Proposed open letter to the President of the United States: OPEN for Community Comment

Jarrod,

In time for the 2020 election, either President Trump can own being the one who had the vision and the leadership to finally fix key issues with capital markets, the internet, and carbon emissions all with a single new initiative, or there will be a Democratic contender that aligns with the reality of a bright digital future for America and history will tell another story…

Wall Street will applaud loudly for federal standards that finally encourage the trading of digital bonds, derivatives, commodities, and stocks!

US citizens will breathe a sigh of relief that finally, we’ve fixed the internet! That we will no longer have to spend more time logging in and proving we are not a robot, than shopping, banking or communicating…that we will no longer have to be remembering and constantly being asked to change dozens of complex personal passwords, only to hear every week on the news that none of that actually works to protect us from hackers and thieves.

Those concerned with climate change (the number one concern of those 18-36), with be delighted that President Trump has put solution is in place that will dramatically reduce the carbon emissions from more than 1,000,000 trucks a day.

This is not a pipe dream. There are real, practical, effective solutions that exist right now, that other countries are already beginning to implement effectively. Capital Markets, Internet Security and Climate Change all can dramatically helped with blockchain technology - all that is missing is leadership and appropriate federal standards.  

Please support our efforts on behalf of the American people and freedom-loving citizens around the world by sharing the following letter with the President.  

Open Letter to the President 

History will ultimately judge us by what we do, not by what we Tweet. 

Mr. President, you have an opportunity to take action on behalf of the American people and “Keep America Great!” with cutting edge technology.  

American innovators have led the way globally for hundreds of years and you are uniquely positioned to take advantage of what they have built.  

At a time when two-factor authentication has been cracked by Chinese hackers and WWIII is being fought with code, we need definitive action on your part, Mr. President, to enable the transition to the technology that will improve our security and facilitate the formation of new markets.  

To date, your only executive actions in relation to blockchain have been to ban people in the US from engaging with Venezuela’s petro token in any way and to offer a budget that targets criminal activity related to cryptocurrencies.  

Rather than just attempting to protect the American petrodollar through bans and enforcement, why don’t we build something better together?  

The Blockchain Chamber of Commerce has the social mandate to raise awareness, facilitate adoption and inspire advocacy of blockchain technology on behalf of commerce, consumers and professionals building careers in distributed ledger technology (DLT).  In fulfilling our mission, we haven’t been busy tweeting, we have been busy working with innovators building solutions and connecting the Blockchain ECOsystem globally.  

And now, on behalf of “we the people,” we need you…  To do your job. 

So that Americans and citizens of freedom loving countries everywhere can do theirs in greater safety, prosperity and autonomy, we need executive action.  

As things currently stand, regulatory uncertainty has sent Americans to other jurisdictions to do business - taking their technology with them.  This needs to stop.  Especially considering the power of some of the most recent innovations...

At least 20 blockchain-related bills are currently before Congress.  But there is not a clear executive mandate and departments are not working toward aligned goals.  We need a peer assembly with the oversight of a bipartisan committee to set a clear mandate for the emerging State operated Digital Ecosystems within a Federal Digital Ecosphere.  

Every citizen of this great nation can and should be represented as a digital member verifiable with DLT and protected by a Federally-backed Digital Bill of Rights.  These rights can include the right to own and selectively disseminate personal data, the right to security and privacy in relation to that data, the right to trade digital assets, the right to hold decentralized cryptocurrencies, the right not to be forced to allow access to personal data except under due process, the right to have digital wrongs addressed in a timely manner and with a public trial by a jury of peers, the right not to be stripped of digital identity or personal data due to ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.

This is vital and should be taken with the seriousness with which the Founding Fathers of the United States drafted the Constitution and the original Bill of Rights.  Maybe this time there will be some Founding Mothers as well!   

I would like to offer three areas in which your executive action, Mr. President, could put America and freedom-loving individuals around the world on a more clearly-defined path.

1.             Raise Awareness of International Standards-Based Supply Chain Marketplace
 

Digital management of supply and demand for freight matching can be facilitated with current blockchain technology and US-based patented processes to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and keep drivers and shippers accountable to follow the current rules.  Country-specific data lakes can give a true picture of commerce by removing the phantom driver and load problem that exists in the currently fragmented digital freight-matching ecosystem. Data sharing can be permissioned to the appropriate regulatory agencies to ensure compliance with jurisdiction-specific regulations.

If America wants to step up and lead in something good for the environment, Mr. President, now is the time to act. 

2.              Facilitate the Adoption of Blockchain Enabled Capital Markets  

Digital assets are here to stay.  The trading of digital bonds, derivatives, commodities, stocks, etc. will happen either in unregulated or appropriate regulated marketplaces globally.  This new capital markets formation for cryptographically-secured and asset-or-debt-backed tokens should not be left to chance.  Fostering a free market of currencies will be a bold step in the right direction! Devolving power to the “glocal” community is something that needs to be done in a thoughtful way.  If we do not choose the path with humanity’s best interests in mind, our paths, by default, will lead to mutual destruction. 

If the US wants to keep a seat at the table of global value transfer, Mr. President, now is the time to act.  

3.              Inspire International Standards for Digital Identity and the Foundation of the Blockchain-Based Web

Personal and corporate accountability brought about by immutability and proof of origin - through a brand new US-patented technology that is quantum-proof and allows for digital identity to be established and permissioned both for public and private purposes - this is our opportunity today.  How could this be used?  For starters, blockchain-backed voting would remove the election questions of the past and make every vote count - immutably recorded for posterity!  Identity could be provisioned on a local, state, and national level and provide an unprecedented level of security.  

If you want to end hacking and municipalities held hostage by ransomware, if deep fakes are to be stopped, if the security of our nation’s data is paramount and every citizen’s voice is to be heard, Mr. President, the time to act is NOW! 

“Democracy dies in the dark” as Judge Damon J. Keith so eloquently penned pre-Watergate.  Blockchain helps bring the light and will immutably shine it for generations to come.  You, as President of these United States and sometimes referred to as “Leader of the Free World”, are uniquely positioned to go down in history as the man who flipped the switch and fostered freedom in the digital world.   

Expectantly, 

Linda Goetze

An educator and connector, Linda Goetze, M.Ed., has been engaged with blockchain technology since 2012. She is President and CEO of the Blockchain Chamber of Commerce and has served on the Blockchain Association (501c3) Board of Directors. Ideator of the BlockchainECOsystem.io platform, Linda has worked closely with enterprise-level blockchain leaders like Eric Piscini (Deloitte/IBM) and James Wallis (IBM) to bring an organic organizational infrastructure to the blockchain community.  Current Members of the Chamber include prominent patent holders including Michael Darden, Sr., Charlie Northrop, and John Greaves. Linda is passionate about cutting edge technologies, her family and her favorite charity, BloomintheDark.org.