A congressional hearing before the U.S. House board on Agriculture today strikes a optimistic tone towards the bang that cryptocurrency and digital assets can have for the financial system and process.
The inquiry incorporated academics, engineers, and entrepreneurs in the cryptocurrency commerce. They included:
• Mr. Joshua Fairfield, William Donald Bain Family Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law, Staunton, VA
• Ms. Amber Baldet, Co-Founder and CEO, Clovyr, New York, NY
• Mr. Scott Kupor, Managing Partner, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Park, CA
• Mr. Daniel Gorfine, Director, LabCFTC and Chief Innovation Officer, CFTC, Washington, DC
• The Honorable Gary Gensler, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management, Brooklandville, MD
• Mr. Lowell Ness, Managing Partner, Perkins Coie LLP, Palo Alto, CA
Bitcoin’s responsibility in Alleged Russian Hacking of DNC Emails
The current indictments of 12 Russia-linked hackers related to their suspected connection in the 2016 U.S. elections were brought up. Bitcoin was mentioned as the means the hackers used to finance their actions and whether this helped hide their identity.
However, working group members were up to date that bitcoin’s public ledger allowed investigators to identify the association of funds much more easily than cash. The commission chairman, Michael Conaway, said, “As long as stupid criminals keep using bitcoin, that’d be great.”
Hearing More Technical and Detailed than Previous Ones
With the several subject matter experts on the board, the argument went into much more feature than others, like the ones at the SEC.
Amber Baldet made a superior case for existing blockchain expertise as an early open framework built on open-source technology, much like the communications of the Internet. In its early state currently, blockchain technology has the probable to grow into new, foundational technologies like the SMTP email protocol. Baldet thus suggested a rational and reasonable regulation.
Baldet said, “the commission can take a more practical move toward to regulation” as a means to support a blockchain becoming a global infrastructure, as the United States did with the internet. This is in contrast to “reactionary” set of laws.