Pat Toomey Crypto Hearing Opening Statement

welcome to ion crypto where we delve into the crypto flow and share the insights you need to know [Music] today's hearing provides us an opportunity to learn about the current and potential uses of cryptocurrencies in short a cryptocurrency connects one person with another through an open public network separate from government control or any other intermediaries and cryptocurrencies are a growing part of our economy the first cryptocurrency Bitcoin was implemented in 2009 and while there are varying definitions of what is considered a cryptocurrency there are now thousands of them available in many different forms according to a recent University of Chicago survey 13 of Americans bought or traded cryptocurrencies of some kind in the past 12 months that's more than half the total percentage of Americans who invested in stocks during that same period of time and like other currencies cryptocurrencies may be useful as a store of value or a medium of exchange however it's important to acknowledge upfront that a significant impediment to cryptocurrencies or at least most cryptocurrencies becoming a widely used store of value or medium of exchanges their price volatility that problem could potentially be solved by tying a cryptocurrency to other assets such as a fiat currency like the US dollar for instance and that's what stable coins are meant to do on the other hand some cryptocurrencies may prove to be useful as a store of value by serving as alternatives to Fiat currencies like the dollar they may serve as a store of value because unlike Fiat currencies the government can't come along and print trillions of a cryptocurrency in this way cryptocurrencies might complement the role that gold has historically played as a store of value and a hedge against inflation for example we've seen recently in Venezuela how people can use Bitcoin to store value when their government devalues their currency also some cryptocurrencies may prove to be useful as a medium of exchange for buying goods and services with cryptocurrencies making payments and conducting transactions may become cheaper easier and faster for consumers than it is using traditional currencies cryptocurrencies can be exchanged without the need for an intermediary such as a bank which could virtually reduce transaction costs and fees for consumers to zero in addition since a person does not need a bank account to use cryptocurrencies they could increase access to financial services for many Americans Beyond these often discussed uses for cryptocurrencies there are other ways that the distributed Ledger technology that underlies crypto could be used can be used a distributed Ledger is a database that shares information across various sites and geographies that's accessible by multiple people this structure ensures that all these people can access and verify the data and it dramatically reduces the risk of any one Central actor manipulating the data in my view the use of distributed Ledger technology to have non-intermediated transactions verified in a foolproof way is a very powerful technological innovation and this Innovation already is having an impact on Supply chains financial services and securing digital identities and I think it has significant potential for verifying the ownership of property whether it might be automobiles or homes or securities in the United States we spend a lot of time and money to verify property ownership distributed Ledger technology May provide a way to do this faster and at a lower cost over time it's possible that the application of this Innovation may become more important than the usefulness of crypto as a currency per se and we're already seeing it have a real world impact as we all know democracy and individual freedom in Hong Kong are under assault from the Chinese Communist Party that assault has included the forced closure of a pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily but the Chinese government has not been able to erase Apple Daily's important work that's because our weave a cryptocurrency network that enables permanent data storage was used to permanently store portions of the paper this technology makes it impossible for the Chinese government to destroy Apple Daly's work no matter how hard it tries that's just one example today we'll hear from two expert Witnesses about other current and potential uses of cryptocurrencies Mr Jerry Britto is executive director of coin Center Think Tank focused on cryptocurrencies and related topics he will discuss an array of uses for cryptocurrencies and how these Technologies could be further developed Ms Marta Belcher is chair of the filecoin foundation she helped to develop and launch a cryptocurrency file coin that provides data storage access on a decentralized file storage Network now it's important to note that many people have raised legitimate issues about cryptocurrencies these include their use in illicit activity and the possible effects on monetary policy and our existing Financial infrastructure I think we need to discuss and understand these issues and address them if we need to but we shouldn't lose sight of the tremendous potential benefits that distributed Ledger technology offers you should also be mindful that private innovation has enabled most of these developments excuse me we should not suppress the concepts of individual entrepreneurship empowerment that have made this Innovation possible I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses today about the ways cryptocurrencies are impacting and can potentially impact our lives and I hope we'll all listen with open minds thank you foreign