GuShiio.com To promote dialogue between government officials and blockchain experts, we collected the opinions of 11 industry experts on issues ranging from taxation and freedom of pledge to broader issues.
Original title: Making the U.S. the crypto capital: What it would take
Original source: a16z
Compiled by: Tom, MarsBit
The United States appears to be turning its confrontational stance on blockchain and cryptocurrencies into a more supportive stance, providing clear guidance and rules to help builders follow those rules. Although this transition is still in its early stages, the government has taken some encouraging steps towards this goal. New leadership, new rules, new working groups-all of these measures provide the crypto industry with what it urgently needs: a practical path forward.
Although crypto startups have faced challenges in recent years such as litigation, domain battles between regulators, angry letters from lawmakers, debankings and regulation through law enforcement, the past few weeks have shown a more optimistic, pro-tech attitude. From the White House to regulators, we have seen moves to appoint artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency commissioners and issue executive orders to support blockchain development. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has established a new cryptocurrency working group and repealed the Employee Accounting Bulletin 121 rule that once hindered the development of cryptocurrencies. In both houses of Congress, key lawmakers have also expressed willingness to pass legislation to clearly define industry rules.
To promote dialogue between government officials and blockchain experts, we collected opinions from 11 industry experts on issues ranging from taxation and pledge freedom to broader issues such as encouraging decentralization and reforming the U.S. regulatory system. These perspectives provide important thinking for policymakers, helping them better think about cryptocurrency regulation and ensuring that the United States leads this critical moment in its transformation into the next generation of the Internet.
1. Why decentralization is so important and why incentives are needed
–Miles Jennings
Decentralization is crucial. It promotes new governance structures, organizational forms, and strong economic systems-which means more choice, more voices, and more competition. But in fact, decentralization has been difficult to achieve because before large-scale coordinated technologies emerged (or were not open to everyone), it often had no advantage over the efficiency and stability of centralized systems-until now.
Over the past decade or so, as technology continues to develop, we have reached a stage where decentralization can truly operate and can be applied to many areas of digital life. But now we face a new challenge: how to encourage decentralization. Despite many obstacles, many builders have been successful in decentralizing on a large scale. In order to attract more builders to participate, we just need a clearer path forward and a level playing field.
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“Like gravity, centralization is a force that is difficult to resist. In contrast, decentralization-the transfer of control and power to distributed groups-is inefficient. It requires tremendous energy, effort and engineering to overcome the natural order.”
Miles Jennings isa16z cryptoHe advises the company and its portfolio companies on decentralization, DAO, governance, NFT, and state and federal securities law. Prior to this, he was a partner at Latham Watkins and co-led the company’s global blockchain and cryptocurrency working group.
2. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission welcomes the (digital) era
–Scott Walker and Bill Hinman
There are six immediate adjustments that the Securities and Exchange Commission can make to create applicable regulatory rules-without sacrificing innovation or critical investor protection.
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“Through these adjustments, the SEC can restore its mission and reposition itself as a forward-looking regulator that ensures that U.S. markets remain competitive while also protecting the public interest.”
Scott Walker is Andreessen Horowitz’s chief compliance officer. Prior to this, he served as a senior expert in digital assets and blockchain technology for the regulatory arm of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and served as vice president and legal adviser at BlackRock, focusing on derivatives, prime brokerage and securities financing transactions.
Bill Hinman is currently an advisory partner at a16z crypto and a senior consultant at global law firm Simpson Thacher Bartlett LLP. From 2017 to 2020, Bill served as head of the corporate finance division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
3. Let pledges flourish in the United States
–Ji Kim and Alison Mangiero
Staking-involving users in maintaining and securing specific blockchain networks-has revolutionary potential. Here are five steps the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can take to ensure that the pledge industry thrives.
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“The United States should lead innovation and focus on how to make these” financial “infrastructures more efficient, secure and accessible.”
Ji Kim is President and Interim CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation. Previously, he served as the group’s chief legal and policy officer and has 15 years of experience as legal consultant and policy execution for technology companies.
Alison Mangiero is executive director of the Proof Of Stake Alliance, a project affiliated with the Innovation Cryptography Committee that is committed to advocating clear and forward-looking public policies to promote innovation in the pledge industry. Previously, she founded the Tocqueville Group, a blockchain networkTezosEntities that create open source software and other public goods.
4. Ending the era of large-scale financial surveillance
–Grant Rabenn
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 created a vast database of financial records-the FinCEN Database-that put our sensitive personal data at risk. Blockchain technology provides a better way forward.
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“The Bank Secrecy Act gave rise to a huge regulator-industry complex that requires U.S. financial institutions to conduct day-to-day monitoring of customers.”
Grant Rabenn is the head of Coinbase’s International Legal Compliance Group (Asia Pacific and Americas). Prior to joining Coinbase, Grant served as a federal prosecutor for ten years, specializing in money laundering and cybercrime cases, and led early government investigations involving cryptocurrencies.
