Distributed Dialogues: Governance and Decentralized Platforms

On the latest episode of Distributed Dialogues, Dave and Rick from the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network host interviews on the risks and rewards of government interference in the cryptocurrency space.

The first guest, John Collins, got his start in government on the Senate Committee of Homeland Security, and quickly moved to working with Coinbase after he first heard about Bitcoin in 2013.

Since then, he’s tried to bridge the worlds of policy and cryptocurrency. Collins discusses the ways in which he has worked to make the government see regulation as a chance to nurture growing industries. He also works as a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard to make the relevant information as free and accessible to agents of business and government as possible.

Next, they spoke with Jason Hsu, a Taiwanese legislator and member of parliament, who Vitalik Buterin has nicknamed the “The Crypto Congressman.” Before becoming a congressman, Hsu was a tech entrepreneur with experience running startups and TEDx talks in Taiwan, and, in 2016, he became an at-large legislator to manage tech legislation and remove legal barriers for crypto development.

With a love for Bitcoin that dates back to Satoshi’s white paper in 2009, Hsu has given an official stamp to the promotion of cryptocurrency in Asia. He claimed that, even after all these years, it’s still hard to keep up with all the news in the quickly-evolving space, but nevertheless he’s made it his mission to spread awareness.