NYS Assembly Member Clyde Vanel & His Crypto-Affections

So I wanted to start writing about crypto, just as a way of getting in the habit of coalescing my thoughts on the tech, but right now, I'm still fairly new, so I thought I'd start off on more peripheral write-ups than tech-analysis or market evaluations, as I don't think I'm in any position at this point to offer insights. So here goes:

New York State Assembly member Clyde Vanel this past November introduced a bill (NY Assembly Bill 8783), that poses the creation of a task force dedicated to 'provide the governor and the legislature with information on the potential effects of the widespread implementation of digital currencies on financial markets in the state.’ Currently the bill’s action is listed as “referred to banks” as of 2018-01-03. Interestingly if you do a quick search, many bills relating to money and banking up for review in the state have this ‘action’ of being referred to banks — I guess the banks DO literally control the government, unless I’m misunderstanding what this action actually implies (any suggestions?)

Vanel, who is also the Chair on the States Subcommittee on Internet and New Technology, seems to be making digital currency one of if not the signature legislation he wants to be known for. I recently attended an event in New York City, the NY BlockChain Legislation and Creation of a Digital Currency Taskforce hosted at Galvanize, where the Assemblyman went over the other bills he has introduced regarding blockchain technology and its adoption and regulation by the State. The event was essentially part focus-group/part community brain-trust with the Assemblyman presenting what he hoped to achieve with the technology in the state and what he needed from the community: namely ideas on how they saw this technology being implemented. Which in turn I’m sure Mr. Vanel could turn into either profitable endeavors in their own right (before being elected to the State assembly in November of 2016, by his own account Mr. Vanel was an entrepreneur), or more specifically, ways to regulate and of course ultimately tax the technology.

To be fair, the other bills that Mr. Vanel have introduced include decent attempts to implement and incorporate the technology in the right direction:

NY Assembly Bill 8792 - Directs the state board of elections to study and evaluate the use of blockchain technology to protect voter records and election results.(At the Meetup, the Assemblyman seemed generally perturbed by the purging of hundreds of thousands of democratic voters from the 2016 primary)

NY Assembly Bill 8780 - Relates to allowing signatures, records and contracts secured through blockchain technology to be considered in an electronic form and to be an electronic record and signature; allows smart contracts to exist in commerce.

NY Assembly Bill 8793 - Relates to establishing a task force to study and report on the potential implementation of blockchain technology in state record keeping, information storage, and service delivery.

And a cursory look into Mr. Vanel’s contributors finds mostly small-dollar individual donors and unions; noticeably absent are large telecom or banking organizations. If nothing else, Mr. Vanel certainly seems to have an affection for the technology itself — recently blogging about a woman in house slippers and sweatpants purchasing Bitcoin around the corner.

Still, almost 3-years after New York instituted virtual currency exchange licensing or charters, despite legislators like Vanels admiration for the technology, state agencies have been less fawning. New York’s Department of Financial Services has only granted six such licenses: bitFlyer USA, Coinbase Inc., XRP II and Circle Internet Financial, and charters to Gemini Trust Company and itBit Trust Company since the State adopted the licensing regulation.

However as these bills move forward, with bipartisan support, the State seems to recognize that virtual currencies are here to stay. And Mr. Vanel clearly is looking to lead this realization. In addition to the other bills currently making their way through the legislation, Mr. Vanel has introduced A9685 which establishes a task force to study the impact of state-issued cryptocurrency on the state of New York— essentially a State-backed crypto-currency. This may prove tricky to implement and run afoul of the actual Constitution. Still, given the recent push-back by banks and governments, New York is still cautiously endorsing the technology, even as it warns its literal handful of chartered companies to continually be on the lookout for Wrongful Activity and Market Manipulation. Because as history has shown, New York State is certainly not the home for unregulated speculation. Right?