5. Anyone can be debanked. Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a key safety net
–Katherine Minarik
What happens when you lose control of your family’s main bank account-without any explanation or avenue of appeal? Self-custodial crypto assets can provide a lifeline when traditional finance fails.
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“The bank has frozen all our accounts indefinitely. Our bank staff cannot tell us any more information. The inability to even tell us whether, how or when we can get our funds back… It’s extremely scary.”
Katherine Minarik isUniswapChief Legal Officer of Labs. Prior to this, she workedCoinbaseServed as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, responsible for global litigation matters.
6. It’s time to put assets on the chain
–Jenny Cieplak
“Tokenization” is a method of digitally digitizing asset records, often on the blockchain-an approach that has the potential to greatly modernize financial infrastructure. Traditional financial institutions could benefit if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stopped arbitrarily banning the listing of these assets.
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“In theory, this should have opened the door to the latest and most advanced technologies-including blockchain and distributed ledger technology.”
Jenny Cieplak is a partner at Latham Watkins LLP, specializing in advising fintech and financial services clients on the development and deployment of new technologies. Her work practices integrate the intersection of industry regulation, cutting-edge technology and financial services.
7. Why the Justice Department’s action on DeFi was a disaster
–Miller Whitehouse-Levine and Amanda Tuminelli
All other policy and legal issues must start with one core question: Who is in control? Some prosecutions against the DeFi protocol are based on false assumptions about the identity of the controller and the degree of control, causing unnecessary harm to the development of blockchain.
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“It is clearly unreasonable to blame carmakers for improper driving behavior on their vehicle users, and the same reasoning applies to imposing car-manufacturing responsibilities on drivers.”
Miller Whitehouse-Levine is CEO of DeFi Education Fund. Prior to this, he led policy operations for the Blockchain Association and worked at Goldstein Policy Solutions on multiple public policy issues such as cryptocurrencies.
Amanda Tuminelli is chief legal officer for DeFi Education Fund, where she leads influence litigation and policy efforts. Previously, she worked as a lawyer at Kobre Kim, defending clients, handling criminal and regulatory investigations, government enforcement actions, and large-scale litigation, particularly in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
8. Why we need decentralized stablecoins
–Luca Prosperi
Centralized stablecoins have become the backbone of DeFi, but they rely on traditional financial intermediaries. Decentralized stablecoins can serve as reliable, efficient, and trust-free systems, reducing reliance on managed financial intermediaries.
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“This so-called decentralized stablecoin world has the potential not only to revolutionize the way we create money, but actually to revolutionize the entire financial intermediation system.”
Luca Prosperi is co-founder and CEO of M^0, a project dedicated to building a decentralized stablecoin infrastructure. Previously, he worked on the DeFi projectMakerDAOResponsible for lending regulation and published research at Dirt Roads.
9. Rethinking SEC rule-making: Why cryptocurrencies need their own rules
–Scott Walker
It is not always reasonable to apply rules for traditional securities markets to cryptocurrencies, but the SEC seems to be doing so. Now, the SEC has the opportunity to adopt a tailor-made rule-making approach that will help blockchain technology thrive while protecting investors and consumers.
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“The SEC is often criticized for its” enforcement-style supervision “in cryptocurrency-related matters, but even less attention has been paid to its” extended rule making “-rules that are about to be created for other markets or products directly applied to emerging technology areas-which is also counterproductive.”
Scott Walker is Andreessen Horowitz’s chief compliance officer. Prior to this, he served as a senior expert in digital assets and blockchain technology for the regulatory branch of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and worked at BlackRock (BlackRock) serves as vice president and legal adviser, focusing on derivatives, prime brokerage and securities financing transactions.
10. How the United States can benefit from effective cryptocurrency tax policies
–David Kerr
Given the complexity of tax laws and the innovative organizational structure required for decentralized systems, policymakers have encountered considerable difficulties in effectively developing reporting requirements and tax treatment rules for digital assets. However, this legislative session provides a historic opportunity for the United States to regain leadership as cryptocurrencies are reshaping the global financial system and shaping the future of the Internet.
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“Is the United States the one who wrote the rules of the Internet in the 21st century, or can we only watch others gain results from the sidelines?”
David Kerr is the head of Cowrie LLC. He has 10 years of experience in tax strategy, financial accounting and risk consulting. He has provided risk avoidance strategies to clients in industries such as games, telecommunications and technology-driven online sales platforms, focusing on the development of Web3 issues.
11. Should the United States implement a Bitcoin strategic reserve?
–Christian Catalini
The recently proposed Bitcoin strategic reserve is a good start-but it is just the beginning. There is another opportunity: Use Bitcoin to connect conflicting parts of the global financial system while maintaining U.S. dominance.
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“But the real opportunity lies not in simply hoarding Bitcoin; it lies in ways to integrate it into the global financial system in a way that strengthens U.S. economic leadership rather than weakens it.”
Christian Catalini is co-founder of Lightspark and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Crypto Economics Laboratory.
