A Call for a Light-touch Congressional Approach to Crypto

In 1991, then-Senator Al Gore championed the High Performance Computing Act—an effort that gave rise to the joke “Al Gore invented the internet.”

The bill funded efforts to expand the internet’s building blocks, and jokes aside, it’s that rare piece of legislation that achieved what it intended. Case in point: The bill helped underwrite the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, out of which sprang the modern web browser—an innovation that turned the internet from a geek’s hobby into a vital resource.

Policy-makers should draw from the earliest days of the Internet as they begin to legislate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The foremost lesson: That even when government officials don’t fully understand a technology or how it may change society, they can craft smart policy that fosters growth.