Group of Tech Pros, Academics Urges Washington to Turn its Back on Crypto Lobbyists

cryptonews.com:

A collective comprising 26 IT experts and professionals has slammed crypto, accusing blockchain and crypto of “not being decentralized” – and has petitioned United States politicians to crack down on the sector and its lobbyists.

The group includes the Harvard University lecturer Bruce Schneier, the former Microsoft engineer Miguel de Icaza and a principal engineer at Google Cloud named Kelsey Hightower, the Financial Times reported, while the software developer and outspoken crypto critic Stephen Diehl took to Twitter to justify the campaign, writing:

“Crypto fraud is spiraling out of control. So-called Web3 is not going great. Regulators are paralyzed and people are getting hurt left and right. It’s on us as citizens and responsible engineers to help fix the problem we created by our inaction.”

The group appears to have taken exception to the work of Washington-based “crypto advocates who want to resist attempts” to regulate what the FT called a “frothy sector.”

The letter has been addressed to the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders Charles Schumer and Mitch McConnell and “leading senators” such as Republican Patrick Toomey and Democrat Ron Wyden. The latter two are believed to be pro-crypto in their stance on a range of matters.

The Financial Times quoted the IT professionals as writing in the letter:

“We urge you to resist pressure from digital asset industry financiers, lobbyists, and boosters to create a regulatory safe haven for these risky, flawed, and unproven digital financial instruments.”

They added:

“Cryptoassets have been the vehicle for unsound and highly volatile speculative investment schemes that are being actively promoted to retail investors who may be unable to understand their nature and risk.”

The media