Riot Blockchain Buys 1,000 Bitmain Miners For $2.4 Million
The letter was spearheaded by Congressman Darren Soto (D-FL), Co-Chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, as well as fellow Co-Chairs Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ).Additional signers include Congressman Ted Budd (R-NC), Congressman Warren Davidson (R-OH), Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Congressman Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA), Congressman Ben McAdams (D-UT), Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL), and Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-U.S.Virgin Islands).Delegate Plaskett is the first African-American woman to join the Congressional Blockchain Caucus last year.
The letter also addresses the need to stay competitive with China.
Urging the Administration to promote blockchain technology is not new to Congressman Soto, who was part of a bi-partisan letter in July of 2019 to the Larry Kudlow, Chair of the National Economic Council in the White House.That letter urged the White House to take action on numerous fronts with blockchain, stating, ‘To continue its standing as a world leader in technological innovation, the United States should engage with policymakers, the private sector, and academia to promote the research and development of blockchain technology; explore its benefits for private and public use; collaborate on cross-sectoral policy, standard-setting, scalability, and implementation issues; and discuss potential regulatory approaches.’
The Policy Leap From Bitcoin To Blockchain
President Donald Trump, during the hearings over Facebook’s potential Libra cryptocurrency, made his first public comments on bitcoin: Donald Trump on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies.Twitter
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin went on to explain his reservations on crypto when he stated, ‘I want to be careful that anybody who’s using bitcoin — regardless of what the price is — is using it for proper purposes and not illicit purposes…And there are billions of dollars of transactions going on in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for illicit purposes’.
However, Blockchain, a technology that enables the peer-to-peer transactions for cryptocurrency, has been explored around the world by major companies on how to process faster payments and save on processing costs.Forbes produces a list of enterprises known as the ‘Blockchain 50’, that encompasses ‘enterprises embracing the technology underlying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and using it to speed up business processes, increase transparency and potentially save billions of dollars’.
By Michael del Castillo
China, who recently announced its own ‘National Blockchain’, implements a very different policy toward cryptocurrency than it does for blockchain.While many times China looks to restrain the use of private cryptocurrencies, the country’s ambitious view of blockchain is such that numerous resources are provided to help accelerate the growth of this technology.
While not much has been heard about blockchain from the Administration yet, hopefully there will be the ability to understand the distinction and not have blockchain be conflated with the idea of bitcoin or lose focus on how many in the private sector believe blockchain can be used to help accelerate delivery of stimulus checks under the CARES Act.
Roger Brown, Head of Tax & Regulatory Affairs for Lukka, a firm offering an advanced virtual currency tax preparation program, noted, ‘ Blockchain utilization serves as a compelling way for people to receive their stimulus checks as there are a myriad of scams present that deny the vulnerable from receiving aid.’
Erick Pinos, the Americas Ecosystem Lead at Ontology, a high performance public blockchain and distributed collaboration platform, notes, ‘ Blockchain allows for the fast and secure transfer of money from one individual to another for a very low fee and without the need for an intermediary.In a nutshell, blockchain-based payments do not require the sender or the user to have access to a bank account,’ said Pinos.
Alex Mashinsky of Celsius, a crypto lending platform, noted that blockchain is still in its infancy, stating, ‘There is not a blockchain anywhere in the world,’ that is ready to handle such an undertaking as the delivery of COVID-19 payments.
For those who do not normally file tax returns, the U.S.Treasury has offered a remedy to receive their money on the IRS website.
However, the online method involves providing your name, address, and a bank routing and account number – the last of which is sometimes a major hurdle as low-income families tend to be either unbanked or underbanked and may not have a bank account.
Therefore, it is reasonable to foresee continued pressure from Congress on the White House and Treasury to find ways to deliver these COVID-19 checks to those most in need in a timely way and to bring the most sophisticated payments technologies to bear.
The letter is below and dated April 23 and was made public April 28.Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .Check out my website .
I am a former U.S.Regulator with the FDIC, compliance examiner for the Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP) with the Treasury, and have been active in bitcoin and … Read More
I am a former U.S.Regulator with the FDIC, compliance examiner for the Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP) with the Treasury, and have been active in bitcoin and blockchain since 2016.I served in in the FDIC’s Capital Markets and Finance Divisions during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 working on qualitative, quantitative issues covering IndyMac Bank, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America.
I supported the FDIC’s Board at IndyMac bank with deposit run analysis, researched and explained synthetic collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, compiled the exposure of net notional derivatives in the financial system, and analyzed new programs by the Federal Reserve Board to stabilize the economy.I became interested in the importance of trust in the financial system and how the U.S.government manages the concept of trust.With the introduction of bitcoin and blockchain technology by a colleague in 2016, I entered into the blockchain industry, first with the Chamber of Digital Commerce as Director of Operations for Policy and then as the Policy Ambassador for ConsenSys.I am currently the founding CEO and President of a new non-profit called the Value Technology Foundation, with the purpose to conduct exclusively educational and charitable activities with regard to digital assets, blockchain, distributed ledger technologies and other relevant “value” technologies for the public welfare and economic benefits of the citizens of the United States.I hold a degree from Cornell University in Government (BA, 1997) and the Kogod School of Business (MBA, 2009).
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