Bitcoin Forum

The Biden administration is prepared to issue an executive order tasked with the responsibility of regulating digital assets such as Bitcoin on a national security basis. Do you think this is a good step?

For context here is the news article about it: https://cointelegraph.com/news/white-house-reportedly-preparing-executive-order-on-crypto. As of right now it's entirely based on information from "a source close to the white house". Wether or not it is a good thing really depends on your perspective. It makes sense from a countries point of view to do this (depending on how it is handled). As I understand the main concern is related to the fact that crypto can be used as money-laundering device. This is certainly true.

The thing I wonder is how this revelation will affect the price of BTC in the short term.

According to bloomberg, this is what they are talking about:

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/01/24/biden-administration-to-release-executive-order-on-crypto-as-early-as-february-report/

I think the main idea is to have one single document with all efforts from different agencies and coordinate those efforts.

I don't think these regulations will have a positive effect for us, users. I believe those governments are always trying to get more information and break privacy on bitcoin transactions. Mostly forcing exchange to more KYC rules...

I'm afraid that the regulations will be even stricter. Also, the reality is that most people don't care about their privacy, and Binance losing[2] only 3% after enforcing KYC is proof of that so although I don't see what "more KYC rules" would look like, I'm pretty sure that most of our community won't have a problem complying.

What I'm more worried about right now is the "America COMPETES" bill[2] and how easily this could be abused to shut down bitcoin exchanges.

[1] https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/crypto/cryptocurrency-exchange-binance-lost-3-percent-of-its-customers-due-to-mandatory-kyc-requirements-7632594/
[2] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/132074/crypto-advocates-sound-alarm-on-america-competes-bill-over-new-financial-surveillance-provisions

most people like to create high expectations for the price to increase a lot, I have no proof but I can assume that the bitcoin news channels are doing this propaganda for the market to act in a positive way but we all know that while it's still is proposed or some bill cannot be trusted that it will be passed and implemented, we have to trust the things we can see

Personally I don’t see this as that big of an issue. First off I think this all is a bit of conjecture, so we don’t actually know what their plans are yet. Secondly there’s nothing wrong with some regulation and here’s the truth, if there’s no regulation like this then governments will ban cryptocurrency and it’ll be much more difficult to transact.

It’s not about the Biden administration, the same thing was with the Trump administration which had very controversial plans for cryptocurrencies, but it only presented them at the end of the term and the next administration just continues in the same direction. People don't understand what we're dealing with, and if (when) the US administration shows its real intentions towards Bitcoin, I believe many will be unpleasantly surprised.

The largest crypto exchange (Coinbase), the largest fund (Grayscale), companies like Microstrategy are located in the US as well as the largest crypto ATM network. If we add that the US increased its hash rate to as much as 35.4% after the Chinese mining ban, then it is clear how much Bitcoin depends on that country - too much if you ask me.

If at some point Bitcoin begins to pose a threat to US national interests, there is no doubt that any president and his administration will do something similar to what China has done.

Just like the Winter, we all knew regulations are coming! The question was - when?

From the arricle it seems that US people do not have to wait for for long before the crypto regulations hit the market. But it's very early to jump into a conclusion without looking at the regulations.  So let's wait and see what's in there! It might not be necessarily bad but crypto people may have to shell out more in taxes. But I don't think US government will do something drastically different which will disturb the current ecosystem.

All depends on what the regulations end up being. Though the fact that politicians (like most of the public) tend to not have a clue about Bitcoin and crypto doesn't give me high hopes of intelligent regulations. But hopefully the people actually writing the regulations will have at least a moderate understanding of crypto and not do the kind of insane stuff that the Trump admin was trying to ram through just before they left office.

They already highly regulate which exchanges can be used by US citizens. I think they should require these centralized exchanges to all have loss insurance in case they get hacked so they can pay back those who lose their money on those exchanges. Stablecoins will get regulations to make sure the centralized stablecoins are always properly backed and the government will probably require full access to centralized stablecoin transactions to try to track and stop illegal uses. They should come up with a light regulatory framework for coin sales (pre-mines) that protect against fraud projects that might rug pull, and require these projects to list all their information publicly on their website so everyone can see the exact numbers of these tokens. They should set up rules for how companies can hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheet because apparently the way that gets reported today doesn't make much sense. And they should setup separate legal labels for cryptocurrencies as opposed to trying to smash things into a 'security' label, like Bitcoin gets viewed as a commodity or currency, and everything else is its own thing that has some regulations but is less than securities. Mostly they just need to not try to cram crypto into old models that don't apply to crypto. Like you can't require crypto finance applications to report on the senders and receivers of transactions because there are not IDs associated with cryptocurrencies and sometimes the end user is just a smart contract anyways rather than a person.

