White House Seeks Public Comment on Crypto Strategy

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is seeking input on government-wide efforts to develop a crypto strategy.

OSTP and the National Science Foundation now co-chair an interagency FTAC under the NITRD subcommittee to develop this R&D program.

In this context, they are asking for the public’s opinion until March 3. They want feedback on the potential application of blockchain technology and digital assets.

“OSTP seeks answers that could inform the full range of federal R&D priorities related to digital assets, including R&D initiatives that could complement Federal Reserve research and experimentation related to CBDCs…

We also encourage respondents to explain how their R&D suggestions could help advance policy priorities or recommendations,” they said. say.

They specifically mention how blockchain “can facilitate the integration and coordination of clean energy resources, for example by providing a better ledger for authentication, participation and compensation for beneficial services from distributed energy resources (eg. , electric vehicles, connected devices and appliances, residential and commercial energy storage systems, solar energy systems) on a smart grid.

This follows an executive order from US President Joe Biden in March last year that outlined the first whole-of-government approach to digital assets.

It took numerous crypto reports across all government departments as part of the first effort of its kind.

The OSTP’s request seems to be the broadest, asking for feedback on any crypto-related aspect to inform their research.

One suggestion we would make is to examine the potential use of crypto for capital formation in a global market.

Although controversial, this could fund research and innovation that would otherwise not be exploited by venture capitalists because it is too specialized or lacks the potential for scale.

Such capital formation can additionally be fairer because the entrepreneur has more bargaining power than with VCs, a narrow group with a monopoly in this market.

It’s one of the most impactful use cases for both Binance and Crypto.com.

Legitimizing this type of market can also spur innovation in other sectors that can tap into crypto-finance.

This is particularly relevant for non-US entities that may not have access to US capital formation markets.

Another potential area of ​​research is how crypto can increase transparency in government spending.

If part of the taxes, for example, were accepted in crypto, how those funds are used can be tracked to some extent.

Unlike banking, which is private with only banks able to see the movements, the global public blockchain allows anyone to track the movement of funds, providing greater transparency.

Another more complex research aspect is how data streams can facilitate automatic cryptographic insurance.

For example, if data has been entered digitally from a trusted source on car accidents for example, a smart contract can be designed to issue insurance payments based on that data.

The potential tokenization of bonds is an obvious research topic for the government. Not least because it opens up access to the common man without the banks having their cut and in a way that can be incorporated into a challenge, potentially increasing the attractiveness of holding bonds, especially for the new generation.

With bonds like that the government would have to take the leap and risk that it’s actually a token, rather than some sort of front where the bond is in paper, but you sort of have the token as decoration.

This would mean that if you lose it, you lose it, but it would also mean that it is a true crypto bond, an asset available to anyone and everyone around the world.

A much bolder topic would be whether certain reserves should be held in crypto. Although this is more a matter for the central bank, the government can consider whether, in the event of war, for example, crypto would be a better medium than gold.

And another area is stablecoins. In particular, if they extend the role of the dollar as a reserve currency, and therefore if they should be integrated as a policy, in addition to knowing if they are a better means of achieving the objective of encryption of the dollar than the CBDCs.

For pure research, the government might want to look at how DAOs can foster a sense of community to, say, poll a neighborhood on how taxes should be spent in that particular area, with the DAO controlling some of those taxes.

These are just a few potential topics out of many, but the Biden administration should be commended for undertaking this exercise as it recognizes that cryptos have now become a sufficiently notable and important part of the economy to need further discussion. ‘a strategy.