On April 8, Michael Hsu, the chief federal regulator of the nation’s major banks, said that he finds arguments questioning cryptocurrency’s long-term worth “compelling,” while asking for a strong regulatory structure to safeguard consumers and the economy from the risks posed by stablecoins.
“The growth of Web3 and a blockchain-based digital economy are not inevitable,” Hsu, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, stated at Georgetown University’s Institute of International Law, referencing analysis by crypto critics such as Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike and crypto critic Dan Olson.
In a widely read January blog post, Marlinspike argued that Web3 is a flawed concept because decentralised protocols are inherently inefficient and that developers have been drawn to crypto projects not because they solve problems that centralised internet companies cannot, but because they see it as a way to get rich quickly.
Olson, a video essayist, is the producer of a 2-hour viral cryptocurrency takedown that connects the cryptocurrency mania to the housing bubble that caused the 2008 financial disaster. On YouTube, it has approximately 7 million views.
Hsu followed this metaphor in his statements on Friday, comparing cryptocurrencies and blockchain to the financial derivatives that exacerbated the 2000s economic catastrophe. Derivatives, he claims, actually alleviate issues and assist in better spreading risk, but only when they are effectively regulated.
