Two icons of tech — one American, one Russian — are hard at work trying to win back the jilted governments of their home countries by stirring up concerns over foreign competitors. When nationalism meets tech In a hearing tomorrow before the congressional Antitrust Subcommittee, Mark Zuckerberg plans to portray Facebook as the American champion to meet Chinese tech. Meanwhile, Pavel Durov has waged a similar campaign to rehabilitate Telegram in his native Russia, largely by painting U.S. tech as an invading force. It’s an interesting strategy, especially since the PR for both Facebook and Telegram has historically leaned into …

On July 22, the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy held a hearing on the role of innovation in the escalating competition between China and the United States. Today’s hearing comes on the heels of a Department of Justice indictment yesterday against several hackers accused of working for the Chinese government to steal trade secrets from U.S. companies as well as to rumble dissidents in places like Hong Kong. CBDC as a zone of competition J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the CFTC and current leader of the DIgital Dollar Project, testified today on the declining infrastructure of the …

Speaking with Circle’s Jeremy Allaire on July 16, several key figures in lobbying on behalf of crypto and blockchain in Washington, D.C. spoke to a major rise in education and interest in the sphere on the part of regulators. Coronavirus to digitization Perianne Boring, the founder and president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, pointed out that the pandemic had forced Congress to look at new technology for money in a sweeping way. “We have seen a huge change in the tone towards blockchain technology in congress just since the pandemic,” said Boring. “We have seen almost a 180 in …

In a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee today on Tuesday, central bank digital currencies took center stage before an audience of Senators looking to upgrade financial infrastructure and expand financial inclusion in the country. The witnesses and the concerns The banking committee welcomed Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla, financial inclusion professor and researcher at Duke Nakita Cuttino, and former CFTC Chair and current champion of the Digital Dollar Project Chris Giancarlo as witnesses. Cascarilla provided expertise on how existing stablecoins operate and the gaps in current finance that they fill. In his words, “Stablecoins address the antiquated plumbing of our …

In a hearing on June 17 before the House Committee on Financial Services, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell got into an exchange with Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) over the subject of a central bank digital currency. Is there any progress on the digital dollar? Emmer asked “What substantive recent actions has the Fed taken to understand and experiment with this technology?” Powell said the Fed needed to be on top of the issue, but did not actually mention any actions of substance at all: “We owe it to the public that we serve to be up to speed. …

Editor’s note: These are times strange enough that every conversation seems to include some verbal acknowledgment like “strange times, huh?” A quasi-anarchist police-free leftist separatist bubble has formed and is growing on Seattle’s Capitol Hill — a sentence that resembles a David Foster Wallace plot more than anything I ever anticipated treating as news. Both India and Russia have been hemming and hawing over long-discussed crypto bans, while the latter will be voting on controversial constitutional amendments allowing Vladimir Putin to extend his already 20-year term as president of the Russian Federation. This vote will reportedly be happening on a …

In a June 11 hearing before the Congressional Fintech Task Force, everyone seemed to agree that they could improve financial inclusion by giving people more direct access to FedAccounts, which may operate using a digital dollar. What exactly a digital dollar looks like will probably be more controversial. Unity at yesterday’s hearing was encouraging Congressman Warren Davidson (R-OH), a member of the Fintech Task Force as well as a noted crypto advocate, was pleased with the tone of the hearing, overall. He was at earlier hearings for Facebook’s Libra, which he saw as turning into an indictment of Facebook rather …

On June 11, the Congressional Fintech Task Force held a hearing examining FedAccounts and a digital dollar as ways of expanding financial inclusion in the United States. Particularly in the aftermath of greatly delayed $1200 stimulus payments directly to U.S. citizens, the digital dollar has gotten much more attention. A number of bills appeared in the wake of the CARES Act calling for FedAccounts and digital dollars as means of streamlining aid distribution. Upgrading financial tools as a public good Morgan Ricks, a law professor at Vanderbilt University who recently spoke with Cointelegraph about the digital dollar, said in today’s …

Jonathan Herzog is running for Congress in New York’s 10th district, and is counting on the support of the crypto community to push him past the incumbent of almost 30 years, Jerrold Nadler, in Democratic primaries. Herzog received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, an MBA from NYU Stern, and is currently on the leave of absence from the Harvard Law School. He was a founding member of Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign, from whom, admittedly, he borrowed a few ideas. He is running on a progressive platform — universal basic income (UBI), universal healthcare, publicly funded elections and national cryptocurrency regulation. …

In a May 28 virtual roundtable before the congressional Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy, witnesses and congresspeople alike feared that they are not keeping up with criminals hacking the financial system. Criminals have better resumes than government agents One witness, Guillermo Christensen, a partner at law firm Ice Miller, admired the cyber talent operating illegally: “We are always playing catch up with the criminals. [...] It’s very hard to find people who are as qualified as some of these criminal hackers, frankly, to take apart their schemes and trace them.” Another issue is the overclassification of …

On May 22, Wyoming’s Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation technology convened in full for the first time, albeit virtually. Initially announced on May 17, the new select committee evolved from the previous Blockchain Task Force. Task force to select committee: What has changed? In today’s meeting, Chairman Chris Rothfuss commented on the committee’s new powers: “This is a select committee that is able to sponsor its own legislation. In the past, it was a task force that was not able to.” However, like a task force, a select committee has a limited timespan. Today’s agenda Speaking …

On May 19, Representative Brett Guthrie (R-KY) introduced the “Advancing Blockchain Act.” Per a May 18 draft of the legislation obtained by Cointelegraph, the bill asks the Federal Trade Commission and the Secretary of Commerce to put together a new survey of blockchain’s uses and the state of adoption in the United States. Establishing jurisdictions for different federal agencies? The bill looks for new determination of the role of federal agencies, asking the regulators tasked with the survey to: “Conduct a survey of Federal activity related to blockchain technology to [...] develop a brief description of the jurisdiction and expertise …