I was impressed with Platzer's interview, but this quote is why I would struggle to vote for Platzer.  It's simply unrealistic to think that governments will ignore or let Bitcoin continue unless they are educated and 'lobbying' is done.  One cannot simply 'opt out' of lobbying, because the existing players in the market e.g. the banks and financial institutions whose business models are due to be disrupted by Bitcoin will be lobbying and be buying out the congressional representatives - if the Foundation does not get involve in this then put simply, it will lose, and Bitcoin will lose as a result.

Believing that somehow Bitcoin's benefits will somehow on their own impress governments and regulators enough with it's pure awesomeness is just naive - laws aren't passed because they are good for the country, laws are passed because someone stands to benefit from them.  The world has changed a lot since the creation of the printing press.

'you can't regulate the regulatable' is also a very worrying statement to hear - yes, sure you can't shut down bitcoin because you'd have to shut down the internet etc etc etc it's so awesome etc etc, but governments can regulate how businesses in jurisdictions operate - if the US government says that it's illegal to transfer USD to bitcoin, then bitcoin is dead, regardless of the existence of the underlying protocol, or small pockets of people using localbitcoins.   Saying something won't happen doesn't make it not happen.

I agree that the way the current (US) system of lobbying is far from ideal, the fact that special interest groups are pretty much able to buy out votes and attach riders onto bills to further their own gains is really quite bad, but it's the way things are done and it's better, in my view, to play the game than to opt out of the game entirely and lose out of principle.

By the way I have immense respect for what Platzer is doing in Germany and the EU, and I do think that the best approach is to educate legislators (as the BCF have already done!) and not go out and ASK for regulation, but I don't think that opting out of the whole dialog with Government is an option here, and lobbying is a key part of that dialog (like it or not!), and I see a worrying amount of rhetoric from Platzer's statements that this is what he wants to do out of principle.

Will