Many blockchain companies now believe that regulation is inevitable, but there’s a growing debate over where to draw the line between protecting users and strangling the lifeblood out of the industry — or forcing it outside the United States.
“Whether we like it or not, regulation is coming,” Sheila Warren of the Crypto Council for Innovation tells me during an interview in the lead up to the recent Collision conference in Toronto, Canada.
The CEO of the industry lobby group for blockchain technology explains that rather than trying to stop the inevitable, many companies are now focused on lobbying for rules that work for them instead.
Why the change? With every week seeming to bring new stories of loopholes, hacks and algo stablecoin failures — from the popular Netflix QuadrigaCX documentary to the dizzying world of crypto transaction mixers and the steps law enforcement used to track two Americans accused of selling fraudulent NFTs — increased regulation is starting to look like a better idea. And not just for businesses but also for legislators worried about being reelected. People seem to love hearing about crypto scams and lost money… as long as it’s not their own.
