TL;DR: Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain is the topic for a full hearing of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs set for Tuesday, July 30th, 2019 at 10am EST. The ecosystem is still reeling from two days of Facebook Coin Libra testimony just a week prior.

New Cryptocurrency, Blockchain Testimony Before US Senate July 30th

By now, cryptocurrency enthusiasts are more than familiar with the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 538, setting. The Senate Banking Committee used that venue to skewer David A. Marcus, head of Calibra, a subsidiary managing financial services on the Libra blockchain, for hours back on July 16th.

This time around, the open session will have three witnesses in the hot seat: Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire, Rebecca M. Nelson of the Congressional Research Service, and UC Irvine Law professor Mehrsa Baradaran. As luck would have it, Allaire’s Circle recently cited a lack of regulatory clarity as among the company’s reasons for moving operations to Bermuda from Boston. Assuming senators do their homework, that could be an interesting line of questioning. Allaire also was to be among Justin Sun’s guests at the now postponed Warren Buffett lunch.

The committee tilts ever-so in favor of the Senate majority Republicans, who have been historically considered more pro-business and innovation. Recently, however, the party’s leadership has taken an openly hostile stand toward Bitcoin and cryptocurrency generally, as both President Trump and his Treasury Secretary urged grave caution on the matter.

There’s usually less bombast and fireworks from senators compared with congressional members, and that’s due to their being considered the upper chamber, the more deliberative body of US lawmakers. House members, as enthusiasts witnessed during Marcus’ second day of testimony last week in front of Maxine Waters, tend to be more firey — they must run for reelection every two years, and so they’re always looking for an edge or publicity (senators run every 6 years, staggard in thirds). Senators also represent larger constituencies, as 2 are elected from each state, for the whole state, and therefore theoretically must consider more points of view (House members, by contrast, represent districts within a state, and tend to be more myopic).

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

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