The main goal should be to provide a light regulatory touch that focuses on stopping crimes and protecting against loss from hacks, makes sure centralized projects are safe, and provides regulatory clarity for wider adoption, all while making sure not to get in the way of how crypto fundamentally works.

I'm not up to speed on the "America COMPETES" bill, but regarding this:

I would have to agree, this has been a problem in several industries, and isn't just Bitcoin. See cookies, and various other things that people just don't care about relating to how companies use their data. However, it's rather alarming that Bitcoin, something which originally attracted privacy conscious people is now turning into something totally different.

I mentioned it elsewhere, I don't necessarily blame the companies that implement KYC since it's through government pressure that they're doing this in the first place. A great example is buying sim card only phones without giving your details has been restricted in certain countries, because of the fact that criminals have used them in the past as "burner phones", now they're requiring personal identification upon purchasing them. So, despite most of us not using them for malicious acts, we're being punished by giving up our own personal data just to buy something that could be used for ill intent.

It's a bit like Bitcoin, the idea is that criminals could use Bitcoin to money launder or for other criminal activities, and therefore the government, and exchanges want to protect against that. Despite, the majority of exchange users using the service legally. It's sickening that they then use that as an excuse to put further restrictions on everyone as a result. It's weird as well, because generally in a court of law you're treated as innocent until proven guilty, yet in this instance (I know it isn't a court of law) we're being treated as criminals without having actually done anything.

I can understand KYC with certain things, although it should be a choice, and not forced upon you. Limiting your experience would at least be a little better, but platforms have started to outright deny use of their services without giving up personal data, which we already know has been used for marketing in the past.

IMO this will not affect us, the users, in a positive way. Seeing that most regulations thus far have been about knowing more from the user, this will not be far off from that. Imagine having someone actively snooping on your finances just because you're involved in cryptocurrencies, it isn't a fun experience and certainly not something that everyone is comfortable with.

Then again, most of us become slaves of everything that we consume. Almost everyone is fine with it, albeit them not 'trusting' the government on anything.

More regulations, more drama. Cryptocurrency isn't illegal in the US. That means more regulations on Cryptocurrency wouldn't good news for us. If the USA walk to the regulations way, then Cryptocurrency users there would be in more trouble. However, I don't think they will do something like China, because the USA knows the potential of Bitcoin. I think they just want to find a way to control Bitcoin movements though it's quite hard. We can't say anything in advance unless we see the draft.

As long as they are thinking about imposing regulations and they are not really not thinking about banning bitcoins I think regulation would be a good step. When we talk about any Decentralized currency like bitcoins and the government they have to meet half way. We cannot expect them to just forget about bitcoins perse. But what we should be worried about is the kind of regulations that would be imposed. I hope they are not extremely ridiculous with people paying the price. There is already KYC almost everywhere now, the taxation should also not be extremely high. What matters is how people would have a say in this and how well the government handles the whole thing.

What more can he possibly do to Bitcoin except regulating entry and end points like financial services, for example, centralized cryptoexchanges (note that I did not say decentralized, because there is absolutely nothing he can do there).

All he is going to make happen is a lot of FUD that makes the weak hands shake and this will only make the whales happy, as they buy more coin...

But that dip will be superficial and Bitcoin will keep growing. So, what can he possibly do?

There is another option, The government could allow the citizens use bitcoin as it was intended without having access to their personal details.

There is a lot wrong with regulations. For one, Bitcoin was originally designed to be a peer-to-peer network which eliminates the need for a third party to mediate transactions, and regulations overrides that as exchanges would effectively be acting like banks under the control of the governments and the citizens have to operate through them.

Secondly, forced regulations means forced loss of control. If the government controls the exchanges, then they are in control of the funds stored or sent there for trades, overriding the fact that the bitcoin algorithm is permissionless as transactions on exchanges are usually off chain.

Biden wants to control bitcoin but it will be difficult, bitcoin is too decentralized and is mined from various countries that's why biden wants to push the bitcoin price down so that he can control the market with an institution like the FED, this is not the right time to know for sure the state of the market because of bulls or bearish at the moment is their game. DYOR if you want invest in BTC at this time because many various issue will be coming

It's not any surprising news that Government wants to regulate their citizen's finance. In fact, they would ban the use of Bitcoin if they could not bring their people under regulation.
You know, China initially tried to regulate Bitcoin but was unable to do so and eventually banned it. They have banned both Bitcoin and Mining. I don't know how successful they are, and how they keep their people away from cryptocurrency.
Maybe the Biden administration will make the right decision, also their own products Coinbase, Bittrex cannot be used without full KYC, and KYC is now as usual matter.

