It’s also a way to avoid the fate tech companies like Facebook and Google have faced, where televised congressional hearings show lawmakers baffled by some of the most basic tech jargon.
“The technology is hard,” said Dan Burstein, U.S. general counsel at Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform. Teaching politicians and policy makers about crypto is one way to influence future legislation. It’s also a way to ensure that their companies don’t get inadvertently swept up into legislation in case the language being used to craft bills isn’t precise enough.
“They see what’s in the market now, but not what’s coming and they may not be considering future risks to the financial system,” Burstein said.
For instance, some companies have hired lobbyists to push for changes to New York’s BitLicense, which was created in 2014 and regulates crypto companies that reside in — or have customers in — the state. Some companies want the state to relax the licensing requirements to make it easier for smaller crypto companies to comply.
Exchanges aren't allowed to operate in New York without a BitLicense and only licensed companies can offer certain approved coins in the state. Roughly half of the 157 coins supported by Coinbase, for example, are not available to New Yorkers to trade.
“If you’re a younger, newer cryptocurrency project — it takes a while to get on those exchanges,” said Gene Hoffman, chief operating officer at Chia Network, a blockchain network founded by BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen. The crypto industry is “radically different” than when the BitLicense was originally created and “it’s time to take a fresh look and modify it,” Hoffman said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.