With John F.Kelly being scheduled to leave as the white house chief of staff, president Donald Trump has appointed Bitcoin proponent Mick Mulvaney to take over as the acting chief of staff as from January 2019.
New Chief Of Staff A Crypto Proponent
Going by Matt O’Brien’s Washington Post column, Mick Mulvaney has been a staunch proponent of Bitcoin and has been very vocal about his support. He has even been quoted praising the decentralised nature of Cryptocurrency in a speech that was captured by Mother Jones.
Two years ago Mulvaney was reported as having said that the Federal Reserve was devaluing the dollar. He said that such control would not be possible when dealing with Cryptocurrency which was specifically developed with the assurance that it would not be possible to manipulate by government.
With a high profile proponent in the white house, the asset class is expected to see better days in the long run.
Crypto Cannot Be Regulated
Although with his outlook on Cryptocurrency many are expecting that Mulvaney may be able to influence regulators and lawmakers opinion about the sector, this may not happen any time soon. This is due to the fact that the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission) already have short term roadmap in place.
Having a pro-Crypto official in government, however, could influence other governments to have a more neutral outlook on the sector and weigh the benefits that come with Cryptocurrency and decentralised technology.
Last year, Finland’s Central Bank released a paper describing how inefficient it was to regulate Blockchain protocols. The research came to the conclusion that it was impossible to regulate Bitcoin seeing as the protocol was operating under strict that were implemented by the community of node operators, miners and developers.
The research paper read in part that Bitcoin is not and could not be regulated. It went on to say that there was infact no need of regulating it as its system was adhering to the protocol. The paper lauded Bitcoin as being revolutionary and worth any economist’s attention.
As evidenced by the findings of the Central Bank of Finland, any government and central Bank can choose to have a neutral stance when it comes to Crypto and its underlying technology. Through analysis they can then come up with the proper regulatory framework for the sector without necessarily stifling its growth.
New Appointment Good For Crypto Sector
The SEC has currently stated that both Bitcoin and Ethereum were not to be classed as Securities under the current laws effectively approving their surrounding infrastructure. In the past few months many regulatory authorities across the world including the SEC have been looking into integrating strict KYC (Know Your Customer) rules that would limit money laundering through the sector.
Having a high ranking government official within the Trump administration that seems to understand the main aim of the Crypto sector and virtual currencies may have a positive impact on the sector and may also encourage other governments to take a neutral stand when it comes to Cryptocurrencies.