Dear Bankless Nation,
When we hosted Andrew Yang on the podcast in October he had a message for Congress and regulators:
“If you face a trillion-dollar industry that could define the future, don’t screw it up.”
In the past, U.S. lawmakers have made ill-considered attempts to enact crypto regulation without fully understanding what they were regulating.
I’ve watched countless congressional sessions on crypto over the years that all played out the same way. Brad Sherman and his ilk would say things like…
“Crypto is for drug lords and terrorists”
“Crypto is a threat to our financial stability”
“Crypto is just a worthless casino for unproductive young millenials”
Everyone else would either nod their heads in agreement or wrinkle their foreheads in confusion. The witnesses talked but no one heard.
We had no allies in Congress.
But this Wednesday was different.
This week, the House Committee on Financial Services called on six executives to speak before the committee. And you know what… the conversations were educated, nuanced, and productive.
We didn’t hear the paternalism and condescension from Congress. Instead, we heard committee members making a concerted effort to ask the right questions around evolving financial systems, consumer protection, energy consumption, Web3, stablecoins, and many other delicate topics.
Jake Chervinsky called it “the most positive, constructive, bipartisan public event on crypto” he’s ever seen.
I saw positive tweets from Congress members like this:
Representatives talking about Web3 “putting power directly in the hands of the builders and users” 🤯 Are they reading Bankless?
This didn’t happen overnight.
We did this.
We did this through clearer narratives and better use cases.
We did this by calling our representatives and donating to advocacy groups.
We did this by getting involved.
Crypto is inherently a political topic. It combines economics, internet infrastructure, jobs, legal contracts, money transfer, and a myriad of other interrelated domains. And when Congress set its sights on our community, we came to play ball.
2021 was the year we woke up and discovered our political strength.
There’s more work to do. This is far from over. This political battle will play out over the next decade and powerful forces will be marshaled against crypto.
It’s still David vs. Goliath.
We still have to deal with the Brad Shermans.
But on Wednesday I saw hope.
We can make a difference. We can reach the halls of power. We can create change.
The battle for decentralization is a battle for hearts and minds.
So let’s keep winning them over.
We finally have allies in Congress and that's incredibly bullish.
Here’s what’s slated for next week:
- Podcast episode with Amy Wu on how to find the next big crypto game
- How to buy tokens at a discount on Olympus Pro
- What’s the next evolution beyond AMMs?
See you on Monday.
- RSA