Infrastructure bill can still be remedied: DeFi dev-turned Congress candidate

The controversial U.S. infrastructure bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden this morning, with the legislation passing without amendments made to the broad provisions that could impose stringent reporting requirements on crypto network validators and software developers.

However, DeFi strategist-turned Democratic congressional candidate, Matt West, believes there is still time to push back.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, West said: “My understanding of this bill is that it has been signed, but it hasn't taken effect yet.”

The crypto community has taken particular issue with section 6050II of the bipartisan legislation, which makes failing to report digital assets transactions a criminal offence.

West, who otherwise supports the bill, says that section 6050II doesn’t make “a whole lot of sense”, citing new rules that require NFT sellers to know the tax ID and social security number of potential buyers.

“All these very invasive details,” he said, adding that it’s “really indicative of how people in the space are led in Congress are legislating on issues they don't fully understand.”

West called on his fellow congresspeople from both major political parties to “educate themselves on the nuanced issues here that they might not be seeing” and consider regulation carefully.

“There's a bunch of people right now in Congress who are trying to pass laws on things they don't necessarily understand. And because of that, you see regulations that don't really make sense.”

"Cryptocurrency should not be a partisan issue. It's too big for that,” he added.

Related: 8-word crypto amendment in infrastructure bill an ‘affront to the rule of law’

West announced last month Oct 12 that he would be running against Lorette Smith and Derry Jackson in the Democratic primary scheduled for May 17 2022 for Oregon's 6th Congressional District.

If elected, West says he will “fight for an amendment to another bill to undo the work that's been consigned right now.”

In 2015, West entered the EVEOnline hackathon and his team won the Yearn award for their Hedrick vaults strategy. He’s been a strategist at Yearn ever since, working part-time during his off-hours while working full-time as an engineer at Intel. He has recently taken a break from Yearn to launch his campaign.