U.S.
lawmakers
introduced
a
bill
on
Wednesday
barring
federal
government
officials
from
doing
business
with
China-based
blockchain
firms,
marking
Washington’s
latest
show
of
suspicion
toward
Chinese
ties
in
the
cryptocurrency
industry,
according
to
a
statement
from
the
sponsors.
The
bill
also
explicitly
blocks
U.S.
government
officials
from
transacting
with
iFinex,
the
parent
company
of
Tether,
the
issuer
of
the
world’s
largest
stablecoin,
USDT.
The
Creating
Legal
Accountability
for
Rogue
Innovators
and
Technology
(CLARITY)
Act,
co-led
by
U.S.
Representatives
Zach
Nunn
(R-Iowa)
and
Abigail
Spanberger
(D-Va.),
would
outlaw
government
officials
from
transacting
with
Chinese
crypto
companies,
in
addition
to
cutting
off
government
employees’
use
of
China-based
blockchains,
or
the
networks
that
undergird
crypto
trading
platforms.
Neither
of
the
bill’s
authors
is
among
U.S.
House
of
Representatives
leadership
or
holds
prominent
positions
on
committees.
Other,
more
senior
lawmakers
are
already
pressing
a
number
of
crypto
bills,
some
of
which
also
deal
with
security
issues.
A
few
of
the
efforts
have
the
approval
of
full
House
committees
and
are
further
along
in
the
process,
so
it’s
unlikely
a
new
measure
will
jump
in
front
of
them
in
line.
The
aim
of
this
latest
legislation
is
to
ensure
the
nation’s
“foreign
adversaries
…
do
not
have
a
backdoor
to
access
critical
national
security
intelligence
and
Americans’
private
information,”
the
lawmakers
said
in
a
statement.
“Within
the
next
decade,
every
American
will
have
sensitive,
private
data
stored
using
blockchain
technology,
so
China’s
heavy
investment
in
this
infrastructure
poses
a
colossal
national
security
and
data
privacy
problem,”
Nunn,
a
freshman
member
who
joined
the
House
this
year,
said
on
Wednesday.
The
bill
also
bans
officials
from
transacting
with
The
Spartan
Network,
The
Conflux
Network
and
Red
Date
Technology
Co.,
the
architect
behind
China’s
national
blockchain
project
and
its
central
bank
digital
currency
(CBDC),
or
digital
yuan.
The
legislation
also
directs
the
U.S.
Secretary
of
the
Treasury,
Secretary
of
State
and
the
Director
of
National
Intelligence
to
develop
a
plan
to
“prevent
the
risks
posed
by
China’s
and
other
foreign
adversaries’
development
of
blockchain
technologies.”
The
proposed
restrictions
come
after
lawmakers
this
summer
instituted
a
security-driven
ban
on
government
employees’
use
of
TikTok,
a
popular
social
media
app
with
Chinese
roots.
The
push
came
after
a
former
employee
of
TikTok
parent
company
ByteDance
alleged
in
court
filings
earlier
this
year
that
the
Chinese
Communist
Party
utilized
a
secret
“backdoor”
in
its
popular
social
media
platform
to
monitor
Hong
Kong-based
activists’
locations
and
messages
in
2018.