Sec. 501. Findings; sense of Congress
466 words·~2 min read·
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Congress finds the following: Entrepreneurs and innovators are building and deploying this next generation of the internet. Digital commodity networks represent a new way for people to join together and cooperate with one another to undertake certain activities. Digital commodities have the potential to be the foundational building blocks of these systems, aligning the economic incentive for individuals to cooperate with one another to achieve a common purpose. The digital commodity ecosystem has the potential to grow our economy and improve everyday lives of Americans by facilitating collaboration through the use of technology to manage activities, allocate resources, and facilitate decision making.
Blockchain systems and the digital commodities they empower provide control, enhance transparency, reduce transaction costs, and increase efficiency if proper protections are put in place for investors, consumers, our financial system, and our national security. Blockchain technology facilitates new types of network participation which businesses in the United States may utilize in innovative ways. Other digital commodity companies are setting up their operations outside of the United States, where countries are establishing frameworks to embrace the potential of blockchain technology and digital commodities and provide safeguards for consumers.
Digital commodities, despite the purported anonymity, provide law enforcement with an exceptional tracing tool to identify illicit activity and bring criminals to justice. The Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives has held multiple hearings highlighting various risks that digital commodities can pose to the financial markets, consumers, and investors that must be addressed as we seek to harness the benefits of these innovations. It is the sense of Congress that— the United States should seek to prioritize understanding the potential opportunities of the next generation of the internet; the United States should seek to foster advances in technology that have robust evidence indicating they can improve our financial system and create more fair and equitable access to financial services for everyday Americans while protecting our financial system, investors, and consumers; the United States must support the responsible development of digital commodities and the underlying technology in the United States or risk the shifting of the development of such assets and technology outside of the United States, to less regulated countries;
Congress should consult with public and private sector stakeholders to understand how to enact a functional framework tailored to the specific risks and unique benefits of different digital commodity-related activities, distributed ledger technology, distributed networks, and mature blockchain systems; Congress should enact a functional framework tailored to the specific risks of different digital commodity-related activities and unique benefits of distributed ledger technology, distributed networks, and mature blockchain systems; and consumers and market participants will benefit from a framework for digital commodities consistent with longstanding investor protections in securities and commodities markets, yet tailored to the unique benefits and risks of the digital commodity ecosystem.