Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Pledges Support for Blockchain

 

Presumptive US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has thrown her support behind blockchain tech applications in the public sector.

Clinton, who is expected to receive the presidential nomination from the US Democratic Party next month, released a broad technology and innovation agenda yesterday in which her campaign argued that US public policy should include work with blockchain. 

 The Clinton campaign stated:

"We must position American innovators to lead the world in the next generation of technology revolutions – from autonomous vehicles to machine learning to public service blockchain applications – and we must defend universal access to the global, digital marketplace of ideas."

 The Clinton campaign also indicated that the presumptive Democratic nominee will, if elected, push for reduced regulatory barriers for startups and entrepreneurs.

"Hillary will challenge state and local governments to identify, review and reform legal and regulatory obligations that protect legacy incumbents against new innovators," the campaign said.

The comments make Clinton the latest major US political candidate to offer support for blockchain technology and its surrounding industry. 

 In April 2015, then-Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul announced he would accept bitcoin as payment for donations, a decision that was soon followed by former Texas Governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry.