While Washington regulators are scrambling to figure out how the hell to deal with cryptocurrencies, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado is inviting his fellow congressmen for a hands-on demonstration of Robocoin, a bitcoin ATM.
“You are cordially invited to a demonstration of Robocoin,” says an invitation forwarded out by Mr. Polis’s office. “Come see a Robocoin demo, hear a brief bitcoin talk from Congressman Jared Polis, try buying bitcoin yourself and ask your burning bitcoin questions.”
The preview will take place this Tuesday in the Rayburn House Office Building.
Techcrunch reported this morning that the Congressman’s office “invited the bitcoin company” to to the Capitol for a demonstration, but according to the Congressman’s office, that’s “a little inaccurate.”
“He’s thrilled that they’re coming, but we didn’t actually invite them,” a representative from Congressman Polis’s office told Betabeat. According to the representative, Mr. Polis simply helped Robocoin secure a room in the Capitol when the company was putting the event together.
Mr. Polis is a fan of digital currencies, and famously wrote a satirical letter urging the ban of the “dangerous” US dollar in response to a release by Senator Joe Manchin demanding a federal bitcoin ban. Mr. Polis turned criticisms of bitcoin around to call paper money “unregulated and unstable.”
Those letters are just small entries in the recent history of regulators and analysts scratching their heads and making guesses about the future of bitcoin.
Maybe a hands-on experience is just what the Capitol needs.