A senator posts a law on online cryptocurrencies. Here’s what happened

The United States, as well as many other countries, are trying to figure out how to legislate on Bitcoin and Ethereum. And in an act of transparency, the senator Cynthia Lummis posted on GitHub the text of the new cryptocurrency law in the works in the Senate. Asking for expert feedback. They have arrived. Although in the midst of several comments from troll.

Cryptocurrencies, the US senator posts the law online: the reactions of the web

Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, thought it a duty to work best on the bill she is working on with New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. She in fact she has tweeted: “As promised, you can now contribute comments to my law establishing a framework for digital assets with Senator Gillibrand. Civil comments and criticisms are welcome. Please share freely. We want it to be right. Please help us to publicly iterate on the policy “:

He then decided to put the text of the law on GitHub. The site usually serves as an open source code repository, with several tools to improve posted software. Above all, it allows di comment and create different versions of the text. So a place to discuss a law in a democratic way. If you can filter out the trolls.

Senator Lummis

The answer of the web

Several users have used this possibility to try to improve the law, to create a system in which the management of cryptocurrencies is responsible, avoiding scams but without centralizing the spread of digital assets.

For example, one user asked to “increase the value of cryptocurrencies based on proof-of-work with a mining tax“. A proposal that could perhaps cope with criticism about the environmental impact of crypto. Many users continued to comment in the thread, proposing solutions and raising criticisms. Another thread expressed doubts about the stablecoin algorithm, which is not proving capable of withstanding the worst shocks in the market.

But if the internet is perfect for the comparison and exchange of ideas of those who want to work together, it works even better for the trolls.

Trolling to the Senate

A problem reports reads “You know you can find someone we do FinDom [una pratica feticista, ndr], using Google, right? “. Another has as its title simply the eggplant emoji. And a comment on a related post says “I Federals are not looking at this post“With the skeptical” Big Floppa “meme.

And there are even those who propose to totally change the approach of the law: “This would be much more useful to the Americans if the text were changed with the Doom source code“, The videogame. With a comment that says “devs [sviluppatori, ndr] they should merge as soon as possible “.

Do we really need a law on cryptocurrencies, discussed with those who use them?

The bill “Responsible Financial Innovation Act“Is one of the rarer and rarer bipartisan proposals presented in the United States in the last month. At the basis of the law there are frameworks for establishing when a digital asset is a commodity and when a security, to better frame financial and legal entities. investments in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. In addition, it implements new rules on stablecoins, giving a lot of supervisory power to Commodities Future Trading Authority (CFTC).

The proposal is still in its infancy. But it would become one of the most comprehensive crypto-related legislations in the US and the world. Something the community of miners and users of cryptocurrencies does not necessarily look favorably upon it.

But amidst the various troll posts, there are objections that it could make the crypto market safer. We’ll see if the US senators can find them.