US Congressman: Default Reaction to Bitcoin, Blockchain Must Be 'Yes'

U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry, who represents North Carolina's 10th District, says he wants regulators' default reaction to crypto innovation to be "Yes."

The Congressman - who goes by the moniker of "Mr. Fintech" on Capitol Hill - made his remarks during an interview for Laura Shin's Unchained podcast, published on Oct. 22.Reintroducing the Financial Services Innovation Act.

McHenry related his observations of the cryptocurrency space's development, underscoring that the Bitcoin's enormous value had become swiftly apparent.

"My conclusion was, any action by the government - really up until the last 2, 3 years - would be negative, would impair innovation and would restrict the development of cryptocurrencies and their enormous value, now and in the future."

"Real government work still needs to be done," he noted.

To this end, he has this week reintroduced the Financial Services Innovation Act.

The bill proposes the creation of financial service innovation offices within each of the ten different federal offices that deal with financial service issues.

McHenry outlined that the creation of these offices would establish something similar to what other jurisdictions call a "Regulatory sandbox." His proposed term, "Permanent beta testing," would work on the same principles.

Regulatory agencies would be able to offer innovators in the crypto space to enter into an enforcement compliance agreement: once accepted, this would allow them to provide services under a modified compliance plan, with certain waivers for out of date measures or unduly burdensome.

For agencies such as the SEC and CFTC and others, he argued that the bill represents a necessary step to establishing a regulatory process that works with, not against, innovation.