Summary of the Whitehouse Fact Sheet on Digital Assets [serious]

The other 2 threads on this were filled with jokes and useless comments from people who did not read the document. Here's an actual summary that highlights the most important parts.

Back in March 2022, Biden announced an Executive Order to study the risks and benefits of "Digital Assets", i.e. cryptocurrencies. Here are the results from 9 of the reports that have been returned so far.

Findings

• Consumer banking is insufficient
• 7M Americans have no bank account, and 24M rely on costly financial services.
• Cross-border payments are slow and costly
• 16% of US adults have purchased cryptocurrencies
• Non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations remains widespread. A quarter of ICOs had disclosure or transparency problems, false promises of guaranteed returns, or plagiarized documents.
• Outright fraud, scams and theft are rampant and on the rise, with a 600% increase from 2020 to 2021.
• Cryptocurrencies can be highly volatile, and often impose large risks on consumers and investors. Sellers commonly misled consumers about features and expected returns.
• Terra UST caused a loss of $600B in consumer assets

Plans of action

• Encourage regulators like the CFTC, SEC, and CFPB to pursue investigations into unlawful practices. Encourages them to get along and collaborate.
• Encourage regulators to issue guidance and rules to address current and emerging risks
• Encourage FLEC (Financial Literacy Education Commission) to educate consumers in understanding risks
• Get everyone banked. 2023 launch of FedNow, an instantaneous 24/7 interbank clearing system, working alongside the existing Clearinghouse Real-Time Payments (RTP) system. (Similar to the UK's Faster Payments Service, which already sends 98% of paychecks in the UK. For the record, systems like Zelle already use RTP for settlement, which is why they can offer settlement within seconds.)

Further research

• Explore instant cross-border payment systems and work towards improving efficiency of them
• Investigate technical and behavioral economics of digital assets
• OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy) and NSF (National Science Foundation) to research next-gen cryptography, transaction programmability, and cybersecurity
• FSOC (Financial Stability Oversight Council) will publish additional report discussing cryptocurrency risks and regulatory gaps in October
• Treasury and NSF to identify and mitigate cyber vulnerabilities and market risks. Both to provide industry with guidelines.
• Department of Energy and EPA to track environmental impact and harms
• Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, USAID, State Department will continue doing their normal roles related to digital assets, as well as continue research into digital assets.
• US agencies will promote discussion and guidelines in international forums
• Continue to pursue Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism with an emphasis on ransomware, drug trafficking, and funding of terrorist groups (e.g. DPRK's Lazarus Group).
• Research if a US CBDC is needed. No actions have been planned concerning CBDCs.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/16/fact-sheet-white-house-releases-first-ever-comprehensive-framework-for-responsible-development-of-digital-assets/