Lobbyists of the Future
Paving the way for clear blockchain regulations
Touchdown Crypto! This year's Super Bowl may go down in history as the Crypto Bowl. Coinbase reported 20 million hits to its website in just one minute from its Super Bowl ad. With each 30-second spot costing an estimated $7M this year, Web3 firms were ready to invest big. This is reminiscent of the dot com boom when 17 startups advertised during the big game in 2000.
With extensive advertising dollars now hitting crypto, politicians are paying attention. Election season is upon us as the mid-term elections are coming up fast. I would expect crypto to be a hot campaign issue for many politicians. Where you have campaign hot buttons, you have lobbyists willing to pay big money for an ear and a policy decision in exchange for support from a voting block.
Regulation is coming, but in what form? Who is going to decide on these regulations? You better believe Jamie Dimon & JP Morgan are leading a charge behind the scenes, and they are not doing so to increase the APR on your savings account.
In the middle of February, the bank unveiled its virtual world, called the Onyx Lounge, in the blockchain-based virtual world of Decentraland. In becoming the first major bank, Dimon gained the first-mover advantage. The move to the metaverse coincided with their report "Opportunities in the Metaverse." This is the same person who said in 2017 he would fire any employee trading bitcoin for being "stupid." When asked about BTC at the time, he was quoted as saying it "won't end well," predicting it will eventually blow up. "It's a fraud" and "worse than tulip bulbs." I wonder what changed his mind?
It is important to remember that it was John Pierpont Morgan (the founder of what we now know as JP Morgan) during the Bank Panic of 1907 who was relied upon to steer the country through the crisis threatening to push the economy into a full-blown depression. Morgan was able to pull together many of the country's elite financiers at his mansion and command all their capital to flood the system, thus floating the banks. The fact that the government owed its economic survival to a private banker led to the creation of the Federal Reserve, which ultimately controlled the US monetary system.
Policymakers at the Fed are fighting to keep the status of the US Dollar as the international reserve currency. Many of these same policymakers view the creation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) as an answer to mitigate risks posed by the emergence of stable coins, which have grown to a market cap above $160B. Because of this growth, stablecoins are in the Fed's crosshairs. Could Tether and other stablecoins be shut down? What would this mean? Removing products like USDC and USDT would deal a catastrophic blow to the crypto industry. We as cryptocurrency users need to band together and get our interests heard the old-fashioned way; Throw money at them.
Enter lobbying.
Lobbying is a massive industry, with 3.7 billion dollars in funds spent in 2021 for funding politicians and their campaigns. In 2021, the total number of unique, registered lobbyists who have actively lobbied in the United States amounted to 12,137. The interests represented here are for the select few. Another lead in the crypto space, Brian Armstrong, has already begun lobbying on behalf of Coinbase, but does he have our best interests at heart?
Assume we want to continue to gain mainstream adoption. For people to see the merits of cryptocurrencies, our interests need to be addressed in the political realm. With this in mind, a few lobbyist groups have formed inside the web 3.0 space. Currently, in the space, we have the following contenders; Andrew Yang created lobby3 DAO, with two other foundations, Coin Center and HODLpac.
Lobby3 was created by presidential candidate Andrew Yang, a big proponent of cryptocurrency. With the launch of the DAO and membership starting at .07 ETH, this could gain traction quickly.
There are pros and cons for each of these groups and there is no right or wrong answer. Similar to political views in mainstream politics, participation makes democracy flourish. If you find this topic interesting, we will be hosting upcoming podcasts with individuals from these platforms on how these systems function on our podcast Non-Refungible Podcast.
In times like these, doing nothing or remaining silent is a choice, but it is a choice that carries consequences. We are at a critical juncture for the crypto market (including NFTs). The voices who speak up and let their opinions be known will be the ones who can influence policy. Given that much of our current financial legislation is over 100 years old, we have come to realize policies are slow to change. Allowing the likes of Jamie Dimon or Brian Armstrong to influence cryptocurrency policy unchecked will not end well for you or me, the average crypto investor.
Let’s build something together.
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