US Congress and Senate need to be trained on blockchain

It’s no secret that lobbyists and special interest groups can move mountains in the face of the U.S. government, or any government for that matter. It seems no interest group would make a better bank than the financial institutions and the U.S. House of Representatives. Arizona’s David Schweikert has asked experts and enthusiasts to contact and train their elected U.S. representatives to get on the right side of history before they are convinced by the well-funded terrorist bank lobbyists to stop the development of blockchain technology.

A select few blockchain advocates inside Washington

Rep. Schweikert told an audience at the DC Blockchain Summit at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business on March 3 that the conversation is changing, from private blockchain and bitcoin entrepreneurs to other federal government officials and senior financial executives and pundits.

Rep. Schweikert is considered one of the most visionaries in Congress, as he at least asked questions about Bitcoin as early as 2014. His fears and trepidations two years ago seem to have turned into enthusiasm for ensuring that blockchain technology – the backbone of Bitcoin’s inner workings – is as advanced as possible. Blockchain could wreak havoc on industries that hide corruption, waste, and huge profits that have always existed in financial markets.

Why should we spread knowledge about blockchain technology?

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate can be categorized in many ways regarding their relationship with this rapidly changing world. Proactive rather than reactive is certainly a way to describe how these elected officials approach new trends and technologies. With all the hype surrounding blockchain technology, the difficulty it will encounter in the U.S. government once it gets enough attention and establishes a mark becomes a big question.

Several other congressmen and senators have also stepped up, at least to push for an open conversation about cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, blockchain, and the potential futures they may have involving the federal government. However, in Rep. Schweikert’s opinion, there are probably only a half-dozen or so colleagues who have experience working with these projects, and he sees this lack of knowledge as worrisome, as he foresees a day when huge financial vested interests suddenly fall and are now influencing blockchain legislation in favor of protecting a huge domestic and global market share.

Lawmakers must be more transparent

Pundits have labeled blockchain technology in many ways, including the beginning of the internet revolution. Regardless of the impact blockchain technology has on applications, the final standards need to be met to make the world a better place. American politicians have become notorious for their stubbornness. They rarely accept any decentralized governance and have drawn legal gray areas that basically completely destroy business models, such as Airbnb, Uber, and the legalization of marijuana in several US states.

New markets will always become corrupt, just like mature industries, but stifling innovation and doing nothing is not an option.

Blockchain technology, by its own approach to transparency and accountability, eliminates the need for trusted administrators or ethical guidelines to manage secure processing and its applications. For all parameters, jobs could be lost, or businesses replaced, benefiting not just those who can manipulate for their own benefit, but everyone.

US lawmakers should indeed credit their constituents with a detailed understanding of the technology, so that it not only has the opportunity to proliferate across all aspects of business and society, but also ensure that it is not undermined by fragmented legislation and that blockchain technology and the role it has to offer is not collectively ignored in the context of an increasingly competitive world economy.