When the technology is new, it breeds the speculations, swinging wildly from the disastrous to the divine, from useless to life-changing. Unlike the father of blockchain technology, Satoshi Nakamoto the blockchain technology is transparent, freely available and accessible. But to his credit, he indeed created something that took the world by storm last year.

Yesterday, Senate Banking Committee heard the testimonials from the SEC and CFTC chairmen regarding the cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. The approach by both of the gentlemen was pleasingly progressive.

CFTC Chairman Giancarlo started off by saying his kids were not interested in stocks but are hooked on cryptocurrencies, and the government has to respect that and develop a positive outlook.

To unpack this statement we need to somehow assign some human value to the chairman of the CFTC!

The first part of the statement says that the kids losing interest from stocks. Is it eluding to the fact that either the stocks market is so centralized and mechanized, that a day to day trader has almost no chance of making consistent profits? There is no easier entry for the kids to learn in stocks. The cryptocurrency gives them the way to earn a little money using their computing power from graphics cards or CPUs and provides them the early access and the training to understand the system. These all steps are necessary for a better learning experience which builds their confidence.

The second part of the statement which ascribes a value to the feeling by the younger generation. A respect has to be given and a positive outlook needs to be developed is frankly an unusual statement from a banker/trader. However, the if it is expressing the true feelings of the chairman, it is a very powerful emotion that might touch a lot of senators.

While scams and fraudsters must be cracked down, the general market must be allowed to develop. A working group of SEC, FinCEN, CFTC and other group members are working on identifying scams in this space.

This statement was the most obvious and clear indicators of setting a regulatory body over the cryptocurrency business. This statement separates a trading market from the fundraising market.

I have a bit of a feud with this approach. The current atmosphere does not allow investors to waive protection by the government. To get an accredited status you need to be a high-income person. The fact that the poor never are allowed to take even an educated investment venture because they are poor is laughably wrong. Income should not be the criteria to decide an accredited status. It could be anything from the mental acuity, education, financial awareness etc.

Secondly the trading still remains largely unregulated and under the control of bigger traders/market makers and movers. Therefore this still looks like an attempt to keep the power structure centralized to the wealthy.

When asked if #Crypto of #bitcoin has any “intrinsic value”?

The reply stated that there is an intrinsic value and relation of the value of bitcoin and the cost of mining it.

Finally, someone from the financial sector is wise enough to understand that keeping the network working is a task that each miner does. The reward is the function of the task and the electricity put into it as the investment. Therefore there is an intrinsic value to any PoW or PoS or hybrid currency. Still, this does not answer the question of what is the intrinsic values of the tokens (ERC-20)? Fortunately, noone has brought up that issue.

Market cap of Bitcoin is just one publicly traded company like McDonald’s. In comparison, global money supply is 7.6T, the value of all gold in the world is 8T.

This was really a simple way to establish parallels between a publicly owned (decentralized ownership of the network company that runs in a trustless manner) and a fortune 500 company. Such comparison must make the senators understand the blockchain businesses or cryptocurrencies in a much-streamlined way. Largely, this effort should be seen to help cryptocurrencies as a mainstream company. Yet a long road has to be covered in this direction.

“We must crack down hard on those who abuse our young enthusiasm for bitcoin and blockchain technology” well that’s obvious. How to curtail the abuse is a bigger technological problem, but I liked a clear answer.

Venezuela, North Korea and Russia could use crypto assets to skirt US sanctions. Though SEC chair addressed that there was not much they could do but are working with Feds & the treasury.

I dont have much to say here, other than just stating, where there is a will there is a way. But with decreasing staff at SEC and bankrupt surveillance agencies other than the war machine, it will be difficult to achieve this goal with a serious commitment. Just 2 cents of the layman.

Senator Warner compared the market to the rise of cell phones and said if it continues its historical growth, he could see this market hitting $20 trillion by 2020.

Raise the glass friends.. this is exactly what we have been hodl-ing for how many dips and turns and slides and slips! This is the time to make sure that you keep it with you and ride the ride. So far we are together, we continue to be together.