Unconfirmed: How Congress Might Pass Laws Bad for Proof-of-Stake and DeFi - Ep.261

Kristin Smith, executive director at the Blockchain Association, discusses the latest news on a provision in the infrastructure bill that seeks to raise $28B from the crypto industry in taxes. Show highlights:

• how the original crypto provision within the infrastructure bill came to be
• why the expansion of the term “broker” is problematic in the original language of the bill
• what the Treasury and the White House have to do with this bill and how they, along with Senator Portman, are resisting change
• how Senators Ron Wyden, Pat Toomey, and Cynthia Lummis are attempting to change the language of the provision through an amendment
• how the crypto community rallied around Wyden's amendment 
• why Kristin believes a rival amendment put forward by Senators Warner and Portman and supported by the White House late Thursday is worse than the bill’s original language 
• when the Senate will be voting on the amendments
• how the amendment the White House supports seems harmful to proof-of-stake networks and bad for DeFi
• whether this is part of a master plan to regulate crypto in the US
• what Kristin hopes happens during the vote
• how the crypto community can have its voice heard
• how to fix the issues within the crypto policy world so this doesn’t happen again

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Episode Links

Kristin Smith: https://twitter.com/KMSmithDC

Blockchain Association: https://theblockchainassociation.org/

Infrastructure Bill Information

Latest Coverage:

• https://decrypt.co/77838/rival-amendment-senate-infrastructure-bill-threatens-proof-stake

• https://decrypt.co/77859/crypto-industry-mobilizes-to-stop-controversial-tax-plan
• https://decrypt.co/77841/biden-crypto-infrastructure-bill-amendments
• https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/16-civil-society-organizations-call-congress-fix-cryptocurrency-provision 
• https://decrypt.co/77681/senators-move-exempt-bitcoin-miners-tax-provision-infrastructure-bill
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/08/04/senators-propose-change-to-new-crypto-rules-for-tax-reporting-heres-whos-affected/
• https://twitter.com/BlockchainAssn/status/1422976741715361792
• https://twitter.com/jerrybrito/status/1422002228102107142
• https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/113196/wyden-crypto-language-in-infrastructure-bill-fails-to-understand-how-the-technology-works
• https://www.coindesk.com/new-infrastructure-bill-looks-to-raise-30b-through-crypto-taxes
• https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1421150344051048451
• https://twitter.com/NeerajKA/status/1421242689148932105
• https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/01/politics/bipartisan-infrastructure-bill-collins-manchin-senate-cnntv/index.html
• https://www.coindesk.com/gop-lawmaker-janet-yellens-treasury-likely-behind-surprise-crypto-bill 

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