Coinbase, whose CEO called most politics a 'distraction', launches voter registration tool

cointelegraph.com:

Coinbase, a crypto exchange whose chief executive officer previously said doesn’t “advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission,” has launched a voter registration portal as part of a crypto policy education initiative.

In a Thursday blog post, Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad said the crypto exchange will offer users the opportunity to register to vote in the United States through a Capitol Canary website. According to the policy head, the voter registration tool was part of an initiative aimed at giving the crypto community “tools to participate in the critical policy discussions happening across the United States.”

Shirzad said being informed and engaged in issues around the 2022 U.S. midterm elections were “mission critical for the future of crypto” given the lawmakers “will be making key decisions about how crypto, blockchain, and web3 are regulated.”

“Today, more than ever, crypto and web3 are cemented as topics of public interest and the political debate,” said Shirzad. “Political candidates are talking about them, the public is interested in them, and the crypto community wants to help shape them.”

He added:

According to the policy head, staff at Coinbase don’t “regularly talk about politics.” CEO Brian Armstrong made waves in September 2020 following a blog post in which he described the crypto exchange as “laser focused on achieving its mission” as part of a company that largely abstained from engaging in U.S. politics.

“We don’t advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission, because it is a distraction from our mission,” said Armstrong at the time. “Even if we all agree something is a problem, we may not