Rohan Grey, assistant professor at Willamette Law, talks about the STABLE Act, which would require stable coin issuers to obtain a banking charter, require approval from the Federal Reserve and require issuers to have FDIC insurance. In this episode, Grey, an advisor to the bill, discusses:

• how the past history of financial innovation and events that have posed systemic risks necessitates the STABLE Act
• how he, not being a staff member of Congress, became involved in the bill 
• how the bill would prevent stablecoin issuers from committing crimes that banks have perpetrated by requiring them to become banks
• why he believes open source smart contracts enforcing rules and public audit-able blockchains are not a fundamentally new way to prevent the type of events that pose systemic risks that the STABLE Act aims to prevent
• why existing regulatory and licensing regimes are insufficient
• how he would answer people from countries like Argentina who have had their currency devalued by their government the STABLE Act, and who might say this bill exposes them to a different type of risk
• how much the rollout of Facebook's Diem, as opposed to existing stablecoins such as Tether, USDC or Dai, was a motivation for this bill
• whether, by focusing narrowly on systemic risk, this bill could squash crypto and fintech innovation that could help the un- and under-banked
• whether he sees any path forward for this bill to be passed

 

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Episode links:

Rohan Grey: https://twitter.com/rohangrey

STABLE Act: https://tlaib.house.gov/media/press-releases/tlaib-garcia-and-lynch-stableact 

 

Introduction of bill: 

https://www.coindesk.com/us-lawmakers-introduce-bill-that-would-require-stablecoin-issuers-to-obtain-bank-charters

 

Implications of the bill for running an Ethereum node:

https://www.coindesk.com/stable-act-ethereum-node-illegal

 

https://www.coincenter.org/the-unintended-consequences-of-the-stable-act/

 

https://www.coindesk.com/stable-act-ethereum-node-illegal

 

Rohan Grey and Jeremy Allaire interviews on The Block Live: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OwxWVgmqyMJQ

 

Unchained interview with acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/

 

Link to the Crypto News Recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-mass-mutuals-btc-buy-is-so-significant/