“We are here to shift through the speculation and the hear-say…Washington must go beyond the hype and ensure it is not the place that innovation goes to die. Just because we do not fully understand a new technology proposal, it does not mean that we should immediately call for its prohibition, especially when that proposal is just that — a proposal.”
“The reality is that whether Facebook is involved or not, change is here. Digital currencies exist. Blockchain technology is real. And Facebook’s entry into this new world is just confirmation, albeit at scale.”
“The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, envisioned, and others are building, is an unstoppable force. We should not attempt to deter this innovation, and governments can not stop this innovation, and those that have already tried have failed.”
“Some politicians want us to live in a permission-based society, where you need to come to governments, and ask for its blessing before you can even begin to think about innovating. Those are the politicians who would rather kill it before it grows. But there are others who believe in the vibrancy of American ingenuity…American innovation. That recognizes our economy is built off of generations of entrepreneurs and innovators, through competition, through testing, through tinkering, through iterating that got us here today.”
-Congressman Patrick McHenry's opening statement during the recent facebook hearing.
Politicians understand they cannot stop Bitcoin.