The top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry (NC-10), joined Congressman Dan Crenshaw’s (TX-2) recently launched podcast to discuss the technology behind cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, and its potential to foster greater financial inclusion—and help you get to work on time.
Listen to the full episode of Hold These Truths, with Ranking Member McHenry, here.
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On what Bitcoin is:
“Well Bitcoin is essentially digital gold. Gold is a store of value, and it’s a medium of exchange… The new innovation here that Satoshi Nakamoto and the Bitcoin white paper established was this new concept of a distributed ledger. … It has this enormous value in that it is a trustless system, so you and I can exchange something without a trusted third-party because we trust the system itself,” said Ranking Member McHenry.
On Facebook’s Project Libra:
“What Libra is trying to do is fix this problem of cross-border movement of money for the average, everyday person. So, you think of the person who goes to Western Union, having worked and on Friday wants to remit money back to their family… So, Libra could take that fee structure down from a pretty sizeable fee for Western Union down to next-to-nothing, so there’s huge opportunity and value out of that, and societal good. But there’s a lot of questions that go along with it, and a lot of skepticism from those that are true cryptocurrency experts.”
On anti-money laundering concerns:
“That is a concern of cryptocurrencies, and a very difficult thing to easily resolve. However, in the United States we have money transmission licenses that are used and authorized in each state. … We already have a regulatory regime that as soon as it makes contact with the U.S. dollar, there is capacity for anti-money laundering provisions. So, I think we have the fundamentals of a framework to ensure that we have anti-money laundering provisions complied with through cryptocurrency.”
On a future, real-world use of cryptocurrencies:
“You could have a cryptocurrency that enables us, in our driverless cars, for me to say, ‘I’m going to put a premium on getting to work, because I’m late.’ So, I’m going to spend $20 on this car ride, and I’ll give you a dollar to get out of my way, from my car to your car, because you’re fine, you’re ahead of schedule. … So, it’s those small-dollar transactions that could have a real-world impact and enable reduction of friction in our society.”
Listen to more of Congressman Crenshaw’s podcast, Hold These Truths, here.