In the United States, crypto reform legislation isn’t the province of a single political party, and that’s why a former U.S. Congressman, who also played a prominent role in the Trump administration, believes that passage of a federal “digital assets” law this year is a real possibility.
“Democrats aren’t all on one side; Republicans aren’t all on the other side,” said Mick Mulvaney, who was budget director and later acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 to March 2020, told Cointelegraph, further explaining:
“I do think in this Congress, which has got functionally about 14–16 months left before it sort of shuts down before the next election cycle, you will get a meaningful piece of legislation on blockchain/crypto — what we’re referring to collectively as digital assets.”
Mulvaney’s government resume is long and varied. In addition to six years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing South Carolina, he was also director of the Office of Management and Budget from February 2017 until March 2020, as well as special U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, a post from which he resigned on Jan. 7, 2021 — the day after protesters inspired by President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building. Mulvaney is now a strategic adviser to Astra Protocol, a Switzerland-based Web3 Know Your Customer (KYC) platform.
Centralized versus decentralized finance
Mulvaney has an interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain technology that goes back nearly 10 years. In 2016, he co-founded the Congressional Blockchain Caucus. Today, he says decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols have some key advantages over their centralized counterparts. Moreover, it’s now possible to integrate key compliance processes like KYC and Anti-Money Laundering into DeFi platforms — something that would reassure regulators.
“There’s a weakness in the system when it comes to the centralized and a strength that comes from decentralized finance,” he said. Much of the fraud commonly associated with the crypto space can be attributed to centralized entities, from Mt. Gox to FTX. DeFi, in his view, brings additional layers of transparency that make engaging in fraudulent activities more difficult, “and over the past decade has proved that it is the better system […] Even regulators are beginning to understand this,” he told Cointelegraph.
‘Regulators dropped the ball’
When speaking with one of the Trump administration’s leading financial…
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