The full hearing is here:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?448611-1/house-panel-examines-digital-currencyIt seemed pretty positive overall. The witnesses weren't all perfect, but they were good on the whole. Dr. Michel in particular was perfect as far as I saw. Sherman spouted his usual FUD, but he was mostly alone.
It seems that they're mostly thinking of
competing with Bitcoin, which is a hilarious effort doomed to fail. 90% of Bitcoin's value proposition is inherently in opposition to government control: irreversibly, privacy, limited supply, decentralization, etc. Any "FedCoin" they'd create is going to be a total failure, at least on any level that normal people would notice. If they created an actually-private e-cash system without any redundant block chain nonsense
a la How To Make a Mint, then
that's something that could actually compete with Bitcoin on some level, but there's basically zero chance of them doing that.
Thanks for posting that. I'd agree, it went reasonably well, especially when you consider that Brad Sherman's focus on drugs and terrorists was completely expected. Pretty harsh stuff, though:
"We should prohibit U.S. persons from buying or mining cryptocurrencies," Rep. Brad Sherman of (D-Calif.) blasted from the podium. "Mining alone uses electricity which takes away from other needs and-or adds to the carbon footprint. As a store, as a medium of exchange, cryptocurrency accomplishes nothing except facilitating narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and tax evasion."
Aside from him, the atmosphere seemed reasonable and the panelists weren't too bad. As a couple others said, nothing will come of this -- this is just an informational hearing. But it's interesting to see the evolution of how elected officials view Bitcoin. They seem generally more receptive than what I remember from ~2013.
