Originally published on Blockworks.co
by Sam Brown
We live in an era of unprecedented surveillance, control and hidden costs imposed by intermediaries.
Big Tech companies control the information you see, while silencing voices their content moderators don’t agree with. Big Banks charge hidden fees on their users, while credit card companies charge fees on small businesses. And the federal government, every day, takes steps closer to a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, the ultimate step in financial surveillance and control.
The American people deserve an alternative.
And that alternative is already here today: Crypto, blockchain-based networks and the decentralized social media and financial services built on top of them. We are in the foundational stages of this next great technological and financial revolution — a change that promises to bring greater economic freedom, financial privacy and economic mobility to everyday people across America and throughout the world.
Today, it is possible to send value using crypto and blockchain networks nearly-instantaneously to anyone, anywhere in the world — without any associated wiring fees from banks or money transmitters. Using decentralized financial services, Americans can access loans and credit based on deposited assets, rather than opaque third-party credit scores.
Leveraging on-chain scarcity, NFTs are used in modern event ticketing services, ensuring that resold tickets aren’t duplicated and sold to multiple buyers. Supply chain companies leverage blockchain-based tracking technology to increase the reliability of shipping goods around the globe. And in a world of AI-generated images and articles spreading across the internet, crypto-based content provenance helps to combat fake news.
As with all emerging technology, the United States should be at the forefront of crypto development, and embrace new frontiers of possibility and prosperity — while staying one step ahead of our global competitors. However, many policymakers in Washington, D.C. have ignored crypto’s substantial potential, while fundamentally failing to understand its importance.
Worse yet, some members of Congress are actively working to stop crypto altogether — damaging the long term economic and foreign affairs interests of the United States. The last time America let a strategic technology leave its shores, (as we did with semiconductor manufacturing), the federal government had to expend billions of taxpayer dollars to bring it back to the United States.
It will take a new generation of forward-thinking US lawmakers to be leaders in this next great economic revolution. Congress must act quickly to secure America’s place in the development of these technologies. If not, America stands to lose out on shaping and participating in one of the greatest leadership and economic opportunities of the 21st Century.
Crypto technologies offer unparalleled economic freedoms, the likes of which we have yet to even fully realize. For Americans, it means access to money management, payment and investment tools outside of the conventional infrastructure. Crypto provides enhanced security, better privacy and more accessibility. It is a system that grants true financial autonomy to the individual, without the intrusions into private personal information by third party (or government) monitoring.
You, the American individual, are the ultimate controller of your assets, and an internet connection or cell signal is all that you need to liberate yourself.
With that freedom comes unlimited potential in a global market, where crypto technologies and stablecoins unlock…