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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

CFTC Commissioner Urges Regulators to "Do No Harm" as Blockchain Technology Develops

CFTC Digital Assets Fintech Blockchain Distributed Ledger

Fintech

On March 29, CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo delivered remarks before the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation 2016 Blockchain Symposium. According to Giancarlo, blockchain technology — also known as distributed ledger technology — has the ability to “revolutionize the world of finance” by potentially linking networks of legal recordkeeping in a similar fashion to how the “Internet connects data and information.” Giancarlo spent much of his remarks heralding the technology’s potential, opining that blockchain technology may (i) “be able to provide regulators with visibility into the trading portfolios of swaps counterparties that they lacked during the financial crisis and that Dodd-Frank mandated”; (ii) “make possible new ‘smart’ securities and derivatives that can value themselves in real time”; and (iii) “help market participants manage the enormous operational, transactional and capital complexity brought about by the legion of disparate mandates, regulations and capital requirements promulgated globally in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.” In light of the potential benefits of blockchain technology, the speed at which it is developing, and the vast interest it has garnered within the financial industry, Giancarlo advocated that regulators take a uniformed, encouraging, and principle-based approach toward their regulation of the industry, likening it to the “do no harm” framework implemented during the comparatively relaxed regulatory framework at the onset of the Internet. This approach will foster innovation, according to Giancarlo : “[o]nce again, the private sector must lead and regulators must avoid impeding innovation and investment and provide a predictable, consistent and straightforward legal environment. Protracted regulatory uncertainty or an uncoordinated regulatory approach must be avoided, as should rigid application of existing rules designed for a bygone technological era.”