In my last post, we discussed the underhanded tactics of legislators hiding their attacks on crypto-currency with regulations that are impossible to uphold because the requirements of their amendments require miners, software & hardware wallet providers, software developers, and other forms of validators to produce a return form for each investment made by classifying them as “Brokers”. Obviously, this is inherently impossible due to the pseudonymous nature of blockchain technology.
Here, we will discuss how the White House essentially endorsed Bitcoin, following the proposal of two new amendments to the infrastructure bill concerning the crypto-currency regulations.
First, take a look at the two proposed changes. The first comes from the Wyden-Loomis-Toomey amendment which readdresses the definition change for “Broker” to exclude all of those business models listed above.
DEFINITION OF BROKER. —Nothing in this section or the amendments made by this section shall be construed to create any inference that a person described in section 6045(c)(1)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as added by this section, includes any person solely engaged in the business of—
(A) validating distributed ledger transactions,
(B) selling hardware or software for which the sole function is to permit a person to control private keys which are used for accessing digital assets on a distributed ledger, or
(C) developing digital assets or their corresponding protocols for use by other persons, provided that such other persons are not customers of the person developing such assets or protocols.
Many services popped up allowing for automated calls to your local senator’s offices to voice support for this amendment, as it is a much-needed change for the definition and clearly excludes those who cannot meet these requirements. In short, aside from scrapping the entirety of the crypto portion of this bill (because we aren’t that lucky), this is the best option in front of us.
Soon after, a second proposal was submitted by Senators Portman and Warner. And it’s garbage. Instead of the three changes listed above, they only have two and the wording is…vastly different.
A. “validating distributed ledger transactions through proof of work (mining), or
B. Selling hardware or software the sole function of which is to permit persons to control a private key (used for accessing digital assets on a distributed ledger).”
Why is this garbage? It only protects mining in a proof of work ecosystem, which is great for Bitcoin, but bad for many other projects. It protects wallet creators and sellers but does nothing to add protection for software developers that would go on to create other digital assets. This is not enough. We cannot allow government officials to choose who wins and loses in this ecosystem. The United States government is not the “King Maker” of crypto-currency, the free market is.
It is outlandish to witness an attack on someone else and then pretend that the same entity that led the attack will allow you to continue peacefully. Simply put, you cannot allow the government to single out every currency except Bitcoin, and expect them to leave Bitcoin alone.
How does any of this mean the White House endorsed Bitcoin?
Thursday, August 5th, no one really expected much from the Biden administration on this matter, and then they released a statement.
“The Administration believes this provision will strengthen tax compliance in this emerging area of finance and ensure that high-income taxpayers are contributing what they owe under the law. We are grateful to Chairman Wyden for his leadership in pushing the Senate to address this issue, however, we believe that the alternative amendment put forward by Senators Warner, Portman, and Sinema strikes the right balance and makes an important step forward in promoting tax compliance.”
The White House-backed the Portman-Warner amendment focusing only on proof of work mining and wallet creators/sellers. Conspiracy theorists arise! Adorn your tinfoil hats and let loose the fury of charlatanism across the great landscape of the internet!
Could this be a confused administration? Possibly. One of the jobs of the government is to assess threats, domestically and internationally, and almost most importantly, financially. Hard for one to imagine a world where the government hasn’t looked into Bitcoin with the infinity time stone and saw the U.S Dollar fail 14,000,605 times.
Is it on federal balance sheets we don’t know about? Do they want to start the process of elimination to put a target on Bitcoin, and proof of work mining? Am I asking a ton of questions and giving you people no answers? Possibly. But one thing we know, the White House just backed Bitcoin, intentionally or unintentionally.
If you like this article, please take a short moment to like, subscribe, and comment so we know what content appeals to our audience. If there is something you disagree with, let us know in the comments so we can do better next time. Thanks for your support! Follow the YouTube Channel: Crypto & Stocks with Shawn