Regulation
Regulate cryptocurrencies? Libertarians should also support this bill
Sometimes industries want to be regulated. It’s not that I’m in favor of all the associated restrictions, but that regulation means empowerment. The simple act of enacting laws circumscribes certain activities as deserving of legal protection.
Which brings us to cryptocurrencies. Currently, if a U.S. financial institution issues cryptocurrencies, there is a high risk that the Securities and Exchange Commission will declare them as securities and regulate them accordingly. Ideally, the SEC would provide a formal definition of what is and what is not a security, and the cryptocurrency industry would seek to circumvent those rules. Instead, through inaction, the SEC has allowed a de facto ban on most cryptocurrencies. In the long term, this undermines democratic ideals of transparency and the rule of law.