Texas Republican aims to regulate crypto like wheat

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Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]
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About two years ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to appear before congress. In a lively and well prepared (on his part) hearing, Americans watching the events on C-span were astounded to see how little their elected Senators really knew about tech companies, the internet or the workings of apps on smartphones. Zuckerberg repeatedly had to explain the difference between Twitter and Facebook and was even asked questions about memes that had appeared on Reddit. The whole thing became a viral sensation which has spanned several videos, one of which the funniest is called Zuckerberg explains the internet to Congress

YouTube video

As you can see, the young billionaire remains calm at all times but it was soon clear he had the upper hand over these seniors due to his knowledge of Silicon Valley’s inventions.

The problem for the US is that it has the largest tech sector in the world, which is supposed to be regulated by a group of politicians and elected officials whose average age is 70. Google, Facebook and other Twitters therefore have the upper hand.

Whereas in Europe politicians retire at the age of 65, in the US they’re only then getting started. Donald Trump versus Joe Biden for president in November means two 70-year-olds with little knowledge of smartphones, the internet and apps will be ruling the world’s greatest superpower for the next four years.

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Texas republicans

Having seen the popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as means of investment, the now 72-yeard-old Texas republican Michael Conaway aims to become the man create regulatory oversight for this new branch of industry. We believe he is way out of his league on this one, but are willing to listen.

The Texan politician, mostly known for his work on agriculture and the military, states he aims to create a federal definition of digital commodity exchanges, putting them in their own legal category and appoint the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) with oversight.

His draft bill states:

The proposed legislation builds on the existing commodity market practices required of Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) to protect customer assets. DCEs would be required to segregate customer assets and hold them in separately regulated entities which are licensed to custody digital assets.

So, let me get this straight: existing commodity market practices from a man who is the ranking member on the House Committee on Agriculture, which oversees commodity exchanges in his country?

In other words, Mr Conaway aims to trade Bitcoin and other altcoins in the same manner as agricultural commodities such as wheat, pork belly and orange juice.

I hope someone can tell this Texas Republican that orange juice, pork bellies and wheat don’t matter that much anymore. In any case, it sounds like Zuckerberg at the Senate all over again.