America deserves a financial alternative — and it’s crypto

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. 

Read more from our opinion section: Petty legislation is crypto’s greatest enemy

With that freedom comes unlimited potential in a global market, where crypto technologies and stablecoins unlock loan access, long term investment growth and trade in the global economy. People finally have the power to directly interact with each other, without the intrusion of banks or governments. Crypto frees us from the established system of exorbitant fees, government 

surveillance and regulation that have shackled the individual for generations. 

Due to its fundamental decentralization, crypto is not tied to any single government or institution. It is a medium of exchange free from censorship, bureaucratic manipulation and the effects of inflation and financial downturns tied to national economies or central bank currency control. 

While these benefits may be underappreciated in more economically stable states, this kind of economic freedom and security can be life-changing and life-saving for people who live in near-constant economic turmoil due to unstable governments. Crypto has the power to lift entire regions out of poverty. 

Critics of these new financial instruments of freedom have used bureaucracy to unfairly target law-abiding crypto companies, their founders and customers. Biden Administration regulators have even gone so far as to force banks to deny them banking services. 

In Washington, Democrat Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jacky Rosen have joined the Biden Administration in vocally opposing the very foundations of crypto technology. And a group of lawmakers and government bureaucrats are currently working on the development of a central bank digital currency, which would allow the government to monitor and control what Americans spend their hard-earned dollars on. 

These actions not only fly in the face of freedom, they are antithetical to the very ideals of America. 

If elected to the US Senate, I will work to end the unconstitutional crackdown on crypto and crypto companies, preserve the rights of Americans to self-custody their own digital assets and work with other patriots in Congress to establish clear guidelines for American crypto companies to reach their full potential. And I will work to make Nevada a national destination for these innovative companies, and ensure Nevadans always have the right to transact freely, safe from government surveillance. 

Crypto is here to stay. Rather than shutting out crypto, Congress should be embracing it. 

America has the opportunity to attract new businesses, create thousands of new jobs and become the trusted home of crypto companies from across the world. We must act now to secure crypto’s future in America before we lose this opportunity to other countries.

By now, most people have heard of NFTs — a digital crypto asset containing a signature that makes each token singular in existence, unique to the individual. This is the future that crypto offers each of us: An economic landscape personalized and governed by the individual. Our very own “non-fungible sovereignty,” in a world of limitless potential that is just beginning to be explored.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.