Political organizations can't accept contributions in the form of bitcoins, at least for now, The Federal Election Commission said Thursday.

The commission passed on a request by the Conservative Action Fund, a political action committee, to use the digital currency. That group had asked the FEC recently whether it could accept bitcoins, how it could spend them and how donors must report those contributions. It was not immediately clear whether the same ruling would apply to individual political candidates.

Bitcoin is a cybercurrency that is relatively anonymous and is created and exchanged independently of any government or bank. Some retailers accept it, and the currency can be converted into cash after being deposited into virtual wallets.

But the FEC isn't yet sold on allowing bitcoins to funnel into the bank accounts of political campaigns and outside groups supporting them, and commissioners deadlocked 3-3 along party lines Thursday.

FEC chairwoman Ellen Weintraub acknowledged that she had never heard of bitcoins until she saw the Conservative Action Fund's request. Weintraub, a Democrat, raised the prospect of anonymous or foreign bitcoin donations — both prohibited under federal law — flowing into campaigns and outside groups. But she suggested the FEC would revisit bitcoins at a later date.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/fec-donors-bitcoins-contributions-20965379