Will the United States government launch a new blockchain office?

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Is a new government office for blockchain technologies on the way? On December 31st, Congressman Darren Soto sponsored a bill that would “establish an office within the Department of Commerce to coordinate all non-defense related deployment and activities related to blockchain technology within the Federal Government”

The bill–H.R.9067–has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and awaits its next actions.

Cultivating industry growth

Congressman Soto was elected to be a representative of Florida’s 9th Congressional District in 2016 and is the co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, a group that is looking to catalyze blockchain innovation and development as well as assist other congressmen and women in making that a reality.

Soto has been an avid supporter of the blockchain industry and is working to cultivate the emerging market that is blockchain and digital currency by creating regulations in the industry that are clear and easy to understand for business operators.

Soto spoke at CG Live on October 1st and gave the audience insight into the middle ground that lawmakers are trying to hit when it comes to bringing law to blockchain and digital currency without over-regulating the space.

According to Soto, 

You are going to see initial legislation what we would refer to as light touch legislation that would be a lot like when a lot of the internet start-up companies were just emerging in the late 90’s early 2000’s,” said Soto. “So there will be just a few basic goals:

1. Establish some jurisdiction
2. Establish definitions of what a financial digital asset is vs. a digital currency vs. a futures [product] vs. a commodity, vs. a security, and
3. Create basic provisions on innovation and anti-fraud consumer protection.

From there, a lot of it will be established through the different agencies for regulations that they have to publish rules on it. There will be input from the industry and if we feel that the agencies are going too far, we could always supersede any regulation with a new law. So right now, those are the main goals, we aren’t looking to regulate every aspect of this, but we do want to make sure people have reliable definitions.

You can watch Rep. Darren Soto’s full CoinGeek Live 2020 Day 2 presentation “ Balancing Innovation & Regulation for Growth of Blockchain Technology.” below: