Some are urging U.S.-based crypto users to contact their representatives
in support of the amendment from Wyden, Lummis and Toomey.
With more than one amendment proposed to the United States
infrastructure plan that would modify a provision on cryptocurrencies,
some figures in the space are going against the one with White House
support.
Digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future said today it would not support
the amendment crafted by Senators Mark Warner, Rob Portman and Kyrsten
Sinema to address the issue of clarifying the language used concerning
crypto in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. According to the group,
the proposed amendment gets “a resounding no” as a possible solution to
the bill which “fundamentally misunderstands how cryptocurrency and
decentralization works.”
“The original provision and the
Portman-Warner amendment fundamentally misunderstand that decentralized
technology is decentralized,” said Fight for the Future. “The law
as-written is completely unworkable, requiring many in this ecosystem to
produce data that they never have and cannot get access to — by the
very nature of the technology.”
The group alleges that both the
Biden administration and Democratic proponents of the amendment “have
not done their homework on decentralized technology.” Others in the
digital space have made similar claims, with the World Economic Forum’s
head of blockchain and digital assets Sheila Warren calling the ongoing
debate over amendments “highly unusual.”
“Bewildering is an
understatement for what is unfolding in the U.S. Senate around the
crypto-related provisions of the infrastructure bill,” said Warren. “It
was remarkable to see language endorsed that was not neutral about
technology. This has massive implications for a relatively nascent
industry.”
On Wednesday, Senator Ron Wyden, Cynthia Lummis and Pat
Toomey put forth an amendment to infrastructure bill HR 3684 currently
under review in the Senate. The proposal received support from a number of lawmakers
and figures in the crypto space, including Senator Rob Portman — a key
Republican involved in the bill — as well as 114 signatories from the
crypto and blockchain space, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The
senators originally proposed the amendment because the bill suggests
implementing tighter rules on businesses handling cryptocurrencies and
expanding reporting requirements for brokers, mandating that digital
asset transactions worth more than $10,000 are reported to the Internal
Revenue Service, or IRS. It also suggests that anyone in the business of
“validating distributed ledger transactions,” “developing digital
assets or their corresponding protocols,” or dealing with mining
software or hardware would likely be subject to more tax reporting
requirements for digital transactions.
Related: Three US Senators propose narrowing crypto tax language in infrastructure bill
While
the amendment proposed by Wyden, Lummis and Toomey may change the
bill’s definition of a broker and could allow many players in the crypto
space to avoid the additional reporting requirements, a “modified”
amendment put forth by Warner, Portman and Sinema the following day
proposed excluding proof-of-mining and sellers of hardware and software
wallets from the bill but suggests crypto developers and proof-of-stake
validators would still be subject to expanded reporting. Some critics
have claimed this modification would essentially allow the U.S.
government to pick and choose which technology is acceptable in the
crypto space.
The Warner, Portman and Sinema amendment received support from the Biden administration — reportedly with the exception of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
With the time available to pass the infrastructure plan seemingly
dwindling, many in the crypto space and some lawmakers are pushing for
the Wyden, Lummis and Toomey amendment to be put to a vote while
attacking the provisions in the proposal from Warner, Portman and
Sinema.
Leaders at major U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges have
called on users to contact their representatives. Binance.US CEO Brian
Brooks — prior to his resignation today — pushed Fight to the Future’s message and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong urged his more than 743,000 Twitter followers to support the amendment from Wyden, Lummis and Toomey.
“This
debate in the Senate started because the government sees the growing
crypto industry as a source of tax revenue,” said Armstrong. “We agree
everyone must pay their taxes. There is no debate on this topic. But
destroying some of the most exciting innovations in the process is
unconscionable.”
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-space-weighs-in-on-proposed-amendments-to-us-infrastructure-deal
