The Infrastructure Bill, Bitcoin and Crypto

To investors,

The infrastructure bill that is currently making its way through the government has a lot of crazy things in it. This isn’t exclusive to this specific piece of legislation. The document is over 2,500 pages in length, which means that it is impossible that any politician has personally read the entire thing.

Earlier this week, I sat down and tried to read some of the document. It was quite hilarious because even after reading some of the sections, I still didn’t know what it was saying. Additionally, we found sections that included the removal of invasive plant species, $1 billion for an organization that is overseen by a politician’s wife, and what appears to be authorization for the US government to purchase marijuana to be used in studies of the impact of driving high. Seriously…you can’t make this stuff up.

Buried within the infrastructure bill is another concerning topic — there is a drastic increase in the government’s surveillance capabilities related to the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry.

As you all know, I rarely care about politics. I don’t identify with any political party. It all generally strikes me as confusion of motion with progress. I choose to focus on bodies of work that are more quantifiable, along with less reliant on the bureaucracies of a government. With that said, this is one of those situations where politicians are willing to change their mind if they hear from people in their districts.

The intricacies of this legislation is beyond the scope of this letter, so I suggest you read this article that does a great job outlining what is happening: Click to read here

Once you are up to speed on the issue, it brings up the most interesting part in my mind. We are likely going to find out which technology is truly decentralized and which is not in the coming months and years. There are a lot of folks who continue to market their work as having decentralization, but yet they can censor transactions, ban users, and generally act in a centralized manner.

That is unlikely to stand the test of time. Regulators are beefing up their scrutiny of the industry. There will be more legislation in the future. The technology that has true decentralization will survive. The technology that is centralized will not survive or it will be heavily impaired. This is the difference between the creation of rules and the ability to enforce them. As I constantly remind people, jaywalking is illegal in NYC but everyone still does it. The police couldn’t possibly enforce the rules.

Going back to the current infrastructure bill, I am not a fan of telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t do. We all live in a free country where you have the right to participate (or not!) in the democratic process. If you’re interested in contributing 5 minutes of your time, you can call your local representative by following the instructions here: Call your senator

Otherwise, remember that the people building decentralized technology have the tailwinds of a digital economy. The more we digitize, the more decentralization becomes important. No individual or organization needs to have so much power. The trends of automation will usher in a new era that is marked by collective governance of systems, along with full transparency and programmatic, immutable systems.

Hope each of you has a great day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

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-Pomp

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THE RUNDOWN:

A16z, BlockTower, Alameda Back $12.5M Round for TrustToken: TrustToken, operator of decentralized finance lending protocol TrueFi and stablecoin TUSD, has raised $12.5 million in a new funding round. Blocktower Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Alameda Research led the round by purchasing TRU, TrueFi’s native token, according to a company statement. TrustToken said it would use the proceeds to expand its team and TrueFi’s operations. Read more.

Grayscale Hires David LaValle to Be ETF Head: Digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments has hired David LaValle, the former CEO of index provider Alerian, to be its ETF chief, according to Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein. LaValle is Grayscale’s first hire for its ETF business following the posting in the spring of several job listings by Grayscale for ETF specialists. Read more.

Uruguayan Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Allow Crypto to be Used for Payments: A senator from Uruguay has introduced a bill to allow businesses to accept cryptocurrencies as payments and regulate their use within the South American country. The bill, which was presented on Tuesday by Sen. Juan Sartori, seeks to provide “legal, financial and fiscal security in the business derived from the production and commercialization” of cryptocurrencies. Read more.

Lionel Messi NFT Collection Set for Launch: Argentinian soccer legend Lionel Messi is to be commemorated by a non-fungible token collection for the first time. Widely considered to be the greatest player of his generation, Lionel Messi, 34, will be celebrated in an authenticated NFT collection, dubbed "The Messiverse," which will be available from 21:00 UTC Aug. 20 on blockchain platform Ethernity Chain. Read more.

British Fashion Brand Burberry Releases First NFTs: Luxury fashion brand Burberry has launched its first non-fungible token collection in partnership with Mythical Games. The latest luxury brand to embrace NFTs, Burberry will feature its items via Blankos Block Party, a game with digital vinyl toys known as Blankos that live on the blockchain. Read more.

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