Comment Text:
I strongly oppose the CFTC pursuing any initiative to support cryptocurrency or related digital assets. After more than a decade of experimentation, cryptocurrency has not demonstrated meaningful value to the public or to our financial system. Its predominant uses continue to be: (1) speculative gambling that harms retail investors who do not fully understand the risks, (2) fraudulent schemes and scams that siphon wealth from the public, and (3) criminal enterprises, which have increasingly abandoned cryptocurrency recently now that they have realized transactions are highly traceable.
From a technology perspective, I have spent my career working as a technologist and cloud infrastructure architect. Based on this experience, I can say with confidence that blockchain technology does not provide unique benefits that cannot be achieved more efficiently, more securely, and more reliably with established technologies such as relational databases. If blockchain truly had superior capabilities, we would have seen widespread, productive adoption by now. Instead, even after over ten years, there are no compelling, real-world use cases beyond speculation.
Nearly all attempts by major institutions to integrate cryptocurrency have failed. Over 99% of U.S. vendors do not accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Those that experimented with it have rolled back their efforts because there is no sustainable demand or market.
For these reasons, I believe that government action to encourage or expand cryptocurrency markets does not serve the public interest. It risks legitimizing a technology whose most common use is fraud and speculation, while diverting regulatory attention and resources away from more pressing issues in our financial system.
I urge the Commission to reject initiatives that normalize or expand cryptocurrency markets and instead focus on protecting investors, consumers, and the integrity of U.S. markets.
