July 17, 2023

America Is Missing a Big Opportunity on Blockchain

By: Yaya J. Fanusie

Over the past year, with high-profile cases of fraud plaguing cryptocurrency ventures such asFTX and Terra Luna, financial regulators around the world have aggressively looked to rein in bad actors in the crypto-asset marketplace. But some policymakers also seem to have dismissed blockchain—the decentralized digital ledgers that serve as the foundation for cryptocurrencies. The White House has followed suit. In March, the Economic Report of the President devoted 30 pages to arguing against any positive use of cryptocurrencies and the technologies behind them. Some of Washington, it seems, has a one-dimensional strategy for blockchain: Stay away from it.

China and Russia, in their quest to combat U.S. economic power, are developing and implementing blockchain-based digital ecosystems.

Yet it’s myopic for the Biden administration to dismiss blockchain outright. Fundamentally, blockchain is a technology that enables data to be verified and transmitted dynamically across networks rather than through single, linear points of transmission. That technology cannot be ignored at a time when data—and how it is maintained and leveraged—has become critical for technological advancement and strategic global competition.

Read the full article from Foreign Policy.

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