Memorandum ​

https://financialservices.house.gov/events/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=408705

Overview of Cryptocurrency Industry ​

• investing, trading, and payments
• tech
  • cryptography
  • distributed ledger technology (DLT).
• Digital assets
  • cryptocurrencies
  • stablecoins
  • central bank digital currencies
• $500 billion in 2020 to almost $3 trillion as of November 2021.3 Over the past few years
• Bitcoin, to
  • new digital assets and technologies gaining market share, each with different structural and activity features,
  • Ether,
  • stablecoins,
  • non-fungible tokens (NFTs),
  • decentralized finance platforms (DeFi),
  • and others.
• regulators can ensure investor protections, ensure consumer protections, and maintain market integrity.
  • as an asset class for investors,
  • implications for consumer privacy
  • financial inclusion,
    • Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services.
  • and the promises and perils of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Cryptocurrency Market Exchange Participants ​

• Cryptocurrency market exchanges definition and charasteric
  • market structures where digital asset buying, selling, lending, and borrowing can occur.
  • These platforms facilitate the offer and sale of cryptocurrencies for other assets, including digital and fiat currencies
  • and set the rate for conversion between these currencies.
  • Trading platforms can charge transaction fees for moving or withdrawing money from an account.
  • Some industry observers perceive digital asset trading platforms as similar to national securities exchanges in functionality.
  • However, without filing registration paperwork or seeking an exemption from registration with the SEC,
  • some exchanges have unilaterally determined that they are not subject to the same regulatory regime,
  • leading to policy debates on market integrity, investor protection, and innovation.
• have garnered scrutiny from regulators domestically and abroad
  • over their rapid growth, as well as the complex and risky products they offer.
• examples
  • Coinbase
    • one of the largest cryptocurrency market exchanges by market capitalization
    • became a publicly traded company on April 14, 2021.11 Coinbase is also affiliated with USD Coin, the second largest stablecoin, issued by Circle.
  • FTX
    • designated contract market (DCM): futures
    • derivatives clearing organization (DCO): options
    • swap execution facility (SEF): swaps
  • Other large cryptocurrency exchanges with millions of users include Binance, FTX, and Kraken.
• DeFi
  • decentralized finance (DeFi)
  • fast-growing area within the digital asset industry, reportedly reaching more than $100 billion in size in November 2021, up from around $21 billion a year before.
  • DeFi does not yet have a standardized definition, replicate and replace conventional delivery of financial services such as
    • without central financial intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, transfer agents, or banks
    • loans
    • asset trading
    • insurance
    • and other services

Stablecoin Products and Services ​

• Stablecoins
  • are a type of digital asset generally designed to maintain a stable value by linking its value to a national currency or other reference assets.
  • Stablecoins are used to buy or sell other cryptocurrencies, or to lend or use the stablecoin as collateral to borrow other cryptocurrencies or fiat currency.
  • Stablecoins reached almost $147 billion in market capitalization as of November 29, 2021,
  • largest issuers: Tether, Circle, Binance, and Dai. Diem(Libra)
    • unveiling a remittance service in the U.S. and Guatemala
• Stablecoins can have vastly different operational structures and reserve compositions.
  • Reserve assets backing stablecoins could include fiat currencies, traditional financial assets, or other digital assets and algorithms.
  • stablecoins represent a relatively small fraction (5%) of the digital asset industry’s total value, they facilitate more than 75% of trading on all digital asset trading platforms as of October 31, 2021.
  • Furthermore, stablecoins could find parallels in traditional payment systems, banking, or other forms of financial infrastructure service.
  • Some have compared stablecoins to private currency issued by banks before the practice was curtailed with the National Bank Act of 1863, and a shift was made to a single sovereign currency.
• management and structuring of the reserve funds resemble existing practices for registered securities products, such as
  • money market funds (MMFs),
  • exchange-traded funds (ETFs),
  • or security-based swaps.

