However, this was submitted on their final day of 2018 in Washington DC. This means it was only symbolic, because there's not enough time to actually call a vote before they're dismissed to return in the new year. Officials do this to simply show citizens and fellow members of congress what's on their agenda.
We thought it could be months in to 2019 until anything cryptocurrency related would be addressed again. Even when thinking optimistically, expecting anything during the ongoing "government shutdown" seemed unrealistic.
Well i'm happy to admit - we were WRONG!
Barely 2 weeks in to the new year, things have just been set into motion. Wasting no time, the first of several bills has just been introduced - along with a new route towards it becoming law.
This is perhaps a good time to read why i'm predicting all of these bills will pass if you missed that report a couple weeks ago. It's not just wishful thinking, the odds are highly in our favor for several reasons.
I'll be honest - isn't the most exciting bill of the bunch, but it's an important first step.
Now officially submitted as House Resolution 528 and titled "To provide a safe harbor from licensing and registration for certain non-controlling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services."
In short, this addresses laws regarding the transferring of money.
The current laws were written before cryptocurrency existed, but because they are worded with such broad terminology, they still apply to it. These strict guidelines also come with large fines for companies violating them.
However, as cryptocurrency advocates will point out - these laws were intended for the banking industry and simply don't make sense when applied to cryptocurrencies. They provide no protections for businesses or consumers in regards to cryptocurrency transactions, but they do slow down technological progress and business growth. Many in the cryptocurrency industry simply left the U.S. to find other countries with more reasonable and up-to-date laws to take their companies to.
As before, the bill is being introduced by members of both parties - Republican Tom Emmer, and Democrat Darren Soto.
The bill will first be examined and discussed within the Financial Services committee, which Congressman Emmer sits on. The financial services committee is made up of members of both parties, and if they sign off the rest of congress is likely to as well.
Following this passing, next up will be the “Resolution Supporting Digital Currencies and Blockchain Technology” and the “Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.” Separate but also potentially to be re-introduced is the "Token Taxonomy Act"which is possibly the strongest, as it clearly removes the 'security' classification from all tokens.
The largest investment firms have repeatedly expressed their hesitation to jump in to the cryptocurreny markets citing the outdated and confusing regulations, never sure which law written long ago for something else would be used to regulate cryptocurrency.
If and when all 3 pass we can expect the full return of the cryptocurrency markets, likely surpassing the all time highs set in 2017.
Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk
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