State Rep. Mike Shaw (R-Hoover), who is participating in a Wednesday town hall on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, is making it a personal mission to educate lawmakers and the public on the technology and its benefits to Alabama.
Shaw will join fellow State Rep. Phillip Ensler (D-Montgomery) in an open discussion with advocates and the public to help citizens better understand the rapidly evolving blockchain landscape.
Lawmakers on both the state and federal levels have taken an interest in cryptocurrency and other blockchain technologies as more citizens utilize them for various reasons. Former President Donald Trump recently showed an interest in advancing cryptocurrency during a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 27. During the speech, Trump suggested that cryptocurrency could be a valuable tool for the government to invest in.
Shaw has worked extensively in the technology field for decades in cyber security. He was appointed to Gov. Kay Ivey's artificial intelligence task force and the Alabama Blockchain Study Commission. He is also the only state lawmaker with a CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification.
According to Shaw, blockchain technology encompasses many different technologies that are fundamentally decentralized and allow individuals to do business with each other securely.
“It doesn’t require a central authority, and I think that’s why government struggles with it a little bit,” Shaw told 1819 News.
While the study commission will address regulation issues, Shaw wants to ensure lawmakers and citizens understand the technology and allow it to work for the state and its citizens.
“I think, at the highest level, we just want our state to have a reputation as being what I call ‘blockchain friendly'; we’re not over-regulating,” Shaw said. “We’re still protecting people, and we’re still doing the things that government needs to do in the way of regulation.”
He continued, “The technology is so new that lawmakers and policymakers haven’t really had a chance to learn about it. So, for me personally, I’m hoping that we can get some information and some knowledge and education out there, not just to the general public, but also to policymakers and lawmakers. A lot of these regulations come out of the executive branch, so I do think that it’s important that the people have a chance to weigh in on it through the legislature.”
Shaw said he is not opposed to enacting some regulations to protect people from falling victim to online scams and other pitfalls of the technology. However, his main goal is to help people understand how the system works and how to keep the technology as free from government intervention as possible.
“In some ways, blockchain acts like money, and sometimes it acts like property, so when it acts like those things, the government obviously wants to regulate those things," he explained. "And there have been people who lost money through scams and various things, and as a government, we’re supposed to make certain efforts to protect those folks. But on the other hand, we have scams and fraud with our traditional financial system. The main thing is, when it comes to regulating, I don’t want to have a narrow view of it.”
“A lot of people think that things like blockchain aren’t regulated, but actually, they’re very regulated, and that’s why they work; they’re regulated by the technology itself," Shaw continued. "They’re regulated by math and consensus. Crypto, cryptography, is essentially math. And consensus is by adoption. If you have something mathematically sound and a million people using it, that is kind of built-in regulation. So it’s hard for us as a government to understand. Our traditional financial system isn’t like that; dollars don’t regulate themselves, but blockchain and Bitcoin do have a significant amount of regulations built into the protocols.”
In addition to understanding the technological aspects of blockchain, Shaw hopes to introduce lawmakers and the public to its philosophical aspect, which has made Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies a focal point for those who lean more Libertarian.
“The self-regulation is why you get to the more philosophical side of things, like liberty and the ability for people to engage in commerce with one another. Because it is regulated by math and consensus, it kind of touches on those issues that are important to a lot of people,” he said.
Shaw emphasized that blockchain technology is far more than cryptocurrency, which is the area that receives the most attention due to its investment and trade capabilities. According to Shaw, blockchain technology can be used for secure transactions in many different avenues.
“So much right now is about cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all that. Obviously, with so much money in all that, that’s what draws the most attention, but blockchain technology is much bigger than just crypto," he outlined. "There’s a lot of nuance to it, but the main thing is, right now, most of the talk about crypto has been from a financial regulation perspective, and, unfortunately, our laws for regulating those things have worked pretty well for the past 100 years, but this is new technology, and there’s a lot more to it.”
“It can involve the secure transmission of records, secure storage of records, secure transfer of ownership, and things like that. Those are some more of the advanced concepts. You can have blockchain store car titles, or land deeds, medical records and things like that. So, if we’re not careful, we could be regulating Bitcoin and then lock ourselves out of some of these really helpful concepts," Shaw added.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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