Cryptocurrency is under attack from some influential individuals who are bent on sneaking in harmful bills through the U.S. Senate, pushing those bills to be passed as laws, and in this way bringing the entire industry to its knees. The latest effort is through a proposed so-called America COMPETES Act.
The proposed bill contains elements that empower the U.S. treasury secretary to stop or bar any transaction involving a domestic account, person, or a foreign institution whenever the secretary deems that there are “concerns” with the said transaction. The secretary can do so without any obligation to notify the public or ask for comments from the public. He or she can also do so without adhering to any duration obligation and without any oversight by any financial regulatory body.
Founder of Cardano blockchain and IOHK CEO, Charles Hoskinson expressed how enraged he is by the bill because giving one person unilateral authority to ban, stop, and limit any cryptocurrency-related transaction threatens the entire industry.
“In brief, it would earn the secretary unchecked discretion to forbid financial institutions including cryptocurrency exchanges from offering their customers access to cryptocurrency networks in case it basically says give the U.S. a power to say hey there is something here we are concerned about, and he can temporarily ban it for up to 120 days and at that point, he needs a public hearing to a public inquiry to go through the process of formalizing that concern.”
He alleged these are efforts by people who are possibly sponsored by mainstream and legacy banks and other financial institutions to try and pull down all the achievements made through cryptocurrency and blockchain innovations.
“Every single one of these legislations is an attempt by those who would dominate and control us to drag us back down to a system where they have all the power and we have no say, and they print enough money every year to deflate the money in your pocket by 20%. How do you save? You see the great reset agenda they say you will own nothing and be happy – this is how you get there – bill by bill by bill.”
Hoskinson stated that the harmful provisions were re-sneaked into the America COMPETES Act by one congressman Jim Himes even after they were removed from the National Defense Authorization Act last year because people realized how harmful they were. That people never wanted to hand over power to only one non-elected bureaucrat to unilaterally ban financial transactions and accounts at will and without any public hearing or SEC oversight. Himes had introduced it as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill last year.
Hoskinson said it is irresponsible to try and destroy a $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry through a bill that does not even help America to compete effectively against China.
“We have this industry for as long as we fight this industry – if you are an Ethereum fan listening, a Solana fan listening, NFT fan listening, a Bitcoin fan listening – all of you are impacted by this. At one point, do you stand up and say we have heard enough don’t do this. Every politician who votes for this, primary them.”
“This is not a joke, it is not a drill, it is not a test – it is an industry that is liberating mankind from where it is at to a better state of affairs.”
He called on everyone who supports cryptocurrency and blockchain platforms to oppose the bill and the act vehemently, share news about the proposed bill, call up and write to their congressmen asking them to vote it out, and campaign against those who vote to pass such bills. A group of lawyers who support crypto has vowed to fight the bill out of the way. Senators Cynthia Lummis, Pat Toomey, and others who have been advocating for the crypto industry to thrive are also expected to put up a fight once again.
The proposed bill comes barely two months after the passage of the infrastructure bill which has dealt a blow to crypto exchanges concerning tax reporting requirements. Users are required to file a tax report to the IRS, detailing crypto sources e.g. names of senders, senders’ social security numbers, and other data. This is to be done for all cryptocurrency transactions worth $10,000 and more. Exchanges and other crypto business services will also need to disclose the names and addresses of their customers, which would aid surveillance.
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