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Senator Lee and Representative Curtis said digital currency represents a revolution in financial freedom and personal privacy.
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Lawmakers have warned of excessive regulation that could stifle the industry.
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The worst outcome, they said, would be a centralized digital currency issued by the Federal Reserve.
The current Utah senator and Senate candidate told a group of cryptocurrency developers Friday that digital money represents a revolution in financial freedom and personal privacy not seen since the dot-com boom. 30 years ago.
But, said Utah Sen. Mike Lee, unlike the Internet, many in Washington, D.C., are eager to control the emerging industry through regulation, or take it over entirely, which could be a disaster for the country – hindering competition, stifling alternatives to the market. weakening the dollar and undermining Americans’ constitutional rights.
The worst result for crypto
“As the U.S. dollar continues to be unstable, continues to be inflated because we print money every time Congress wants to spend more money than it has – which is a lot – and as the world becomes accustomed to digital transactions, something like crypto has to exist,” Lee told an audience of a few hundred people seated at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
The worst outcome, Lee said, would be for the Federal Reserve – the nation’s central bank – to create its own centralized digital currency. The second worst outcome, Lee said, would be for the federal government to regulate private cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, “to death.” The third worst outcome, Lee said, would be for the industry to be hobbled by a patchwork of state laws that would result in death “by 50 cuts.”
“Congress made a very wise choice 30 years ago when they decided, more or less, to leave the Internet alone,” Lee said. “If people used the Internet to commit crimes, they would go after those crimes. But they didn’t create a central regulator just to oversee the Internet. We need to take the same approach when it comes to the next wave of disruptive technologies.
Utah Rep. John Curtis shared the stage with Lee on Friday, the final day of the three-day Permissionless III conference presented by Blockworks and Bankless, two cryptocurrency news communities. Curtis is heavily favored to win the November Senate race to replace Sen. Mitt Romney.
Is Utah the birthplace of crypto?
Curtis spoke about the future of Bitcoin mining earlier this week at the conference, which was attended by U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. Caroline Pham, Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner; and Samara Cohen, chief investment officer of BlackRock.
On Friday, Lee and Curtis, who wore a pair of Bitcoin socks, fielded questions from Faryar Shirzad, policy director at Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, with a massive government lobbying operation. Shirzad said Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit activist organization backed by Coinbase, awarded Lee and Curtis — as well as Utah officials. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens – an A grade on their legislative scorecard, and called both lawmakers “crypto.” champions. »
Curtis has co-sponsored two bills in recent months that are viewed favorably by the crypto community. The anti-CBDC surveillance state law, which passed the House, would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital dollar. The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which also passed the House, would create transparency and consumer protection requirements for cryptocurrency technologies.
Curtis also supported a bipartisan House resolution condemning crypto regulatory overreach by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the Senate, Curtis promised he would represent Utah’s 600,000 cryptocurrency owners and said the state was uniquely positioned to lead cryptocurrency innovation.
“If you go back to our pioneering heritage, you had to be innovative to survive,” Curtis said. “And I represented the 3rd Congressional District, Silicone Slopes, I think innovation is in Utah’s DNA, and I think that’s why it’s such a good hotbed for crypto. “
Is Congress anti-crypto?
Lee introduced the Saving Privacy Act in September, which would prevent federal agencies from creating databases containing personally identifiable financial information about Americans unless Congress passes a law to create such a database. The bill would eliminate the government database that currently tracks all activity in the U.S. market and prohibit the creation of a central Federal Reserve digital currency.
While Fourth Amendment issues that protect privacy are often bipartisan, Lee said Congress appears to be moving in the opposite direction when it comes to digital assets.
“There is a new generation of politicians, unfortunately it exists in both political parties and both chambers of commerce, who believe that everything big and important must be regulated by government, otherwise it will pose a threat to the “humanity,” Lee said. .
There is currently a push to keep cryptocurrency regulation light, Curtis said, adding that could change if it becomes more of a partisan issue.
Lawmakers, notably from the left, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have stressed that cryptocurrency must be heavily regulated to prevent it from being used by criminal organizations, to protect consumers from extreme price fluctuations and to ensure that digital assets are not hacked by foreign actors. , and to protect the financial system from crashes.
Lee argued that the invasion of privacy has reached unprecedented levels as government and big business collect more data than ever before. Lee said he believes the American people support the development of a more private, more decentralized and more reliable “medium of exchange” when the future seems uncertain.
“Crypto, if we can defend it, if we can protect it, if we can protect it from excessive federal intrusion, can be that bastion of free market and privacy that we want and desperately need” , Lee said.
