Utah Blockchain Coalition — Meeting Senators Mike Lee and Cynthia Lummis
I’m not a political animal. I lean libertarian (not the party, but the ideas), and would like less government interference in well… just about everything. Government should not act like a parent trying to protect its children from self-inflicted harm. Government is not our parent. It should protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and most of that should come from the US states or even more-localized government as per the US Constitution.
I search for politicians that recognize the limits of government power, and I’ll vote for them, just to keep the normal politicians out. These politicians are rare, but they exist. Ron Paul was the best I’ve seen, and acts as the measuring stick by which I measure the others.
It was my pleasure to meet with Senators Lee and Lummis this week on the topic of crypto.
Mike Lee started with the importance of protecting freedom, limiting the power of the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries and opined on the regulatory capture that currently plagues our system. Of course the skeptic in me knows full well that Mike Lee knows the audience he was addressing and could tailor his comments directly to us. But I have seen him at other non-crypto events with the exact same freedom and liberty message. He was even recently accused of using his pocket US Constitution as a “prop” in a debate. Great. I hope he keeps carrying that prop, and references it often.
Senator Lummis was great. She has really educated herself on the topic of crypto, and has worked with Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on a bill to help put the commodity cryptos under the CFTC where they belong. Commodity cryptos are Bitcoin (BTC), Ravencoin (RVN), Litecoin (LTC), and others that are solely based on reviewable open-source code that doesn’t depend on others efforts for its market value. Amusingly, Lummis suggested that Ethereum might have lost its commodity status by going to proof-of-stake. Unfortunately, Senator Lummis had to remove some of the more nuanced crypto categorization to get additional buy-in from her co-sponsor. Here is a summary of the legislation, and the actual bill.
Our meeting was very productive. Senator Lummis humbly asked what would help our industry. Discussion of stablecoins (algorithmic and X% reserve), legal structures for DAOs, and ways to let states protect innovation were all discussed and notes were taken by both Senators. There was even the suggestion for a bill that allows adults to be adults — I’m not holding my breath.
I was impressed by both, but as a Utah resident I can only vote for Senator Lee. We need 98 more Senators like these two.