Intro

Congressman Patrick McHenry, or 'Mr. Fintech' to his peers in the House, is announcing the reintroduction of the Financial Services Innovation Act, a bill that would create what he calls "permanent beta testing," or many jurisdictions call "regulatory sandboxes," in which entrepreneurs can apply for regulatory approval to conduct innovative experiments. The bill is intended to get regulators into a position where their default leans more toward yes than no. He describes how this would affect teams that want to conduct ICOs, how it would square with the phenomenon of some token teams trying to raise through Reg A+, and whether it would allow exchanges without BitLicenses to operate in New York. He also discusses what type of digital currency he believes is best suited to compete against a Chinese digital yuan, and says the government is currently looking into whether or not the Federal Reserve has the authority to issue a digital dollar.

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Episode links: 

Congressman McHenry: https://mchenry.house.gov/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/PatrickMcHenry

The House Libra hearings from July 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ZTkCNW0w8

Financial Services Innovation Act explainer: https://www.alta.org/file.cfm?name=McHenry-Bill-Explainer

Introduction of the bill in 2016: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-house-bill-aims-to-set-up-sandbox-for-fintech-innovation-1474539893

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/financial-services-innovation-act-us-wants-sandbox-too

Congressman McHenry’s interest in fintech: https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/09/patrick-henry-mr-fintech-interview-000214

CNBC article on how Libra is being slowed by regulation while China’s central bank digital currency speeds ahead: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/15/china-races-to-launch-a-cryptocurrency-that-could-rival-facebooks.html

Fortune article: https://fortune.com/2019/10/16/if-libra-fails-china-wins-the-ledger/

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