Commissioner Hester Peirce added herself to the list of SEC officials making sensible comments about the agency’s role in regulating cryptocurrencies. At the Medici conference in Los Angeles last week she revealed a nuanced view. Here’s some of what she said, per Axios:
“On a beach, you have a lifeguard…. but she’s not sitting with the sand castle builders,”
For years now many have pointed to the need for regulatory “sandboxes” wherein an innovator can obtain binding agreements from a regulator: e.g. “we (the regulator) will regulate you differently than the underlying law would otherwise require if you commit to sharing data or designing your project in a specified manner.” While that could lighten the compliance load for some folks in the ecosystem; it also creates risks that some projects will get prefferatory treatment and an unfair advantage over other projects or technologies.
Peirce’s preference to be a lifeguard over a sand castle architect is laudable. In general, it’s best that regulators only get involved in emergencies, when there are grave risks to consumers or investors that can only be addressed through the law. Regulators should avoid making legally binding pronouncements that dictate specifics about how consumer or financial technologies should be built. Cryptocurrencies are at a nascent stage where any action from regulators could create far reaching consequences for development and U.S. competitiveness.
We would like to see policymakers approach these new networks similarly to how the early internet was approached: hands off policy calibrated to encourage developer experimentation. We are glad to see Commissioner Peirce shares these sentiments. Be sure to read some more of what she said.