Coinbase launches policy group
Coinbase announced yesterday a new policy group which builds on its previous advocacy efforts known as Crypto435, a Coinbase campaign to organize the crypto community around legislative issues.
Named the “Stand With Crypto Alliance” the new grassroots, non-profit group invites interested parties to mint an NFT with the image of the group’s shield branding, share their contact info for future communications and submit donations. The Alliance’s “Join” page already shows over 51,000 members as of this writing.
Coinbase says in its previous effort, the inaugural Stand with Crypto shield was minted over 160,000 times – raising $215,000 for crypto advocacy organizations – and a pro-crypto onchain petition garnered over 188,000 signatures.” This time the company appears to be spearheading the advocacy rather than delegating it to other industry organizations. Read more.
Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, tells CNN that “‘We found ourselves kind of overwhelmed, to be honest, by the level of response that we’ve gotten’ to Crypto435, Shirzad said. Across all 435 congressional districts, ‘the amount of energy and and motivation that we’re seeing among the group is enormous, and so we thought we need to evolve this thing.'” Read that one.
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Coinbase Expands into Canada – press release
crypto for progressives
How do you make the case for the progressive left to embrace digital assets?
Aiming at the “anti-crypto army” narrative currently being led by progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA) and the Biden Administration, Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, and Justin Slaughter, policy director at Paradigm, take a crack at the “pro-crypto” case for progressives in an opinion piece on Fortune.
In addition to identifying themselves as progressives, their argument hinges on the power and benefits of decentralization. The writers are “perplexed” why the “distaste for decentralization in tech, and the apparent support for [tech] behemoths with well-known drawbacks?” Benefits of decentralization that might appeal to progressives or anyone in the eyes of the writers include: permissionless; owning your own data; transparency; and cheap cross-border payments. Read their case.
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The great challenge on the right or left: how do you positively transform American power with decentralization enabled by the blockchain and other technological advancements? Either technology run us over (via our competitors and adversaries who “do technology better”) or we work hard to integrate it into our lives in such a way that it will continue to inspire a thriving American way of life and maintain the United States as the beacon of hope for the World.
Musk’s finance future
Elon Musk’s recently stated desire to turn X (formerly known as Twitter) into
“the biggest financial institution in the world” is starting to percolate in Washington. Politico covers the news and quotes House Financial Services Committee Vice Chair Rep. French Hill (R, AR) who says, “That would receive its share of scrutiny… Just like you witnessed back four years ago when Zuckerberg and David Marcus were here talking about their failed Libra project.” Read more.
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How long until the first hearing? Observers expect Musk to be more nuanced in his approach to facilitating such a future for X in comparison to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his failed Libra token efforts.
still more tips
CoinDesk lays off 45% of editorial staff as it eyes deal to sell company – The Block
Robinhood May Be Beating Coinbase in Crypto. You’d Never Know From the Stocks – Barron’s
A Crypto Mystery: Who Controls This Fast-Growing Stablecoin? – The Wall Street Journal
13% of applications approved: British regulator discloses crypto registration stats – Cointelegraph