In Episode 168 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Rohan Grey, an expert on the legal design and regulation of digital fiat currency and one of the prime authors of the recently proposed STABLE Act put forward by congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and congressmen Jesús García and Stephen Lynch of Illinois and Massachusetts respectively.   

The stated justification for the bill is to “protect consumers from the risks posed by emerging digital payment instruments, such as Facebook’s Libra and other Stablecoins,” which the authors define as “digital currencies, whose value is permanently pegged to or stabilized against a conventional currency like the dollar and which pose new regulatory challenges while also representing a growing source of market, liquidity, and credit risk.”  

The goal of this conversation was to get absolutely clear on the language and intent of the regulation, not just as a standalone document but as part of a much larger regulatory agenda that is being put forward by the more progressive factions of the democratic party. What is clear is that much of this depends on how we define money and what we mean when we talk about “a deposit.”

Regardless of what your personal beliefs are, regulation is coming. The question is what is it going to look like and how is it going to impact you and your community, whether that community is your local community, your business community, or a crypto community?

This conversation is meant to help you begin to wrap your arms around this new paradigm, to understand what you think about it and how you want to respond to it.

You can gain access to the episode overtime, Demetri’s additional conversation with Jeremy Allaire, as well as the transcript and rundown to this week’s episode through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. 

All subscribers gain access to our overtime feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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Episode Recorded on 12/08/2020

Rohan Grey is an Assistant Professor of Law at Willamette University and the author of the forthcoming Digitizing the Dollar: The Battle for the Soul of Public Money in the Age of Cryptocurrency (Melville House, 2021). His research focuses on the design and regulation of digital fiat currency. He is the President of the Modern Money Network, the Research Director of the Digital Fiat Currency Institute, and a consultant to the International Telecommunications Union’s Focus Group on Digital Currency. He is also a Research Fellow with the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, and a member of ClassCrits and the Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and Law (APPEAL). He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a L.L.M. from the London School of Economics, and prior to entering academia practiced as an attorney for children in New York City.