- Polygon Labs veterans were part of a hearing with the US Congress’s Committee.
- The importance of blockchain and the role of Polygon in the industry was highlighted.
Polygon Labs president Ryan Wyatt together with many legal practitioners has appeared before the United States House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce to have a constructive discussion on blockchain technology and the future of Web 3.0. At the hearing, Wyatt highlighted the potential of blockchain including its value to users.
The crypto veteran took to Twitter to announce the meeting;
“Today, I had the privilege of testifying at the Innovation, Data & Commerce subcommittee at a Congressional hearing focused on educating lawmakers on why this tech is important to all of us, and how it changes the value paradigm of the Internet,” while adding that “We are in this together.”
In his testimony, he stated the need to facilitate a healthy ecosystem for blockchain in the United States, as well as regulating the nascent industry.
Today, I had the privilege of testifying at the Innovation, Data & Commerce subcommittee at a Congressional hearing focused on educating lawmakers on why this tech is important to all of us, and how it changes the value paradigm of the Internet.
We are in this together. pic.twitter.com/l8OcDM12hB
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) June 7, 2023
To set precedence, the Polygon Labs president listed the benefits that blockchain holds and the issues which it is able to solve including the “value extraction” problem on the internet. By this, he was talking about the present internet era “Web2” where large centralized tech firms offer users goods and services and at the same time, retrieve their data for the company’s benefit.
Polygon Lead Talks: Blockchain Amid Enforcements
Blockchain on the other hand uses a cryptographic system to democratize the internet and create Web3.0 which is rather decentralized and transparent. Users get to decide who, how, where, and when they want to share their data. A secured network of computers is used for maintaining information thereby discarding the need for a centralized system.
Markedly, this comes only a few days after the U.S. financial markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hammered heavy lawsuits on two top cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Coinbase.
Before, Binance and Coinbase, many crypto firms have been severely bashed by the regulator. Kraken and Gemini have also been victims of this enforcement action. The very popular Ripple vs SEC case about the classification of XRP as security has been ongoing for more than two years now and is hopefully drawing to a close soon.
Wyatt emphasized that this issue of regulation has long been a significant barrier to blockchain technology even though the U.S. government could collaborate with the crypto industry to push for modernization. Their partnership would give the United States a competitive edge and ensure that technology is booming in the region. If not, he noted that “When regulation does not meet novel technology where it is, the U.S. loses its competitive edge over other countries.”
Americans also stand to enjoy economic growth as well as more job opportunities in both the technology and non-technical sector.
There were several uses cases of blockchain technology and Web3.0 highlighted by Wyatt including blockchain-based consumer loyalty programs, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the fashion industry, blockchain-based community organizations, and blockchain solutions for supply chain management in the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense.
