U.S. Lawmakers Need Bitcoin Education According to Congressman

According to U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC 10), Republican Leader of the House Financial Services Committee, basic Bitcoin education is a crucial first step for lawmakers to understand and appreciate the benefits of digital currencies and blockchain technology to the national economy. This is what the North Carolina representative told Bitcoin Association founding president Jimmy Nguyen during the pilot episode of online series Blockchain Policy Matters, which was launched in an effort to educate viewers worldwide about the political landscape being faced by digital currencies and blockchain technology. 

“Education has to be the primary driver here. Most policymakers are not informed about the basics of cryptocurrency, the basics of blockchain technology—just the basics. So, we need that base level of education to rise and then we can build off that platform…. Right now, that baseline of education for policymakers is very important, because what we don’t need out of Washington or the states is to restrict or crush or try to kill this type of technological advancement,” McHenry said.

It would truly be a tragedy if the United States, which considers itself a technological leader, does not embrace the technology that many countries in the world are already beginning to adopt. South Korea, China, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and many more are already starting to develop ways to integrate blockchain technology into their businesses and government systems. However, many American policymakers are still skeptical about Bitcoin and blockchain technology. 

“The initial reaction out of Washington is that everything must fit the existing regulatory regime, which is not really keeping up with where we are in terms of the technology of Bitcoin or a distributed ledger technology…. [Bitcoin] is neither a commodity nor a security—it does not fit into either rubric well. In fact, it’s very difficult to think of it on really the two planes of thinking that we have in Washington. This is a whole new way of thinking and that is very difficult for Washington to adapt to at its best. And Washington is currently not at its best,” McHenry explained.

And this further highlights the need for a basic Bitcoin education, not only for lawmakers to better understand the technology and its benefits, but also to dispel their previous misconceptions about Bitcoin. McHenry is encouraging his colleagues to examine the information systems that they rely on for their jobs as they are lagging behind when it comes to this technological need.

“The federal government is very far behind, they haven’t caught up with APIs and on top of that, we’ve seen an enormous number of data breaches in the federal footprint…. Those honeypots of data and information—the federal government keeps building and is intentional about building up these really clunky, last-generation systems—so the federal government has to advance dramatically. I think blockchain technology for our federal record-keeping is really quite right, but that is going to take quite a while to do,” McHenry elaborated. 

Understanding blockchain technology and accepting that there is a real need for this kind of technology in the government and the entire country can be resolved if policymakers can give a little bit of their time learning about Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin Association offers a free introductory course to Bitcoin Theory through its online educational platform Bitcoin SV Academy. With an average of 45 minutes for each of its 12 lessons, it will not take up a lot of their time.