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Bitcoin’s headed for Washington, folks. The cryptocurrency that got its start enabling furtive drugs deals on the internet black market can now be used to help get your favorite politician elected.

The Federal Election Commission released a plan yesterday to allow political campaigns to accept bitcoin donations, which means the hacker currency could wind up playing a major role in the 2014 elections.

There’s one small snag. The commission still doesn’t consider the unregulated coins an official currency, so they can’t be treated as a monetary contribution. Which means the campaign can’t spend the cyber-contribution until it’s converted into cash.

Instead, the FEC suggests it will count as an “in-kind” contribution—non-monetary donations like stocks, bonds, commodities, or equipment, which have their value listed in dollars on campaign finance reports.

The move may seem like the ultimate vindication of the futurist money, but it’s not terribly surprising. Anything that makes it quick and easy to collect funds is bound to be a welcomed with open arms in Washington. And bitcoin, though still volatile, is a $1 billion industry whose value is skyrocketing. Bitcoin transactions can be made easily over the internet, from anywhere in the world.

The decentralized currency is especially popular with—surprise, surprise—libertarian candidates that eschew any kind of government intervention in their business. The Libertarian National Committee has already been accepting donations in bitcoin, to the tune of several thousands of dollars.

But the pseudo-anonymous nature of bitcoin is also bound to raise red flags in the nation’s capital, where campaign finance is already a contentious issue. Reformers may worry that you can’t trace the digital donations back to the original source. Is it coming from a Silk Road 2.0 drug dealer? No one wants that guy on record as a campaign supporter.

Others argue anonymity won’t actually be a concern, because half of what’s valuable about campaign donations is collecting the names and addresses behind the money—so you can hit them up for support again later. What’s more, campaign finance law requires strict record-keeping and prohibits anonymous donations greater than the equivalent of $50.

The FEC proposal comes in response to a request from the Conservative Action Fund, a right-leaning PAC that spent over $300,000 on Republican candidates last election cycle. The draft opinion is open to public comment until November 13, and the commission is likely to officially approve it by the end of this month. Once the flood gates are open, it will be very interesting to see the virtual currency’s impact on next year’s political horse race, especially if bitcoin continues to break out of its libertarian, techno-anarchist roots and enter the mainstream economy.