Blockchain Advocacy Group Calls on Congress to Get it Together
The Chamber of Digital Commerce draws on Cold War-era strategies to get crypto legislation to the president’s desk
Lucky-photographer/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
The Chamber of Digital Commerce has issued a Congressional call to action to prioritize moving a legal framework for crypto forward.
The advocacy group is requesting Congress to establish a “Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Solarium Commission” to create a comprehensive policy package. The Commission proposal draws on President Dwight D. Eisenhower-era policy when “Project Solarium” was launched to address national security concerns during the Cold War.
More recently, Congress mandated the bipartisan “Cyberspace Solarium Commission” in 2019 to improve cyber defense strategies.
“Our allies’ and adversaries’ advances in blockchain and digital assets threaten U.S. leadership and dominance across next-generation finance, trade, business, and other verticals while the U.S. sits idle–effectively pushing the industry overseas,” the Chamber wrote in a statement Thursday.
A consensus among a number of bipartisan lawmakers has emerged: crypto-oriented businesses are leaving the US, but political parties have different thoughts as to why.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said crypto companies, particularly stablecoin issuers, are trying to go to the area of least regulation.
“A race to the bottom is the custom of this industry,” Lynch said Thursday morning during the House Financial Service Committee Digital Asset Subcommittee on Digital Asset stablecoin hearing.
Their goal is to “escape regulation,” he said.
Other lawmakers, namely Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, have countered, challenging that crypto companies are really going offshore in the pursuit of more regulatory clarity, lacking precision in terms of US industry oversight.
In its call to action, the Chamber of Digital Commerce highlighted work other countries are doing to advance crypto policy. South Korea has invested close to $45 billion to advance its “Digital New Deal” while Japan is miles ahead of the US on stablecoin legislation, the Chamber said.
“A Commission will render collaboration and leadership from government, industry, and academia for the future of the industry’s development,” the Chamber added. “We believe an effort of this magnitude is imperative in today’s divided Congress and we call all members of the 118th Congress to support it.”
The Chamber of Digital Commerce has already drafted legislation, to be released soon, and has sponsors “lined up,” Cody Carbone, vice president of policy at the Chamber, told Blockworks.
The Commission is “a unique approach to counter the stalled/political efforts we see right now,” Carbone added.
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