A tech billionaire and prominent Democratic Party donor says he will part ways with a highly influential network of crypto industry super PACs, claiming—in a series of leaked emails—that they’re too “stupid,” “selfish,” and short-sighted to associate with.
Ron Conway, a venture capitalist who has given liberally to the Democratic Party over the years (and bought himself a lot of influence, as a result), recently chewed out top members of Fairshake, a network of Super PACs designed to create a “clearer regulatory and legal framework” for the “blockchain economy.” In a series of emails published by Politico, Conway yelled at many of the group’s most prominent members, including tech stooges Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. What drove Conway over the edge? It appears he was blindsided by a secret PAC-related effort to unseat Sherrod Brown, a prominent Democratic congressman who has spoken critically of the crypto industry.
“$12M to [Sherrod] Brown’s opponent at a time when Sen Schumer is doing his best to get a bill passed in the Senate in the lame duck,” Conway wrote in an email, referencing a crypto-friendly bill that Schumer is currently shepherding through the legislature. “You all know that is ‘slap in the face’ to Sen Schumer And a ‘slap in the face’ to me when you know Im meeting him in SF tomorrow. How short-sighted and stupid can you possibly be?”
Conway’s rage continued: “NOT ONE PERSON BOTHERED TO GIVE ME A HEADS UP THAT YOU WERE DOINIG [sic] THIS,” he wrote. “Im the one using my 25+ year old personal relationships to help this movement the most significantly and not one person bothered to inform me. Sadly, I’m even a donor to Fair Shake.”
“Because of your selfish hidden agendas it is time for us to separate,” Conway continued. “This is a wake up call to myself that I have been working too long with people who [do] not share common values and that is unacceptable. … I will I [sic] no longer compromise myself by associating or helping.”
Conway added that there was “an ‘elephant in the room,’” which is that the community had “two factions: a moderate faction and a Donald Trump faction (Brian and Marc).”
Historically speaking, the crypto industry has always spent a lot of money on politics, but it’s on track to break records this year. Indeed, crypto bros are now spending more money on the U.S. political system than the Koch brothers. A new report from Public Citizen suggests that contributions from crypto corporations and backers account for half of the total money spent on elections this year. A lot of that money is going to the Republican Party, which industry goons see as significantly friendlier to their interests (given the GOP’s love of deregulation and corporate excess, that makes sense). But crypto money is also continuing to flow to blue party candidates as well—a fact that has irked some conservatives.
While Conway has “vowed” to end support for the network of pro-crypto Super PACs, it’s not entirely clear whether he’ll do that. It’s all well and good to virtue signal on this front (and, thus, maybe save some face with the politicos he’ll need to grease in the future), but who knows whether he’ll actually follow through. Gizmodo reached out to Conway for comment to ask if he’ll put his money where his mouth is.
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