Falcon Global Capital, the world’s first investment fund focused on virtual currencies, is sending CEO Brett Stapper to Washington to convince Congress that Bitcoin is the future of currency.

Actually, you might say that since Stapper is the CEO, he is sending himself.

According to The Hill, Brett Stapper filed paperwork last week to lobby on behalf of the popular virtual currency to both Congress and federal regulators. Stapper confirmed to Bank Innovation today that he has submitted paperwork to lobby on behalf of Bitcoin, and explained why he found it necessary to start talking to politicians and regulators about supporting and embracing Bitcoin:

I first got the idea when I was in DC speaking at a conference on May 5 and 6. I decided to reach out and speak to a number of congressmen, and I was very disturbed by what they thought of Bitcoin — a renegade PayPal used for drugs and weapons. My goal is to educating them – almost everyone I’ve spoken to changes their mind once they get it. Once the light bulb goes off, they understand the potential impact Bitcoin can have.

Stapper isn’t the first lobbyist in DC discussing Bitcoin. Recently, MasterCard hired five lobbyists from Peck Madigan Jones, which became the first lobbying group to concentrate on virtual currencies and Bitcoin. At the time, MasterCard told The Hill that it was “gathering information in connection with recent congressional hearings to better understand the policy issues around virtual and anonymous currencies.” Stapper agreed, saying that MasterCard’s stance on Bitcoin is “hard to say at this point…our understanding is that [MasterCard] hired lobbyists for investigative purposes in congressional hearings…and to gain a better understand of Bitcoin.”

News outlets like Forbes wrote that a few weeks after MasterCard hired the lobbyists, the US House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Homeland Committee held hearings regarding the use of Bitcoin in illegal transactions, including drug deals and potential use by terrorist groups. However, the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue service told these committees that they both have methods of tracking these transactions, and that cash transactions are actually more worrisome. Stapper told Bank Innovation that he “loves” when people bring up the anonymity issue because it’s one of the major issues Bitcoin opponents have, but one that he knows he can dismantle.

While some cryptocurrency advocates are concerned MasterCard will prove to be an opponent of Bitcoin as a payment and transaction service, Stapper hopes that MasterCard will warm up to the new currency, saying, “Hopefully MasterCard will adopt it. Yes [they’re competitors as a transaction service] but that’s how innovative companies continue to grow — they can adopt or they can not. Back in the day, the horse and buggy operators opposed automobiles and we know how that ended up. Similarly, you see Western Union, a company that has continued to embrace innovation, and they continue to prosper.”

However, unlike MasterCard, Stapper decided to start lobbying politicians on his own, without the help of a lobbying firm. Why did he choose to go it alone?:

There were multiple reasons — my business is Bitcoin and we’re the first investment bank to work solely in virtual currencies, so I’m very pro-Bitcoin. I was very disturbed to see no one has done this yet and I felt like hopefully if we start, that others will come and help.

Many members of Congress are still apprehensive over the legal issues surrounding Bitcoin. Stapper’s main goal will likely be to assuage those concerns. According to Stapper’s paperwork, he and his fund will concentrate on “education and understanding of Bitcoin and other cryptographic based currencies.”

Stapper confirmed those goals, saying that most regulators and policymakers are “investigating and trying to understand [Bitcoin]. It’s a lot like what they thought back in 1996, when they just started realizing the potential impact the Internet could have on a global scale.”

Stapper does not oppose regulation of cryptocurrencies across the board. ”I think regulation needs to be focus on consumer protection. The situation with Mt. Gox should have never happened, but neither should have the debacle with Bernie Madoff.” But, when asked about whether or not the government should regulate the price of Bitcoin to prevent massive fluctuations, Stapper said that “Honestly, they can’t really do anything to stabilize it. Eventually, as the userbase grows, the price of Bitcoin will grow more stable. Right now, a lot of the recent fluctuations have been based on media events. It’s a lot easier to influence 10 million users than 300, 400 million users.”

While Stapper has been lobbying politicians on his own, he has also been in contact with a number of high-profile leaders who are eager to help. “While I can’t name anyone yet, we’re working with a major law firm with divisions across the company that has a significant interest in Bitcoin. We’ve been in touch with people who used to work at Skype too. Skype went through a similar issue with government regulations when it was classified as a telecommunications company, which it isn’t. So since we’re fighting a similar battle, we thought it’d be good to talk to them.”

Government regulators and policymakers are only beginning to look into Bitcoin, the idea of virtual currency, and how it can impact the average American. Brett Stapper, one of Bitcoin’s biggest supporters, hopes to educate those in Washington and convert them into Bitcoin proponents just like him.