Jerry Brito rallies users against crypto wallet proposal
In a tweet, the Coin Center leader explained how members of the crypto community can make a difference to the ultimate outcome of the US treasury’s new regulatory proposal
Jerry Brito, the executive director of the non-profit crypto policy advocate group Coin Center, urged the crypto community to raise their voice against the self-custodial wallet ruling recently proposed by the US Treasury. In a tweet, Brito explained that public feedback could make a difference in the ultimate outcome while reminding users that the two-week public commentary period provided by the Treasury is coming to an end.
The new law, if passed, essentially mandates the US-based crypto exchanges to verify the identity of their customers, if a counterparty uses an un-hosted wallet and the transaction is greater than $3,000.
It further sets the threshold for checking the identity of customers who transact using registered entities at $10,000. The regulatory proposal is being seen as an assault on the nature of peer-to-peer transactions in the crypto space.
“Coin Center is working with folks in Congress to get some letters sent to Secretary Mnuchin requesting an extension to the rushed comment period”, Brito stated.
“Everyone in the cryptocurrency ecosystem should file a comment with FinCEN explaining how this rule would affect them and pointing out the unintended consequences. Filing a comment really does help”, he elaborated.
Rather than a normal 60-day period for feedback on the proposal, the regulatory body only assigned a 15-day window to accept comments from stakeholders. This has been seen as an attempt by outgoing US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to make the proposal a law before his likely exit from the office next month. Brito explained that feedback from the crypto community might contribute to pushing back the deadline.
“Mnuchin wants to get this rule finalised before he leaves office on 20 January”, Brito tweeted. “But FinCEN is required by law to consider every comment before finalising the rule. If there are a lot of substantive comments filed, they won’t be able to finalise the rule before 20 January”, he explained.
Brito believes that pushing the proposal dates past 20 January will not only leave the law undecided until the new government is formed and leaders change seat but it will also lead to a proposal that is more well-thought-out and deliberated.
“Ideally you should write a unique, substantive letter that describes how the rule will affect you or your firm”, Brito stated, citing the example of the letter by Jake Chervinsky, crypto project Compund’s general counsel.
The Treasury will accept comments till the 4 January and members of the crypto community can also send in shorter remarks via a digital rights entity called Fight for the Future.
