J. Christopher Giancarlo, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), told a Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. symposium that blockchain should be allowed to develop with minimal government regulation. Giancarlo noted in his published remarks that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 offers a good model since it allowed the Internet to evolve under the private sector’s leadership. There was also a “Framework For Global Electronic Commerce” that said regulators should avoid undue regulations.
As the Internet was entering a phase of rapid growth two decades ago, the Clinton Administration and a Republican Congress established a set of foundational principles: the Internet was to progress through voluntary contractual relations, free markets, and human social interaction.
Regulators were not to harm the Internet’s evolution. Thanks to this “do no harm” approach, the Internet created millions of jobs and transformed the economy and improved standards of living worldwide.
In 1996, Congress recognized that the Internet had flourished to the benefit of all Americans with little government regulation. Congress thus sought to ensure that Internet-access services remained unfettered by regulation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said Internet services should exist in a minimal regulatory environment that promotes investment and innovation. The FCC issued directives that Internet service providers be governed by a relatively relaxed framework.
The FCC also supported World Trade Organization agreements that privatized state-owned telecom companies and adopted regulatory practices to create competition and reduce trade barriers for information-technology goods and services. The U.S. also worked with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to support a light-touch Internet regulation regime. Promise of Blockchain
At the present time, a new technology is at hand that could provide a similarly profound tool to share networks of information, Giancarlo said. However, its development is at risk of being stymied by disparate and uncertain regulation.
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