Why Josh Mandel touts Bitcoin, cryptocurrency

One of Josh Mandel’s final edicts as state treasurer was to allow Ohio businesses to pay their taxes with bitcoin. 

Taxpayers could put cryptocurrency into a third-party processor that converted it to dollars and deposited the money into state accounts. Ohio was the first in the nation to implement such a program, making it a “leader in blockchain technology,” Mandel boasted.

Less than a year later, officials disbanded the payment system because Mandel broke state law.

The popularity of cryptocurrency has since increased, but it remains far from mainstream. That hasn’t stopped Mandel from drawing attention to it in his bid for U.S. Senate, declaring Ohio must be “pro-God, pro-family, pro-bitcoin.”