Crypto legislation is back in the news again. With the recent passing of the United States’ hotly debated GENIUS Act creating a regulatory framework for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to a traditional fiat currency, it looks as if more parts of the world are adopting more legislation that should make it easier to work with cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and Web3.
Here are some of the ways more pro-blockchain regulations could change different sectors.
Technology
One of the more obvious candidates as a benefactor from pro-cryptocurrency legislation is the technology sector.
Crypto is, of course, based on blockchain technology, so it could well be that companies associated with that particular form of tech could be well-placed to cash in, both figuratively and literally. But that isn’t the only link between the world of technology and crypto liberalization.
For instance, a lot of blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum, play host to decentralized applications (dApps). Previously, these bits of technology operated in something of a grey area, with it unclear as to how legal they were, or whether or not they would become illegal.
One might well imagine that more crypto-friendly legal regimes could not only benefit the DApps that are already out there, but could also encourage other developers to try their hand at making their own decentralized applications.
What would be interesting would be if established tech companies – the sort of businesses that had never operated in the world of the blockchain before – started to get involved in the DApp making process, which would be more likely under a lighter regulatory touch.
Gambling
Gambling has been a long-term crypto-friendly sector. If you think about it, it isn’t hard to see why. Although cryptocurrency has found some real-world utility, its overall take up is still not where a lot of crypto evangelists would like it to be.
So, if you do have some crypto and you want to do something with it other than sell it or hold it, then visiting crypto casino sites is an option that is very much open to you. Indeed, gambling with crypto comes with a lot of benefits, including bigger bonuses and more variants of popular games.
There are several other advantages of crypto casinos. They are faster deposit and withdrawal times, a level of privacy not possible with traditional, fiat-based, online casinos, and, with crypto available in most countries, an international flavor that allows for, for want of a better phrase, borderless gambling. And with laws around crypto changing, this could be a vital moment for crypto gambling.
It could well be that certain countries and jurisdictions liberalise their regulatory regimes and end up becoming to the brave new world of crypto betting what the likes of Malta and Gibraltar were to online betting in the 2000s.
Logistics and supply chains
If you operate in the world of supply, logistics, and distribution, you need trust, speed, and transparency. Blockchain evangelists advocate for their favored tech as the solution to those problems, and if the world does move towards more crypto-friendly legislation, we might be able to see if that theory is true. Certainly, there are some pretty decent arguments in favor of combining the block and supply chains.
For example, the blockchain allows for an unchangeable record of where a particular item might be at any time, from the manufacturer’s factory to the retailer’s store.
Not only does this allow for any disputes to be settled more quickly and easily, but it also means that audit trails can be tamper-proof and customers can find out where, exactly, their goods came from and just how environmentally-friendly they are.
Crypto also touts itself as making cross-border payments easier, removing the need for currency exchange fees, and, in theory, should make it quicker for both smaller businesses and companies in smaller markets to get paid.
What might also be worth keeping an eye on is seeing which countries and regions start to move faster with pro-crypto regulation.
We talked earlier about how some places could become the modern-day equivalents of Malta and Gibraltar by supporting crypto gambling.
The same could happen with crypto commerce. Ports and entry points that make it easier to use crypto could gain an advantage and become significant new trade centers.
What is even more intriguing is that things could be up in the air, with emerging markets having an opportunity to become new boom towns and countries. If this does happen, then crypto will have finally done something to change the world.
Retail and commerce
Cryptocurrency is, as its name suggests, a form of money. And what is money ultimately for, if not for buying things? Anyway, retail and commerce are all about making purchases and deals, and a more crypto-friendly legislative environment could trigger some big changes.
For instance, traditional payment processors often charge a relatively high fee for card transactions. At least in theory, crypto payments could avoid this, although there is still the matter of crypto transaction fees (gas).
If crypto payments are regulated, then sellers could, again in theory, avoid the payment processor middlemen and either pass their savings onto their customers or make more of a profit. They could even split the saved money and do both.
And with crypto being, in principle if not always in practice, a borderless payment method, it could spell good news for companies that otherwise might get outshone by larger companies and bring much-needed money to poorer regions. This will, however, depend on what pro-crypto legislation comes into play and where it does so.
Artificial intelligence
There is a school of thought that suggests that the same venture capitalists and media cheerleaders who were all about Web3, crypto, and the blockchain in 2021 are the driving forces behind the current wave of AI-related enthusiasm.
Anyway, it still remains that AI and the blockchain are two of the larger technological developments of the 21st century so far, and more crypto-friendly regulations could help forge the alliance between the two.
While they are clearly two very different things, there are times when the two sectors could complement each other.
For example, AI is all about data, but blockchain technology could help protect people’s rights to decide where, when, and how their personal data is used.
AI also has a problem with so-called hallucinations or mistakes, but the blockchain can serve as a kind of fact-checker, and can even point out how the “hallucinations” happened.
The founders of AI models could make use of the blockchain to secure their usage rights via smart contracts, computer programs that automatically execute when certain conditions are met.
But it’s not all about the blockchain helping AI. Artificial intelligence can, in some cases, help the crypto community.
For instance, AI can help find out when a crypto transaction is fraudulent, it can make smart contracts better by finding errors in the code, and it can even help blockchains move quickly and smoothly when the networks get busy.
So there you have it. Both cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology could change things and, if more blockchain-enabling legislation is passed across the world, then this could have major ramifications. As always with this sort of thing, we shall have to wait and see.
