How Washington‘s new regulations could result in a brain drain in the blockchain industry

<p>The internet is what it is today—capable of connecting people across countries, time zones, and cultures—because of the tolerant regulatory environment in which it was born. Regulators will be far less receptive to disruptive technologies in 2021, unfortunately. This is detrimental to the future of innovation in the United States and the emerging blockchain industry.</p> <p>Whichever approach Washington takes to cryptocurrency regulation over the next few months could make a multi-trillion dollar difference over the next few years. To appreciate how much we stand to lose as a result of poor blockchain policy, it's necessary to first appreciate how much we gained in the 1990s as a result of sound internet policy.</p> <p>It's easy to forget that during the early years of the tech boom, the success of today's internet behemoths was far from certain. For example, during the late 1990s Dotcom Bubble, numerous businesses were written off as scams (and some of them were). Even the most promising businesses, however, were viewed as speculative bets, with their stock prices subject to extreme volatility.</p> <p>Additionally, it's easy to forget that the internet's early years were unfamiliar territory for the majority of people. By modern standards, it was slow, overly complicated, and difficult to use for anyone lacking a strong technical background. Many dismissed the internet as a fad, including Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, who predicted in 1998: "By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the internet's economic impact will be comparable to that of the fax machine."</p> <p>"A swindle," "a fad," "a bubble," "excessively complicated," and "excessively volatile." Do any of these statements ring a bell? History often plagiarises rather than rhymes. And it's impossible to ignore the fact that today's crypto sceptics use the same lingo as yesterday's internet sceptics.</p> <p>Consider what might have happened if policymakers in the United States had heeded the internet's critics in the mid- to late-1990s. Co