30s Summary

Lee Bratcher, head of the Texas Blockchain Council, has discussed the barriers to blockchain adoption with US lawmakers. Bratcher believes the main obstacle is a lack of understanding, not a resistance to new technology. He feels education is necessary to keep the US competitive. Bratcher, a proponent of stablecoins, expects them to shore up the dollar’s strength. He’s been monitoring laws like the ‘Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2024’ and the ‘Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act’, which work on clarifying and defining digital currencies.

Full Article

Lee Bratcher, head honcho at the Texas Blockchain Council, is a big name in the world of blockchain technology here in the States. He’s been chatting with US lawmakers about all this, and reckons the biggest hurdle for getting everyone on board with blockchain is simply understanding it.

When he sat down with Cointelegraph for a chat, Bratcher was pretty clear that lawmakers’ reluctance to get behind blockchain isn’t because they’re against new tech. The problem, particularly for older folk, is that they just don’t understand it. And, of course, nobody wants to look like a fool if something goes wrong.

Bratcher puts it like this: “They’d love for the US to be a big player in finance or digital assets. The issue isn’t desire—it’s understanding. They’ve no idea how blockchain tech works, and they don’t want to be responsible for any mess-ups.”

According to him, the way to get lawmakers on board is to make them realize what’s at stake. If the US doesn’t embrace blockchain, other countries will—and they’ll end up way ahead of us.

Switching gears, Bratcher reckons stablecoins will keep the US dollar strong. Part of his argument is that ignoring blockchain isn’t going to help us out in the long run. And he’s particularly excited about stablecoins, which he calls a “game-changer” for blockchain tech along with Bitcoin.

In Bratcher’s words, “Stablecoins can move money across the world super easily, which is a plus. But they also mean more demand for US treasuries, which will keep the dollar as the go-to global currency. That’s good news for the US.”

He’s been keeping an eye on a bunch of cryptocurrency and blockchain laws, like Senator Bill Hagerty’s ‘Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2024’ and the ‘Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act’ (FIT21). The first is all about setting up clear rules for dollar-pegged stablecoins, while the second wants to define which digital monies are commodities and which are securities.