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A16z Open letter: Don't sacrifice encrypted networks to provide our future

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In an Internet world increasingly controlled by a few, decentralized networks are a credible way forward.

原文标题：《 a16z 致美国政府公开信：加密网络可以修复现有系统，不要让政策缺陷牺牲我们的未来》

Author: A16z

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The U.S. government is looking to raise revenue by taxing cryptocurrencies. A new bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in Congress intends to raise about $28 billion from cryptocurrency tax enforcement measures as one of its funding mechanisms. In a tax enforcement action, the INTERNAL Revenue Service (IRS) will require digital asset affiliates to report any transactions they have involving digital assets.

On August 4, prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) published an open letter calling for amendments to the bill. A16z said that decentralized cryptocurrency networks present an extraordinary opportunity for the U.S. We cannot sacrifice tomorrow's economic opportunity for a flawed bill.

The following is the full text of the letter:

Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell.

We write to express our support for the bipartisan amendments on infrastructure proposed by Senator Wyden, Senator Lummis, and Senator Toomey.

We share senators' concern that existing provisions on taxing cryptocurrency transactions are too broad, will sweep through non-intermediaries such as web validators and software developers, and will stifle innovation by imposing unworkable reporting requirements on these groups. The infrastructure bill is too important to be open to future legal challenges based on the existing text. This bipartisan amendment should be the right solution to solve these problems in a simple way.

As the leader of the largest cryptocurrency venture fund, we are encouraged by the government's recognition that this nascent industry exists and is only growing.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchains have a lot of untapped potential for different groups -- from musicians, artists and other creators to small business owners and those left out.

An appropriate regulatory strategy needs to reflect an important fact: cryptocurrencies are not a single thing. The scope of the cryptocurrency world extends far beyond its financial origins to include art, community development, and new ways of organizing. These use cases will only continue to grow as entire new economies are built on decentralized protocols, just as the Internet is built on protocols like TCP/IP, and regulation must reflect the nuance that different cryptocurrency uses will require different rules of the road.

Decentralized cryptocurrency networks offer the United States an extraordinary opportunity to promote open systems and societies, rather than closing them, to power economic growth and create jobs.

If the bill were to pass as is without amendments, it would be the opposite of what this infrastructure legislation was meant to achieve. We cannot sacrifice tomorrow's economic opportunity for a flawed bill that needs a simple fix.

In an Internet world increasingly controlled by a few, decentralized networks are a credible way forward. Meanwhile, China has placed a big bet on its government's centralized control of the next wave of financial and computing infrastructure. Our country can offer an alternative: building participatory and inclusive infrastructure that works better for everyone.

We firmly believe that cryptocurrencies will enable society to harness the full potential of digital transformation and fulfill the unfulfilled promises of our current system.