Bitcoin Rallies Defiantly as Senate Infrastructure Battle Hits a Snag

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2021

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Contention over the crypto provision in the infrastructure bill continues. Today on “The Breakdown,” NLW brings the latest, including: Consensus mechanism confusion A weekend stalemate The emergent power of the crypto industry The amendment proposed by Sen. Rob Portman included an odd preference for proof-of-work over any other consensus mechanism. After significant pushback from the crypto community on this specific detail, the amendment was changed to cover all consensus mechanisms. But in a head-scratching turn of events, the amendment was updated once more to include proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, but no other mechanisms. Sunday came with its own set of blockers, including a conflict around prioritization of the crypto provision versus other legislation that needs attention. Though the weekend brought little resolution, the debate continues and there is still time for a positive resolution. Will policymakers come to an agreement on one of the proposed amendments in time? Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1438693620?at=1000lSDb Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/538vuul1PuorUDwgkC8JWF?si=ddSvD-HST2e_E7wgxcjtfQ Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ubHdjcnlwdG8ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M= Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownNLW The Breakdown is written, produced by and features NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Only in Time” by Abloom. Image credit: Overearth/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know what? I think it's better for us if this one is at least a little bit about narrative.
0:06.0	So, I'm calling this Bitcoin's defiance rally. Rightly or wrongly, I like to believe it is the
0:11.4	market expression of an entire industry, even a movement collectively rejecting the attempt
0:17.0	by an outside force to stifle and stop it.
0:21.5	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:25.7	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big-picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:32.8	The Breakdown is sponsored by Nidig and produced and distributed by CoinDes.
0:39.2	What's going on, guys? It is Monday, August 9th, and today we are talking about Bitcoin's
0:44.6	defiant rally as the Senate battle hits something of a snag. So let's get caught up on everything
0:51.5	that happened this weekend. At this point, I'm going to assume you know the setup at least somewhat.
0:57.0	Last-minute provision in the infrastructure bill looked to get around $28 billion of the bill's total cost to be covered by new tax reporting rules around crypto.
1:07.0	The problem? Well, there are a lot of problems.
1:09.0	For one, the Joint Committee on Taxation that
1:11.2	came up with this number hasn't had to show its work anywhere, and there's fairly good reason
1:15.1	to be skeptical that there's nearly $30 billion in underreported crypto taxes. But, alas,
1:20.4	that wasn't the issue we had to focus on. Instead, the issue at hand was that the new reporting
1:25.2	requirements swept everyone in crypto networks, including
1:28.5	non-custodial actors like miners, validators, and software developers into the definition of a broker.
1:34.8	By their very nature, these actors don't have access to the info they would be obligated to report.
1:40.1	Anyway, fast forward. Over the course of the last week, Washington was assailed with what they found
1:45.2	to be a shocking amount of lobbying from the crypto community. Shocking to them, perhaps much less
1:50.3	shocking to those of us who actually know about the fervor in this space. A bipartisan group of senators,
	...

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