American entrepreneur and Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has said that blockchain should be a big part of the United States’ future, Bloomberg reported on May 15.
Speaking at the Consensus conference in New York, Yang — who is well known for his progressive pro-universal basic income stance — reportedly stated that:
“I believe that blockchain needs to be a big part of our future. If I’m in the White House, oh boy are we going to have some fun in terms of the crypto currency community.”
A challenger candidate who has recently revealed he crossed the Democratic National Committee’s threshold of 65,000 donors to participate in the first candidate debates, Yang is also the founder of Venture For America (VFA) — a non-profit accelerator for start-ups for emerging cities.
In April, he published a national framework for digital assets regulation as part of his presidential campaign, and has advocated for more clarity in regard to the overlapping jurisdictions of federal regulatory agencies.
In an interview with Bloomberg during the conference, Yang reportedly stated that he would base his consumer protection digital asset framework loosely upon existing securities laws, adding that:
“We just need to provide rules of the road. We need to figure out which agency is going to be interacting with individual currencies. It would be unfortunate if every time a new currency comes out we then have to decide which framework applies.”
Bloomberg notes that Yang nonetheless does not own cryptocurrencies himself, although he has reportedly confirmed that he has invested in at least one vehicle that does have crypto holdings.
Yang’s campaign has also accepted bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and other cryptocurrency donations as of July 2018.
As Cointelegraph reported, Yang’s position marks a stark contrast to fellow 2020 contender, senator Elizabeth Warren — a staunch critic of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.
Serial cryptocurrency advocate John McAfee has also claimed he aspires to run in the 2020 race, yet has conceded he may have to run a prospective campaign from a boat in international waters, given his alleged indictment by U.S. tax authorities.
