Law & Policy

Congress advanced 2 big pieces of crypto legislation in 2 wks--a SAB 121 disapproval (Sen & House) & #FIT21 (House).

But it also did something more: it took steps to rein in an administrative state that's perpetrated a long train of abuses against U.S. consumers & innovators.🧵

Fintech & autonomous finance (crypto, DeFi, & AI) policy
https://linktr.ee/jwsolowey

Crypto technology is a 21st‐​century instantiation of the idea of decentralized control. 

The American Founders built decentralization into the U.S. Constitution in several ways. 

One was the separation of powers. 2/

By hammering U.S. crypto users & developers w/ aggressive crackdowns beyond the scope of congressionally delegated authority, U.S. regulators usurped the role of the legislature. 

The administrative state has made a mockery of the separation of powers. 3/

Similarly, the House's bipartisan vote advancing FIT 21 is a challenge to SEC's "unsupervised dirty war" against the U.S. crypto ecosystem. 5/

Similarly, the House's bipartisan vote advancing FIT 21 is a challenge to SEC's "unsupervised dirty war" against the U.S. crypto ecosystem. 5/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/lawmakers-should-check-the-sec-s-wartime-consigliere-with-legislation

This wk, Martin Gurri wrote that elite technocrats' “dream is to turn the clock back to the day before the internet was invented,” before technology made it difficult to act on their belief that “every transaction demands their intervention.” 6/

This wk, Martin Gurri wrote that elite technocrats' “dream is to turn the clock back to the day before the internet was invented,” before technology made it difficult to act on their belief that “every transaction demands their intervention.” 6/
https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-revenge-of-populist-normies

I recently went on Rick Rubin’s podcast.

We got to talk about:

- internet history
- little tech vs big tech
- internet economic models
- composability & open source software
- blockchains & tokens
- software as art

And much more.

You can listen here:

https://t.co/adLwNqL6Ng

One way to understand crypto is as a new era of the internet, where ownership and control of digital property & services is placed in the hands of software developers & users at the network edge. 7/

One way to understand crypto is as a new era of the internet, where ownership and control of digital property & services is placed in the hands of software developers & users at the network edge. 7/
https://warpcast.com/cdixon.eth/0xc3495689

It's probably self-evident that decentralized governance is threatening to, well, centralized authority in the admin. state. 

But removing unchecked concentrations of power from unaccountable hands is nothing short of the American constitutional order. 8/

By taking steps the past 2 wks to check the admin. state’s harassment of developers & consumers of user‐​driven tech, Congress also has taken steps to re-assert its proper role in our decentralized system of government. 9/

For more, my latest with Jennifer Schulp.
https://metaverserb.substack.com/p/decentralized-networks-and-separated 10/10.

Fittingly from a Madisonian perspective, bipartisan votes in both houses of Congress disapproved SAB 121--an SEC rule defective procedurally (by violating the CRA) and substantively (by contravening accepted accounting standards). 4/