Congress Takes Blockchain 101
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We now know that FTX was one of those firms receiving information requests from the SEC, about the very activities that have brought down the firm. This raises the question of whether Emmer and the other congressmembers were acting on behalf of FTX (which has been credibly accused of snatching customer money to make risky bets) to try to chill an ongoing investigation from an independent regulatory and law enforcement agency.
That money helped House Republicans win the majority in 2022. Though FTX has been portrayed as a Democratic firm, thanks to the high profile of former co-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the company sprinkled around campaign donations fairly evenly, with a shade over 50 percent going directly to congressional Republicans and a shade under 50 percent to Democrats this cycle.
You could imagine a simple system for doing this. Every 10 minutes a miner proposes a list of transactions, and all the computers on the Bitcoin network vote on it. If it gets a majority, it becomes official and is entered into the blockchain.
People on the decentralized-and-secure blockchains spend a lot of time thinking about scaling. Often this involves so-called Layer 2 systems, which are built on top of Layer 1 technology such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. For instance, Bitcoin has the Lightning Network, a Layer 2 payment system that basically lets people on the Bitcoin blockchain set up payments to each other without running all of them through the blockchain. This makes the payments faster and cheaper, and they periodically settle on the blockchain for security.
Some people in crypto are faithful to a single blockchain: They are Bitcoin maximalists, or Ethereum or Avalanche or Solana loyalists. Many people are generalist dabblers, though. They like buying lots of tokens on lots of blockchains, because they see merit in many blockchain platforms, or because they like it when lines go up.
Not just banks. This stuff had a particular vogue at banks, but shipping companies also got in on it. Maersk has a blockchain platform (TradeLens, built with IBM) that it advertises for shipping and supply chain management. Meanwhile, the Australian Securities Exchange announced that it will replace a trading system with the blockchain, though it keeps delaying that.
Some of what goes on in crypto is about the technology: People use the ideas of blockchains and smart contracts and so forth to build software. Some of what goes on in crypto is about the money: People call up their brokers to place bets on the prices of crypto tokens going up.
But another thing you get is a share in the Bitcoin project. Not a share of actual stock, but still a chance to profit from the success of Bitcoin. If this digital cash thing takes off, then lots of people will want Bitcoin to use to buy sandwiches, and there will be a lot of demand for Bitcoin. But only 21 million Bitcoin will ever exist. So each Bitcoin will be more valuable as more people decide to use Bitcoin as their way to transfer digital cash.
But what does it mean to say that the NFT is a piece of digital art The art does not live on the blockchain. As the well-known software engineer and hacker who goes by the name Moxie Marlinspike wrote in a blog post:
The modern banking system is a machine that takes in risky assets at one end, takes senior claims on them (lending money against those assets, with the right to be paid back first), repeats that move a few times (taking and issuing senior claims on the senior claims56), and spits out dollars at the other end. A dollar is distilled from risky assets.
The order, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign Wednesday, will hasten the research and possible creation of the Federal Reserve's own digital currency, pushes for greater support for innovation in blockchain technology and works to ensure the new systems won't increase inequality or financial swings.
Agencies like the Commerce, State and Treasury departments, as well as the Federal Reserve, have been working with or researching cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies for years. The latest executive order, developed in conversations with major industry players, is bringing in the entire administration to the effort.
Countries around the world are taking divergent views on cryptocurrency and other so-called \"Web3\" technologies based on blockchain. The European Parliament will vote on March 14 whether to pass a comprehensive cryptocurrency bill that would add regulations across the continent but not ban the technology.
\"On behalf of our 85+ member companies, the Blockchain Association is honored to join the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Partnership Challenge to deepen our investments to build an inclusive crypto industry and marketplace,\" Blockchain Association Executive Director Kristin Smith said. \"We commend U.S. Representatives Alma Adams and French Hill for convening this year's robust HBCU STEAM Days of Action forum and for their steadfast leadership and willingness to engage industry partners to empower HBCUs, which are preparing the next generation of blockchain and cryptocurrency innovators.\"
About Blockchain Association: The Blockchain Association is the collective voice of the cryptocurrency industry. Our members include the sector's leading investors, companies, projects, and protocols, working together to support a future-forward, pro-innovation national policy and regulatory framework for the crypto economy. Find us at theblockchainassociation.org. Follow us @BlockchainAssn.
After getting tips from ISHAN WAHI, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI used anonymous Ethereum blockchain wallets to acquire crypto assets shortly before Coinbase publicly announced that it was listing or considering listing these crypto assets on its exchanges. Following Coinbase public listing announcements, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI sold the crypto assets for a profit. Based on confidential information provided by ISHAN WAHI, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI collectively traded shortly in advance of at least 14 separate Coinbase public listing announcements concerning at least 25 different crypto assets. As a result of the insider trading scheme, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI collectively generated realized and unrealized gains totaling at least approximately $1.5 million.
To conceal their purchases of crypto assets in advance of Coinbase listing announcements, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI used accounts at centralized exchanges held in the names of others, and transferred funds, crypto assets, and proceeds of their scheme through multiple anonymous Ethereum blockchain wallets. NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI also regularly created and used new Ethereum blockchain wallets without any prior transaction history in order to further conceal their involvement in the scheme.
(A) potential uses of blockchain that could support monitoring or mitigating technologies to climate impacts, such as exchanging of liabilities for greenhouse gas emissions, water, and other natural or environmental assets; and
(a) The term \"blockchain\" refers to distributed ledger technologies where data is shared across a network that creates a digital ledger of verified transactions or information among network participants and the data are typically linked using cryptography to maintain the integrity of the ledger and execute other functions, including transfer of ownership or value.
(c) The term \"cryptocurrencies\" refers to a digital asset, which may be a medium of exchange, for which generation or ownership records are supported through a distributed ledger technology that relies on cryptography, such as a blockchain.
Millions of unbanked and underbanked people around the world, including in areas China is targeting with its Belt and Road, will be able to access financial services through blockchain applications in the years ahead. The companies that develop these applications will control tremendous amounts of user data and have outsized influence on these countries and their relationship with the global financial system. Rather than ceding these critical opportunities to China, the United States should empower U.S. firms to lead in this space by embracing and encouraging the development of blockchain-based payment applications, both for domestic use and for cross-border purposes. To this end, the White House, in coordination with the Treasury Department, should lead an effort to consider regulatory, legal, and other incentives to promote U.S. fintech development of digital wallet, banking, and peer-to-peer payment applications.
To compete with China, which has directed central bank resources toward digital currency and blockchain research, the United States should cultivate professionals entering the job market who can understand, develop, and innovate using blockchain payment infrastructure. The rising U.S. business and consumer interest in digital assets has not been accompanied by a sufficient growth in computer science or engineering courses that teach blockchain technology beyond an introductory level. While student interest has driven many university campuses to introduce blockchain and cryptocurrency classes in recent years, these are mostly one-off courses and do not offer a formal concentration or accreditation in building blockchain applications.73 The U.S. government, possibly led by the National Labs or Department of Education, should establish a grant program to fund rigorous blockchain technology courses and graduate-level research on cryptocurrency-related topics.
U.S. departments and agencies have yet to reform their bureaucracies to fully reflect the centrality of the Indo-Pacific or the emerging strategic competition with China. Critical offices remain comparatively understaffed and underresourced, including the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the State Department, embassies and consulates in the region, and the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department. To address this continuing shortfall, nati