Implementing blockchain technology would help to provide better services, prevent tax fraud, improve government functions and eliminate bureaucracy

The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the US Senate approved the Blockchain Promotion Act recently, as local media reported this week.

As a fundamental part, the bill brings closer the United States to a definition of “blockchain” at the federal level and establishes a blockchain working group within the Department of Commerce, since the regulation of this project instructs the department to elaborate a standard definition of “blockchain”.

The members of the working group should be representatives of federal agencies that could use blockchain or non-governmental stakeholders.

Among the non-governmental participants are information and communication technology manufacturers, suppliers, software suppliers, service providers, sellers and experts.

Legislators from both sides of the Capitol evaluate how to properly define the concept of “blockchain”, as well as understand the instrumentation and the benefit of this technology by the government.

The Expectations and Processes

Among the steps that the group has to follow, it should be noted that after a year of its establishment, the working group must present to the Congress a report recommending a definition of blockchain.

In addition, the report should also recommend conducting an investigation about the impact of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) on the electromagnetic spectrum norms, recommendations about other possible applications and ideas of ​​possible uses by the federal agencies.

These developments occur in the midst of the criticisms that US President Donald Trump has recently expressed regarding cryptocurrencies, since he has opposed digital assets such as Bitcoin and Libra, through his official account in the social network Twitter.

With the aim to know even better the cryptocurrency project of Facebook, Libra, the Committee of Financial Services of the House of Representatives of the United States will hold a hearing about the virtual currency next July 17th.

Instead of this, the senator of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and co-sponsor of the project, Ed Markey, emphasized, through a statement, that “blockchain is an exciting new technology with great potential”. He assured that “this legislation will help to better understand the applications for this technology and to explore opportunities for its use within the federal government”.

The senator commented that this technology “is being used in the private sector to expand access to renewable energies, improve health services, delivery systems, and improve the efficiency of the supply chain”.

Is Bitcoin going to replace dollars?

Some senators believe that cryptocurrencies will become a threat to the US financial system, as they consider the possibility of Bitcoin replacing the dollar as a value of the world’s reserve.

About this point, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell commented that The United States should not assume that the dollar will be a single currency of the Federal Reserve during “all of life”.

In detail, the Blockchain Promotion Law envisages preventing a mosaic of definitions of these technologies at the state level, as well as establishing a precedent for the future regulation of technology.

The congresswoman Doris Matsui, a California Democrat, commented that “this bicameral project bill will bring together a broad group of stakeholders to develop a common definition of blockchain”.

According to the general opinion, implementing blockchain technology would help to provide better services, prevent tax fraud, improve government functions and eliminate bureaucracy, with the aim to avoid wasting time and money.

By María Rodríguez

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