Meet the Anti-Trump Crypto Developer Running for Congress in Virginia

November’s hotly anticipated midterms are poised to bring a new wave of legislators to Washington for the first time—including, potentially, America’s first crypto developer-turned-congressman.

Joe Schiarizzi, a longtime Ethereum developer, launched a campaign Thursday to run as a Democratic House candidate in D.C.’s Virginia suburbs. Schiarizzi plans to run in Virginia’s 7th congressional district, which, pending a statewide ballot measure, could be redrawn later this month and left without an incumbent.

Though the digital assets industry established a significant presence in Washington following President Donald Trump’s return to power last year, Schiarizzi represents a new kind of crypto candidate: one who is an outspoken critic of the president, and also has personal experience creating the types of decentralized tools now being hotly debated in Congress.

The 30-year-old Virginian previously worked for crypto mainstays including Ethereum software giant Consensys (Disclosure: One of many investors in an editorially independent Decrypt), Ethereum public goods funding protocol Gitcoin, and NFT marketplace OpenSea. He argues crypto was originally created, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, as a tool to stand up to corporate interests and enhance the rights of working people.

The technology should return to those roots, Schiarizzi said, instead of being prominently associated with the Trump family’s self-enrichment via numerous crypto ventures.

“This is the most corrupt administration in American history, and we need to get serious about accountability,” Schiarizzi told Decrypt.

The Ethereum developer thinks crypto should be embraced for use cases ranging from the funding of solar power farms with tokenized renewable energy certificates—something Schiarizzi himself has done—to allowing Americans to pay doctors privately, on-chain, to ensure access to every type of medical care.

“Those are things I think most Americans can get behind, and that doesn’t have to do with meme coin scams like the president launched,” he said.

Schiarizzi also takes issue with the new crop of pro-crypto lawmakers serving Congress in both parties. He argues such politicians are only now claiming to be supportive of the industry out of a cynical desire to gain the backing—or avoid the ire—of the colossal crypto super PACs that have dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into recent U.S. elections.

“That money can all go to Republicans who are taking our rights away and don’t believe in privacy,” Schiarizzi said, “or it can go to actual builders who want to use new technology to improve real Americans’ lives.”

“They just want a check and they don’t understand the actual good that these technologies can do for our society if they’re regulated well,” he added.

If elected, Schiarizzi said he would spearhead crypto policies that benefit smaller projects and everyday users, including simpler tax requirements and legal exemptions for common crypto tools. He also would push to expand the types of reserves permitted to back dollar-pegged stablecoins to include municipal bonds that could fund hospitals and schools.

Schiarizzi is also a leader of the “YIMBY” movement in northern Virginia, and believes rapidly expanding America’s housing supply is an urgent necessity. The skyrocketing cost of home ownership “is tearing apart the fabric of our society,” he said.

The crypto developer’s path to Washington is far from guaranteed. Already, several Democratic candidates have lined up to run in Virginia’s new 7th district, should it even materialize, including a state senator, a state delegate, and the wife of a former governor. 

But Schiarizzi is the only candidate of the bunch who will currently let you donate to his campaign in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Fartcoin, USDC—and even, yes, the Trump meme coin.