Chairman Cautions CFTC Is Years Behind On Blockchain
Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Christopher Giancarlo plot his agency’s interest for blockchain innovation during a Congressional hearing Wednesday, July 25. The chairman accentuated the requirement for the proper strategies that would empower the CFTC to examine innovative blockchain tech for potential future use cases.
The hearing, titled “Examining the Upcoming Agenda for the CFTC,” was met by the House Committee on Agriculture. During the hearing, Giancarlo was asked by Congressman Austin Scott to clarify the objectives of LabCFTC, a committed center point for “engagement with the fintech innovation community” that was set up by the organization a year ago. The administrator explained:
“LabCFTC is our front door into these new regulatory fintech developments in the marketplace, and it’s so important to us to be able to understand these innovations that are coming down the pike so fast.”
At the point when asked about the significance of the CFTC Research and Development Modernization Act, presented by a few individuals from the Agriculture Committee on June 14, Giancarlo clarified that there is a requirement for a legally stable, quick procedure of sharing data between the office and fintech innovators, particularly in the blockchain zone.
As per the executive, the organization is banned from taking a direct part in preliminaries of blockchain proof of concept (PoC). This is because of the way that free exchange of data between the CFTC and a private startup would be lawfully viewed as a gift, something the office is banned from doing.
Then again, Giancarlo kept trying to pay a privately owned business for information is infeasible because of the tedious idea of the appropriation procedure. In this manner, the CFTC R&D Modernization Act would enable the office to specifically take an interest in creative fintech ventures without paying them, and without damaging the law simultaneously. The director additionally clarified why he supposes it is so vital for the CFTC to build up new lawful systems:
“We’re falling behind. Just two days ago, the Bank of England announced that they’re putting in a new bank-to-bank payment system in the U.K., and it’s gonna be blockchain-compliant. And they’ve had the last four years (…) to participate in all these blockchain beta tests that we’ve not been able to participate in. (…) So I feel like we’re four years behind, because we do need to test it, (…) we need to see how it can help us do a better job as a regulator.”
Back in February of this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC held a joint hearing on cryptocurrencies. During the hearing, Christopher Giancarlo outlined out his positive position on blockchain tech, saying that financial intuition, charities, social service, and logistics could gain an advantage from it in various ways.
