Sample Letter To Your Local Government Representative

We have all witnessed the recent attacks by the U.S. Treasury against the crypto space. Here is a sample letter that you could send to your local government representative. I'm in the U.S., so the sample letter is highly-U.S. centric, but please feel welcome to adapt it and use it in whatever jurisdiction you are in around the world. Of course, governments cannot stop this revolution, but they could surely slow it down. If we can continue applying constant pressure to elected representatives in a collective effort, I am confident that we can have a positive impact.

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Dear Representative _______________,

Over the past month or so I have evolved into a single-issue voter. Are you for protecting and fostering the innovative crypto asset space or are you against it? If you are for innovation in this space, and can confirm that with me in a personalized letter, I will get behind you. I will support you with both words and action to their allowable limits. I will become one of your strongest advocates in our district.

Here is what is happening. Secretary Janet Yellen and other Treasury bureaucrats have personally lobbied members of Congress for the inclusion of highly vague and restrictive language, which was surreptitiously slid into the infrastructure bill at the last moment, and recently passed by the Senate. Their target is what is known in the crypto space as “decentralized finance” or DeFi, which is a vast new ecosystem of futuristic financial tools built on public decentralized blockchain infrastructure. DeFi provides financial access and inclusion to the traditionally excluded masses, and offers opportunities for all people throughout the world to access lending markets, yield, and hard crypto assets. DeFi is uplifting the lives of millions of people around the world, and within the next few years, possibly billions of people. DeFi is spreading influence of the $dollar even further throughout the world on crypto rails, and is providing a bulwark against China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) advances. Janet Yellen’s approach to regulation would decimate DeFi in America, and drive jobs and wealth overseas. This misguided effort must be stopped, or else America’s financial stake in the future will be damaged beyond measure. The legislative branch has the responsibility of drafting legislation with consent of the governed—not nameless unelected bureaucrats within the Treasury Department.

What is needed is to either 1) entirely remove the crypto-related language from the infrastructure bill, or 2) exclude non-custodial participants in the crypto space from the requirement of submitting 1099s, which would be impossible to comply with. Non-custodial participants in DeFi are usually individuals, and simply do not have customers, nor do they even have access to the information required to complete a 1099. You should understand that even the compromise amendment (that didn't get adopted by the Senate) did not have an exclusion for non-custodial participants, and therefore, did not go far enough. It defies logic to pass this kind of law unless the sole goal is to drive innovation and wealth out of America. Many people now make a living wage or better from participating in DeFi, and many of these people would sooner leave American altogether and take their wealth and jobs with them if Janet Yellen and Treasury were to get their way.

So, I urge you to come up the learning curve on crypto and DeFi, and to get behind the fastest growing technology and most innovative space in America. The smartest people in the room are the ones involved with this technology, and it is rapidly seeping into the lives of ordinary Americans. Our state is a hot bed for this technology and start-up businesses that have latched onto it. Don’t yield to the temptation of regulating this space out of existence in the United States. If that happens, it will still exist; it’s just that America and Americans would lose out. Again, if you reply to me with a personalized letter including a commitment to protect this innovative space, you will have my vote and undying support.