Emmer: "You say the crypto market is rife with noncompliance, however existing SEC rules make no sense for blockchain-based companies, and following them would actually kill these businesses."
Rep. Gottheimer (D-NJ, member of blockchain 8) says he's concerned about the SEC is regulating by enforcement and not through formal guidance. Gensler says they have been issuing guidance.
Rep. Loudermilk (R-GA): "What I see in industry is a decentralization of information because of the risk of disclosure. Blockchain. Many industries are going to blockchain because you're no longer centralizing. When it's centralized, there's a one-stop shop for the bad players to come and get information about individuals."
"Is it easier to protect decentralized investor information held by thousands of firms, or do you feel it's more secure to centralize that in a database administered from Washington, DC?"
@molly0xfff did you ever hear anything back from Feedly? A non-reply or the anticipated useless reply means I have to take down an API library I lightly maintain.
they also said they intended to take a week to research whether the model "can be used in harmful ways", but haven't replied to anyone asking what their research showed. the model is still available, though.
other weird shit from a16z's investment portfolio: newnew, a project described by the BBC as "the app that lets you pay to control another person's life"
indeed, the app invites you to "sign up to become a creator and have people pay to vote and bid on your life decisions!"
"The app, which is still in its 'beta' or pre-full release stage, describes itself as 'a human stock market where you buy shares in the lives of real people, in order to control their decisions and watch the outcome'." https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57085557
Witnesses will be:
• Lee Reiners (policy director at the Duke Financial Economics Center, crypto skeptic)
• Linda Jeng (crypto lobbyist)
• Yesha Yadav (law prof at Vanderbilt, pro-crypto, big on crypto self-regulation)
Reiners calls for transparency from banks to customers as to their crypto exposure.
Reiners cites the recent Silvergate crypto bank run, a bank that likely only survived because of emergency liquidity from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. "[This] of course is not the reason we have federal home loan banks. They exist to support home ownership, not to bail out banks that gamble on crypto".
Sen. Britt (R-AL) and Jeng are arguing that crypto will allow "more people in the US to achieve the American dream", they pull out stats on adoption of crypto by people of color, women.
Reiners: "There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that crypto promotes financial inclusion. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence to suggest the exact opposite is happening. Most people who've invested in cryptocurrency have lost money. Of those people, a plurality are minorities and low-income Americans. This is an example of predatory inclusion..." 1/2
"... We saw the same thing with subprime loans leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, where low-income and minority communities are being explicitly targeted with very, very risky products. And unfortunately they have lost, in many cases, everything." 2/2
Sen. Tillis (R-NC) tries to argue for proof-of-reserves, Reiners shuts him down by saying that POR "aren't worth the paper they're written on", and what we need are audits.
Sen. Warren (D-MA), as to be expected, starts out with a statement about crypto enabling crime, terrorism, ransomware, etc. focuses on the use of crypto for money laundering.