Regulatory Concerns in Digital Assets Products and Services ​

• charastics
  • cryptocurrency markets have no overarching and centralized regulatory framework,
  • leaving investments in the digital assets space vulnerable to fraud, manipulation, and abuse.
  • Some cryptocurrency market exchanges and stablecoin issuers
    • have obtained state money transmitter and sale of checks licenses from multiple states,
    • and a few cryptocurrency companies have obtained national charters
• Stablecoin-related policy concerns include issues related to
  • market integrity,
  • investor protection,
  • consumer protection,
  • financial stability,
  • monetary policy,
  • payments,
  • and illicit activity prevention.
• risk
  • potential systemic risk posed by stablecoins
  • losses or instability of stablecoins could generate instability throughout the financial system.
  • potential fraud and manipulation
  • and the need for disclosure and transparency.
    • For example, investigations by the New York State Office of the Attorney General revealed that stablecoins issued by Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, were not fully backed at all times, raising investor-protection concerns.
• Digital assets and related service providers can present
  • money laundering,
  • terrorist financing,
  • sanctions evasion,
  • kleptocracy,
  • and other illicit finance risks
• Criminal and terrorist activity
  • speed of the payments and transactions
  • looser anti-money laundering compliance,
  • access to jurisdictions with weak regimes allowing for money laundering,
  • and the pseudonymity provided by certain cryptocurrencies.
  • ransomware attacks
    • The lack of safeguards in parts of the market has contributed to the rise in ransomware attacks that demand payment in cryptocurrency
    • with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network noting that $590 million in suspected ransomware payments were reported by financial institutions in the first six months of 2021, compared to $416 million in 2020.
  • While the overall criminal share of cryptocurrency activity is estimated to be a small portion of the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency market, given the size of that market, the harm of the illicit funds can be impactful.
• Cryptocurrency users may also be vulnerable
  • theft
  • fraud
  • hacks.
• environmental concerns.
  • crypto mining – the process of validating certain transactions
  • Cryptomining computers have also been criticized for their short lifespans and the amount of e-waste they generate.

Federal Regulatory Responses to the Rise of Cryptocurrencies ​

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/

问卷 ​

说明：为简化文字，答案不一定非常准确，选择最接近的即可

比特币与QQ币的区别：

• 不知道
• 没有区别
• 我的比特币没有任何人可以剥夺，QQ币可能被回收

【多选】我对于数字资产的理解：

• 不知道
• 我的微博账号属于我，是我的永久资产
• 我的比特币属于我，是我的永久资产
• 我的游戏账号属于我，是我的永久资产

我对于哈希(Hash)算法的理解：

• 不知道
• 哈希是一种数字指纹技术，不同的内容均会有不同的数字指纹
• 哈希是单向函数，日常使用中会时不时的遇到不同内容相同哈希的情况

利用比特币进行转账时，如果填写对方地址时不小心填错了一位字母数字：

• 不知道会怎么样
• 可以想办法召回
• 会错打给其他人，有不可忽略的小概率可以找这个人退回款项
• 会落入黑洞，目前技术无人能取回

安全的智能合约的编写难度：

• 不知道
• 很简单，新手看着教程21天从入门到精通
• 与一般的代码编写差不多
• 很难，需要一个有着多种职业专业分工的团队才能胜任

关于SPV（简单支付验证）和轻量钱包：

• 不知道
• 类似于币安、火币、Coinbase等钱包
• 类似于MetaMask、ImToken、Ledger等钱包

【多选】关于挖矿

• 不知道
• 都是高耗能的
• 当最后一个币被挖出来后，矿工就不需要继续挖矿了
• 挖矿的功能是用来保护区块链的安全的

关于比特币是否是货币

• 不知道
• 比特币不是货币
• 比特币是货币
• 比特币仅仅是一般等价物

是否参与过密码货币

• 没有
• 仅拥有私钥
• 有币
• 参与过区块链共识安全建设

是否了解非对称加密

• 不知道
• 分成公私钥对，公钥加密私钥解密，私钥签名公钥验证
• 用同一个密码进行加密和解密