The gears of government turn slowly
but grind exceedingly fine.
The ancient Greeks understood the dynamics of power and bureaucracy,
and sadly nothing has changed.
The highly touted infrastructure bill has passed through the lower chamber of Congress
and has moved on to the Senate,
but not before institutions got a chance to work in an amendment designed to outright kill the cryptoverse
here in the United States.
But all is not lost.
There's time to take action.
Let's get it!
Welcome to BitBoy Crypto!
Home of the BitSquad
The largest and greatest crypto community in all the Interwebs
My name is Ben.
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In this video, we reveal the awful crypto legislation inside the infrastructure bill.
If you're part of the BitSquad and you aren't in the US,
you may just think this doesn't apply to you.
You could be right.
But just like how China banning mining or El Salvador accepting Bitcoin affects the markets,
legislation in the world's largest economy has the potential to affect crypto for some years to come.
Squad members around the world can still get involved,
and I'll explain how in a moment.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill is a 2,702-page bill
that says it's about infrastructure,
but in reality, it's just another way for the politicians to grease the palms of their big donors.
There's so much non-infrastructure in this bill that I can do a whole other video about it.
But for now, let's dig into the amendment that was slipped in just as the bill passed the House
and was being prepared for the Senate.
Section 80603 is the text of the infrastructure bill related to crypto.
If you want to give it a read, we put a link to it in the description.
It was "written" by Republican Senator Rob Portman,
longtime member of government whose only work in the private sector was as a small business lawyer.
Sounds like a tech-savvy guy.
Oh, and look, he's taken money from BlackRock.
But the word on the street is that Senator Portman is just a patsy
and none other than the office of Janet "No Tellin'" Yellen wrote section 80603.
And it makes sense.
Senator Portman has worked in government for longer than I've been alive
and has served on various financial committees that interface with the Fed all the time.
He knows Yellen.
Yellen and her SEC cronies like Gary Gensler really hate crypto, especially DeFi.
They saw an opportunity to finally get a stranglehold on crypto
just before it takes off in the mainstream.
If you're watching this video, you're ahead of the curve.
Make sure to smash that like button and subscribe to the channel
to join the BitSquad and stay in the loop on the latest in crypto.
But let's get into section 80603.
The amendment is a train wreck.
And the language is so broad,
so confusing,
so onerous,
it's obvious it was written by a bunch of Ol-Fi hacks who know nothing about crypto
and are only out to protect their Wall Street pets
and, worse, give up all your financial privacy.
The amendment would require new surveillance of all crypto users.
It would force software developers and creators
to put in surveillance or else cease their operations in the US.
It will create honeypots of user information that would attract all sorts of hackers and bad actors.
It would create more legal complexity for any blockchain development.
Anyone who has crypto would have to register as a broker
or use a broker to send crypto anywhere.
That goes against the very nature of crypto.
It's peer-to-peer trustless transactions.
Coin issuers would have to register as a broker.
Miners would have to register as a broker.
And all of them would be under the securities legislation of the SEC
and the tax reporting of the IRS as a 6045-C1.
Names, addresses and transactions for all customers would have to be reported to the SEC and the IRS.
DEXs and anything DeFi-related would all come under the jurisdiction of the SEC and IRS,
with all their related reporting, fines and fees.
Every single customer of a DEX,
of Uniswap,
of Coinbase,
and even every single person you send some crypto to,
will be considered a 1099 employee?
If you mess up reporting even one of these transactions,
you'll get fined, audited and possibly have all your crypto confiscated.
And don't forget the personal information.
It would be all stored centrally at either the IRS, SEC or some other porous government agency.
The government has been the subject of so many hacks,
it's hard to keep track of.
SolarWinds, anyone?
So, how do you feel about putting all your transaction IDs,
possibly your private keys,
in the hands of these brainlets?
Uh-oh. No, thank you.
I'd rather keep my Ledger in my prison wallet.
This isn't hyperbole.
This is real and it's being discussed.
The entire cryptoverse is on blast and are mobilizing to push the language out of the infrastructure bill
or at least rewrite it to focus the scope.
And that's just it.
Everyone in crypto wants regulatory clarity.
It will make adoption speed up.
It will make taxation clear.
And above all, it will give the US and other countries an advantage over China, Russia and Iran.
Regulatory clarity is what we need.
Crushing bureaucracy and invasions of privacy are not.
But crypto has allies in many places, even in the government.
There's support from both the Democrats and the Republicans to fix section 80603.
Senator Pat Toomey has come out swinging calling this amendment,
"Congress should not rush forward with this hastily- designed tax reporting regime for cryptocurrency,
especially without a full understanding of the consequences."
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said that 80603,
"It's an attempt to apply brick and mortar rules to the internet
and fails to understand how the technology works."
And finally, our favorite laser-eyed senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis,
is laser focused on this amendment
saying that digital assets need their own committee to consider these issues
instead of drafting amendments in secret.
She's a boss.
And that's also something we stated on this channel many times.
It's hard to overstate just how bad this amendment is.
It would effectively stop all crypto innovation, mining and transactioning in the US
just as China has dropped the ball and given the free world a chance to take the lead in crypto.
This is our moment.
We can't let this sort of legislation happen while we still have a voice and a chance to change it.
So if you live in the US, it's time for action.
Call your senator.
Email your senator, too.
But phone calls are way more impactful.
If their office interns and clerks are inundated with pro-crypto phone calls,
that's much harder to ignore than a thousand emails.
We have a link in the description to help you find your senator.
If you live outside of the US,
be active on social media.
Tweet at these senators showing your support and engage with others who don't quite get crypto.
But above all, be nice. Be polite.
And just know that most of the people you're contacting know nothing about crypto.
Don't be toxic like a maxi.
Be awesome like a BitSquad member.
Use the information we put in the description to get your facts and do your research.
This is your chance to bring them to our side
and maybe even to the BitSquad.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.