Carole House, co-author of President Biden’s executive order on crypto, says that if crypto innovation goes overseas, it can be a threat to US national security.
Former White House director of cybersecurity and secure digital innovation and co-author of President Joe Biden’s crypto executive order Carole House says that keeping crypto in the US is a matter of protecting national security.
“Driving any of the actors in cryptocurrency and other financial markets to have centres of gravity outside of the United States is also counter to U.S. national security objectives,” said House in an interview.
According to House, it’s important that crypto and financial innovation is kept under the guidance of US regulators.
“It’s critical to be able to not only enforce against actors that are acting poorly, but also to provide very clear paths under supervision so that we can encourage innovation to happen here,” House noted.
House, also chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CTFC) new wing – the Technology Advisory Committee, says that her team is in the process of figuring out “practical reality of what the developments in the technologies look like [and] where the greatest risks are.”
Highlighting the importance of her team’s focus on understanding these emerging technologies, House said, the committee may be able to better assist the CFTC in giving more concrete recommendations to create appropriate regulatory frameworks and policy guidelines.
“The U.S. financial system really sits at the heart of so many parts of the toolbox of U.S. national security tools and capabilities,” House said. “Anything that potentially weakens the sector could be a concern.”
The Technology Advisory Committee’s (TAC) first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, with an agenda to discuss technology policy, including the legal implications related to decentralised finance, and the use of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity for commodity and derivatives markets, says House.
The TAC was formed as a response to “markets facing some of the most challenging and innovative times for next-generation technology,” according to Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, a CFTC commissioner, who is sponsor of the TAC. The committee is composed of ‘technology experts’ who can provide the CFTC with “foundational knowledge about the technology, as well as the complex and nuanced impacts and implications of technology on financial markets.”
