.S. voters want these concepts added to their daily products. Ahead of the elections, this idea could be a concept that plays a significant role in determining the U.S. mid-term elections. The Haun survey has not been the only recent initiative polling voters about their views on cryptocurrency, especially a decentralized running service. In the case of cryptocurrency, the service is a payment service or an investment product. What was clear from the survey results is that individuals believe there is more that can be done with a decentralized mechanism.
What is Web 3.0?
While cryptocurrency trading is not the same as Web 3.0, the concept surrounding how Web 3.0 is used has similarities to digital currency trading. Web3 provides increased privacy, data security, and scalability for users to reduce the influence of companies that focus on technology. Internet users have even expressed concern about the centralization of information amongst a few companies, leading to the loss of privacy. Web 3.0 comes from Tim Berners-Lee’s 1999 concept of the semantic web. In 2006 Lee went on to further define web 3.0 in blockchain contexts.
The Web3 Voter is part of the crypto community and wants to engage with the executive branch by impacting change. The crypto community initially focused on the payment processing environment with the success of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The concept associated with blockchain can reach legislation using new technologies. The upcoming midterm elections will be a test case to determine if there are politicians that believe in Web 3.0.
How Does Web 3.0 Impact Crypto Trading?
According to the Haun Ventures survey, 20% New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania voters said they owned cryptocurrency or nonfungible tokens. Additionally, 91% of respondents supported a “community-owned; community governed” internet that “gives people greater control over their information.” The upshot is that people want to choose whether they let others know their information. The percentages between the individual states were similar. Pennsylvania voters were the least likely to own cryptocurrency or NFTs at 17%, while Nevada voters were more likely to hold cryptocurrency or NFTs at 23%.
What Insights were Gained from the Survey?
What was also interesting about the poll was that respondents leaned slightly Democratic, but the responses generally favored the decentralization of the internet. About 55% of the respondents were less likely to vote for a candidate that opposed a decentralized internet or policies. Additionally, about 72% want a more democratized economic system that works for a broader population. Crypto trading is one of the first concepts that has worked on the blockchain in a decentralized environment.
The system is tangible and provides a framework for people running for office to use as an example of how the web or other consistently used processes can work without government interference. The survey also showed that about a third of the respondents do not trust either political party. The poll targeted voters in the 2022 midterm elections, which will be held in November, for office terms that begin in January 2023
Why are the Swing States Important?
The survey explicitly evaluated a select group of states within the United States because they can swing an election. A swing state is a state that has a population that is divided politically. The majority will swing back and forth between parties and create new laws. The Cook Political Report sees states such as New Hampshire and Pennsylvania as toss-up states which are also considered swing states. Other reports view Ohio and Nevada as swing states.
When there is an election in a swing state, especially for one that can alter the federal legal landscape, many issues are placed on the table to help convince voters to vote in favor of a specific party. Many people believe that a larger government that oversees your web travel and the value of your currency is detrimental to society. These are people in swing states that could be interested in the issues related to cryptocurrency and a decentralized payment system.
Many of the swing states are also called battleground states. The split electorate, which supports either democrats or republicans, vote in cycles, and the population in those states are essential to federal elections. The campaign strategies used in these states tend to focus on topics that will drive the electorate to the polls.
In many battleground states, the polls provide information that describes the demographic and who is voting on a specific topic. The poll’s focus on describing Web 3.0 and decentralization shows that significant populations are middle-class voters which are younger and more diverse than the general population.
What Have Other Surveys Recently Shown?
A recent poll taken by a senior advisor to the GMI PAC surveyed 1,000 likely general election voters. The upshot of the poll showed that voters on crypto issues could generate enough support to win one of the tight races in battleground states. According to the survey, nearly 50% of the respondents in specific battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin own cryptocurrency or consider investing in digital currencies. Another comment was that 25% of the adults surveyed said there were insufficient cryptocurrency regulations. This outcome was counter to the 75% split between political parties that there was too much regulation on cryptocurrency.
Why is Crypto Trading Important?
The surveys completed in swing states show that the electorate is interested in specific services that governments or individuals cannot manipulate. Cryptocurrency trading is a digital asset class that creates a decentralized digital coin from the blockchain. The blockchain is a record of tamper-proof transactions and tracks transactions that are not updated or changed. Individual units of cryptocurrency are called tokens or coins. A digital currency is a store of value that will change with market sentiment.
Cryptocurrency coins are made through a process called mining. Mining can be energy intensive if you use a proof of work mechanism to verify each transaction. In this case, the miner would have to solve a specific puzzle to win the verification process. The miner that verifies each transaction is awarded a cryptocurrency coin. Alternatively, there is a proof of stake mechanism. In this case, the verifier needs to hold a particular value of cryptocurrency to verify cryptocurrency transactions.
Most cryptocurrency coins are used as a store of value, for investment purposes, or to pay for goods and services as a payment mechanism. One of the benefits of cryptocurrencies as a payment mechanism is that the transfer of coins from one person to another is relatively inexpensive.
The Bottom Line
Cryptocurrencies are a case study in a decentralized process that is currently at work. Digital currencies are created, bought, and sold for goods and services as well as a store of value for investment purposes. Recently, there have been a few surveys ahead of the United States federal midterm elections asking likely voters about their opinions of the decentralized process, including cryptocurrency. The results show that many voters would potentially shy away from a candidate that was not in favor of advancing decentralized approaches for the internet or cryptocurrency.
Most survey respondents were less likely to vote for a candidate that opposed a decentralized internet or policies. Nearly three-quarters want a more democratized economic system that works for a broader population. The upshot is that people want to choose whether they let others know their information. The idea of a decentralized process where the information is not controlled seems favorable. Most of the surveys were conducted in swing states, considered the battleground for winning national elections. Both the democrat and republican parties were focused on the issues that resulted from the surveys. Neither party showed more interest in a decentralized process, considered a good way of moving forward with the internet and other critical processes. The information gathered in these surveys could be used ahead of the mid-term elections to try to drum up support for specific candidates battling it out for office in swing states.