Weak hands will probably sell the news but long term it doesn’t matter. Bitcoin is the future, these geriatric fools in positions of power at the moment can only hold bitcoin down for so long. Most of them will be dead within the next 3 halvings. Bitcoin is taking over the world of finance & there’s nothing they can do about it.

I doubt if they would be able to successfully do that, regulating Bitcoin or crypto-currency can only happen where there is an avenue provide for a third party interference, I value anonymity, privacy and very much value security. Although I won't support it if it's used for illegal activities, I believe it the want to successfully carry the regulations out they would start first with exchanges and their by pushing them to become centralized.

Such moves are only going to benefit the government, as opposed to its end-users!

The same thing goes for other forms of payment, but for some reason, they tend to ignore them! They've been using that reason or rather excuse for a very long time ^{[perhaps it's time for a new one]}...

I don't like the sound of that!

If that bill passes, I expect a similar outcome to what we had with ICOs back in 2017, but this time it's going to be with decentralized exchanges.

It gives joy to see giant countries discussing bitcoin implementation.
I read that Arizona has a bill proposing addition of bitcoin as a legal tender.
Again I read what Putin wants to do in favour of bitcoin, now is Biden.
It is a clear indication that bitcoin will surely be vindicated.

For a country to ban bitcoin and later reverses her decision and try to regulate it shows clearly that bitcoin cannot be killed.
This is the right time for all lovers of bitcoin to start the social media campaign for bitcoin.

Regulations or no regulations it makes no difference. If the government chooses to ban crypto currency across the world believe you me decentralized exchange would take up the challah to build up a well secured transaction platform where coins would be transacted with ease and we'll securedly. Technology is actually advancing and there is no problem under the sun humans can't tackle with Blockchain and Artificial intelligence

Fiat/legacy finance firms launder money on a significantly larger scale than crypto. To use that as the excuse for why crypto is "bad" is just laughable.

*Their main concern is loosing financial control to an open network, not whether it's used for laundering money.

Depends. It will be good because crypto will be acknowledged by the US government officially. That means the rights of owning crypto will be protected by law. The bad news is, we don't know what the regulations will be and we know the US isn't the most relaxed country when it comes to money. So I expect those regulations to be pretty ruthless.

You're right, it's just an opinion speech. If it is legalized it is certainly good and certainly there is a bad it can not be avoided anymore because Bitcoin has grown globally. Of course, state institutions want to regulate their purpose to avoid bad things and harm all. But making the regulation of the world I think quite difficult. I'm sure the regulation will be done soon we just have to wait. But they have to do a study so that no one is harmed.

A few things to discuss regarding Biden and Bitcoin.

First of all, you can generally get the feeling of what his thoughts are on Bitcoin via proxy -- Janet Yellen, someone Biden believes is doing a great job.

Janet Yellen was appointed by Biden to be the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury department and has previously referred to crypto as inefficient, citing her concernsabout the stability of crypto. She's an open advocate for regulating crypto into the ground. Perhaps Biden could plead ignorance on her crypto stances because I question his cognitive function, but I save this for another discussion. Buck stops with the President, therefore Biden is responsible for this.

Moving onto the general premise of the U.S. economy -- debt to GDP ratio is not sustainable, and neither is the inflation rate the US has at 7 percent and no longer transitory. In addition quantitative easing in which the central banks have taken on trillions in liabilities has irreversibly increased the money supply. The incentive for Biden is to limit divestments from USD, raise revenue to pay for the debt, and prevent individuals from circumventing p2p transactional taxes. His answer to these issues, of course, is regulating crypto to lower the usage and milk every penny of tax revenue possible.

Biden administration has already navigated the narrative on regulating crypto. They claim it's for national security considerations. Complete nonsense. National security, as many of you all will recall, was the scapegoat for 9/11 privacy invasion and NSA/CIA overreach into the monitoring/tracking of U.S. citizens. Americans readily go along with anything as long as if it makes them feel safer, so the pitch will be clear -- regulate crypto, and this keeps the homeland safer (again, nonsense, but this is the pitch).

And coincidentally in this discussion of regulating crypto, the federal reserve has discussed digitalizing the US dollar into a CBDC. How awfully convenient.

You see what's happening...crush crypto and then put people on a CBDC system where the total money supply can be electronically controlled with the pressing of a keypad. And then any digital USD holders will rely on the federal government to sustain their purchasing power. Eliminating the competition makes adopting of a CBDC much easier.

