OCC’s Michael Hsu on crypto policy: ‘We want to get it right’

Barefoot Innovation Podcast

My guest today is Michael Hsu, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, and we are talking all things– and only things – crypto.

Our conversation covers a lot of other ground: the lack of interoperability among today’s stablecoins; whether and how stablecoin issuers should have bank charters; problems with blockchain technologies; the evolution of Central Bank Digital Currencies; the role of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency; whether US regulation could undermine America’s international competitiveness; the unique challenges posed by regulating DAOs (since they are basically just a set of rules); potential lessons from the birth of the internet; and the blockchain “trilemma” cited by Vitalik Buterin forcing prioritized choices between decentralization, security and scalability. He also ponders the human factor, as people feel a sense of “community” in decentralized finance, while also embracing a world that promises to monetize, and transact around, nearly every aspect of their lives.