Non-crypto alternative payment systems pose a significant threat to the security of the United States, according to testimony presented Tuesday by the US House Financial Services Committee’s National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy Subcommittee. The alternative payment ecosystem should be viewed as a whole, and crypto can enhance national security, said the speakers.
“By focusing exclusively on cryptocurrencies, we risk missing the forest for the trees,” Scott Duecke of the Wilson Center wrote in written testimony to the US House Financial Services Subcommittee.
Financial services businesses are highly regulated in the United States, but those abroad may be unwilling to comply with US requirements, including Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering, and they may be exempt from the reporting requirements of the US and other Western countries. Dueweke said.
Duecke advocated the establishment of massively funded open source data efforts to counter the emerging Swift network alternatives and other threats being developed by Russia and China. he said:
“The US should follow the global technology leadership of the private sector by adopting APE standards on the international stage. Regardless of which direction the US government takes the digital dollar, […] The world can not wait to participate through international organizations.
While political motives drive projects such as Russia’s financial messaging system, the SWIFT alternative, and that country’s MIR bank card system, poverty is the main reason for the expansion of the alternative payment ecosystem, he said.
Good day to do my duty as a citizen. pic.twitter.com/O0NlMHPR9d
— Scott Dueweke (@Scott_Dueweke) September 20, 2022
Ato Duweke said that more than 700 million people do not have adequate banking services, and the worst of the situation is the risk avoidance, which has worsened the situation by stopping Western banks from providing correspondent services to banks in poor regions. While safety is the government’s motivation for that practice, it’s often the profit motive behind it, Duweke said.
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Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at TRM Labs, told the hearing that stablecoins backed by the dollar could enhance US national security. Redboard because of the respectability and reliability of US fiat money;
“One can imagine a world where entrepreneurs create financial services products using stablecoins backed by the US dollar, when those products have little to do with the United States.