by Jon Decker

Excerpt from Inside Sources:

When most laymen think of blockchain, they think of cryptocurrency. Fortunately, White and Benko’s book “Blockchain With American Characteristics” fills us in on its other potential use cases, including ensuring that billions of dollars in federal disaster relief aid go to its right recipients rather than getting siphoned off in waste, fraud and abuse. The authors advocate the proper kind of tax treatment to avoid crippling one of the Biden administration’s marquee objectives.

As White and Benko point out, China is keenly aware of the importance of driving blockchain innovation noting, “In October 2019, Chinese president Xi Jinping, the leader of America’s premier rival, threw down the gauntlet. ‘It is necessary to strengthen basic research, enhance the original innovation ability, and strive to let China take the leading position in the emerging field of blockchain, occupy the commanding heights of innovation, and gain new industrial advantages.’”

America can win this race for technological supremacy.  But will Congress allow it to do so?

To his credit, President Biden took up Xi’s challenge via his March 2022 executive order, “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” Unfortunately, administration officials such as Gary Gensler seem to have missed the memo, as exemplified by the Security and Exchange Commission’s repeated and embarrassing attempts to dismantle Ripple Labs in court.

What will it take to provide a federal framework that unleashes blockchain technology instead of stifling it? White and Benko curated 10 of the easiest, most practical ideas for legislation that would allow the sector to flourish without reducing public protection.