- An alleged leak reveals that U.S. President Joe Biden might be on the verge of issuing an Executive Order on artificial intelligence, which could have consequential ripple effects on Bitcoin and the wider crypto market.
- Alexander Grieve from Paradigm highlights concerns around the designation of computing power as a “national resource,” and its potential impact on crypto, amidst a sensitive regulatory environment.
In a climate of unyielding evolution, the realm of cryptocurrency finds itself at the cusp of potentially significant regulatory shifts. Recent murmurs suggest that an Executive Order on artificial intelligence by President Joe Biden could be imminent. The reverberations of such a directive could ostensibly extend into the Bitcoin and broader cryptocurrency domain, marking a moment of reckoning for stakeholders.
A Whisper of Regulatory Winds
A purported leak has unveiled that the upcoming Executive Order might necessitate tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to disclose customer procurement of computing resources beyond stipulated thresholds. This narrative unfurls amidst a backdrop where computing power is increasingly viewed as a “national resource,” a notion underscored in a report linked by Alexander Grieve, Head of Government Affairs at Paradigm, a crypto-centric investment entity.
This unfolding scenario illuminates an emerging nexus between computational resources and crypto activities such as Bitcoin mining. The intricate process of Bitcoin mining involves validation of transactions in exchange for newly minted Bitcoin, hinging on substantial computational power. Post China’s Bitcoin mining embargo in 2021, the United States has emerged as a new haven for Bitcoin miners, thereby intensifying the gaze of regulatory scrutiny on domestic shores.
The dialogue escalates as Grieve elucidates on the potential ramifications. The underlying essence of the discourse revolves around the idea that Bitcoin mining could be perceived as a drain on national computational resources, consequently deviating critical tech talent from what are deemed as “real” applications.
Moreover, the burgeoning narrative around “Operation Choke Point” of computing power accentuates the cautious tapestry within which the crypto industry navigates. Analogous to the 2013 initiative aimed at curtailing financial services to certain sectors, this conceptual “Operation Choke Point” for computing power envisages a scenario where political and media pressure mounts on cloud service providers catering to substantial crypto industry players.
As the crypto market oscillates amidst these regulatory whispers, the implications of the forthcoming Executive Order, should it encompass the domain of crypto, could catalyze a fresh chapter of discourse and deliberation within the techno-legal corridors of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