In deed it is a good step and once Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are regulated  in USA ,rest of the world will follow it which will definitely reduce volatility in Bitcoin price and process of Bitcoin adaption will accelerate that is in  benefit of all crypto enthusiast but to be honest regulation process will be quite lengthy as many government departments will be involved in this process  and its  not going to be completed in weeks or months.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to make the White House the key authority on cryptocurrency regulations. I think it's the job of the Parliament to make relevant laws and pass them. With the need of the majority vote, it can be a longer and less radical process because the proposals would be debated, compromises would need to be reached. If the White House can make decisions, they can be done way faster, without a proper counterpart to reach compromise with. I don't mind Biden and I support Harris, but she's not really into cryptos, and from what I've seen (https://www.isidewith.com/candidates/kamala-harris/policies/economic/bitcoin) she believes they should be classified as commodities.

There's a difference and he already explained it above. I think that regulations are bad for btc because it can remove some of the aspects btc have, this is also the reason why many of us do not like it to be regulated. Luckily there are still countries that allows btc without regulating it so the issue happening on other countries is not really a big problem to us.

Decentralized exchanges are decentralized and I do not think they will adjust and make their system more centralized after this issue of regulations came out. If there are changes in regards to regulation that will be made then that can only happen on existing centralized exchanges.

I can’t really say whether it’s going to be good or bad for now, because I am yet to know how it is going to work. But before now I have been seeing news about how the government plans to regulate cryptocurrency, and how they would go about it. I’m not even sure if that is how they’re all going to do it.

Anyways, I know that a lot of people in the crypto community, we don’t really like the idea of regulation. And of course there would be some of us who wouldn’t mind because we just don’t care whether the government are regulating it or not. However you put it, it’s just all about choices, it would be OK for some people, while it wouldn’t be OK for the rest.

If you look at the current conditions, Biden bias towards Bitcoin is still very biased. But not for some of Biden ministers or board. Overall, the decisions and policies that Biden makes publicly available are still focused on something broader. We all know and have felt how one after another US president's partiality only becomes an uncertainty that seems to be made to twist the news. Behind Biden, perhaps, it is hoped that there will be a rule that favors the positive. But for now, Biden still does not show his seriousness towards Bitcoin.

My understanding is that the government has a very distasteful view of stablecoins like USDT and wants to replace them with their own digital dollar eventually.  While going hard after exchanges that aren't currently requiring KYC is inevitable, Biden's administration seems to want to accelerate that process.  I imagine at some point exchanges that choose to use USDT instead of actually dollars will also be facing some regulatory fire.  The % returns available on these stablecoins is too much of a thread to the current system.  With such a massive amount of funds globally stuck in negative real yielding bonds, USDT has become a real threat to their system.  The fact people can take out mortgages on their house and dump the funds into USDT and reap benefits from a massive interest rate spread is terrifying to those in power.  This couldn't possibly last forever. 

Moreover too I think it is a normal thing that countries who collect tax will always look for the money from whatever direction it is. Bitcoin is an earning access and can be taxed as an income tax. So if America is trying to put a tax on the income coming in into there country as Income tax and in form of regulation on it , I think it will get other countries attracted because America is one of the biggest supporters of bitcoin.

it is better to have regulation rather than totally banning the crypto market. at least here, users are given the chance to transact with crypto but with added restriction. unlike, a country which is totally identifying all crypto transactions as illegal, users have very little choice to none, when it comes to crypto dealings. also, this kind of initiative will take time before they actually be implemented. so for the moment, better enjoy the benefits while they are not strict with crypto business.

Yes decentralized exchanges has always been the saviour. But these people has been studying cryptocurrency for years now, what if it is possible that they have found a way to get around this?

Although I don’t see the possibility yet, maybe because I don’t know whether it’s going to work or not, (not good with the technical aspect of things here), but I have seen news of how they plan to make use of centralized exchanges in having more control and a better edge in the cryptocurrency system.

According to the news I saw once, it says that whenever centralized exchanges or a custodial wallet user makes a transaction to a non custodial wallet address, they would be required to put in information of the owner of that non custodial wallet address. Wouldn’t that be a way for them to be revealing those making use of decentralized exchanges? I am not yet sure about this, but we would get to see if it’s true or not.

Many government are trying to have power over bitcoin so that they can control it like the way they control fiat money. I guess Biden is trying to know more about bitcoin, if the government can impose any law against bitcoin that will generate more income to the government account which will be difficult for government to speed.
Many government officials has tried to regulate bitcoin but it will be difficult for president to control decentralized currency that Satoshi created for people to use to improve their economy and to eliminate errors from our transaction. Now that many people understood what bitcoin is all about in the community. Many people are using bitcoin to develop their businesses and their families as large.

Bitcoin is purely decentralized but people are under the control of state laws and regulations, I personally also think regulation is not so bad, as long as we are still given the freedom to trade Bitcoin, strict rules are not a barrier

but I still believe that the strict rules created will not be fully implemented, we will see a lot of "bug" here and there. let's wait officially what biden's statement on crypto regulation, especially Bitcoin