A hearing on digital currency and the blockchain technology has been held by the Energy and Commerce Committee of the US Congress. The members of the House of Representatives listened to reports of 7 witnesses.

The session entitled “Disrupter Series: Digital Currency and Blockchain” brought together Jerry Brito, CEO at Coin Center, Matthew Roszak, Chairman at Chamber of Digital Commerce, Paul Snow, Chief Architect at Factom, Juan Suarez, Counsel at Coinbase and other experts in the field. The IT giant IBM was represented by Jerry Cuomo, Vice President of Blockchain Technologies.

The problems discussed at the session included possible applications of the blockchain technology and their impact on consumers; the regulatory environment for bitcoin; the change of the traditional payment landscape due to the emergence of bitcoin; the consequences of the bitcoin adoption for the consumer information security; and privacy considerations.

Dana Syracuse, Counsel at BuckleySandler LLP, cited the New York BitLicense regulatory framework as a positive example of consumer protection solution.

“Under the BitLicense, there are certain enumerated disclosures that need to be made. Disclosures about volatility, disclosures about the irreversibility of a transaction, they have to be made,” he said.

Matthew Roszak, who is also a co-founder of Bloq, represented the Chamber of Digital Commerce and promoted the innovative potential of the distributed ledger by bringing up the difficult issues of the industry and their potential solutions as well as highlighted how the technology can be beneficial for innovation, jobs and investment.

“Given the amount of financial and intellectual capital being poured into the blockchain ecosystem, this new technological frontier presents a generational opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors,” said Matthew Roszak.

The session was open to the public and streamed online. The full recording of the meeting is currently available on the internet.

Sonya Belova