Pioneering Advocacy for Equitable Digital Rights and Ownership Policy
People deserve full ownership of their blockchain data, their privacy, and their digital assets, allowing seamless interaction with businesses and service providers online. Unfortunately, the current regulatory environment creates unnecessary barriers.
Ownership and privacy rights in the physical world don’t transfer to the digital world. Unlike physical art, ID cards, concert tickets, or dollar bills that can be tangibly owned and protected, their digital equivalents are stored on centralized servers owned and operated by large tech companies, who control personal data, content, identity information, and online access rights.
Blockchain technology offers a solution. From verified ownership of content, to privacy-preserving identity credentials, to self-hosted wallets, blockchain technologies give the ability to access, own, and control data back to users. However, regulations need to be updated so that these technologies can be utilized to their fullest extent.
The Policy Issues
NFTs
The classification of NFTs as securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission poses a significant challenge to these consumer products that are not intended to function as investment vehicles. This misclassification is stifling innovation and limits the utility and accessibility of NFTs for everyday users.
We are working to protect consumer-use NFTs from federal securities laws by advocating for legislative in Congress and regulatory clarity from the SEC. Our goal is to ensure that NFTs—from music and art, to video game items, to tickets and access passes, and beyond—are not burdened by unnecessary and inappropriate financial regulations.
- Response to SEC Dissent in NFT Enforcement Action | March 2024
- TDC Explainer: What are NFTs? | May 2023
Wallets
The internet today runs on a model where personal data is collected, sold, and used without much user control or awareness. Instead, users should be able to decide who they share data with, under what circumstances, and even if data sharing is necessary.
Self-hosted wallets are key to this digital sovereignty, but recent lawsuits are jeopardizing whether the developers of open-source wallet software must follow strict financial compliance regulations. To protect both developers and internet users, legislation and legal aid are needed to defend privacy, innovation, and individual control over digital assets.
- NFT Report: Education and Emerging Practices | April 2024
- Pixels to Policy: The NFT Impact Report | July 2023
Digital ID
In an age where banking, healthcare, education, entertainment, and government services are moving fully digital, proving your identity online becomes critically important. As daily life moves online, the chances of identity theft, tracking, fraud, and cybersecurity risks increase.
While there are ways to prove identity without any of these risks with privacy-preserving digital ID credentials, mainstream adoption remains limited due to regulatory constraints. New legislation and funding are needed to allow businesses and service providers to accept these secure credentials in place of outdated physical ID cards.
Gaming and the Metaverse
The Metaverse is the final digital frontier, but not all Metaverse platforms are treated equally. Blockchain-based platforms are powerful places of community, entertainment, commerce, and culture, but because the tokens powering them are considered securities by the SEC, investors and builders are hesitant to venture further into these digital worlds.
Player characters, gaming tokens, and even in-game weapons and armor are under fire from the SEC by nature of being secured by blockchains. To fully realize the economic and cultural potential of these digital worlds, Congress must clarify that fungible and non-fungible tokens are not financial instruments solely because they use blockchain technology.
Our Impact
Our work is focused on creating a thriving NFT ecosystem that benefits artists, consumers, and the economy.
Policy Exploration and Stakeholder Engagement
In collaboration with congressional and industry stakeholders, we’re leading the policy conversation in the U.S. to exempt certain NFTs from federal securities laws.
Advocating for Artists and Brands
Assembled a team to submit an amicus brief in the Hermés v. Rothschild case to advocate for artists’ and brands’ entry into the metaverse. Leading in defining NFTs as consumer products for regulatory clarity in support of artists and platforms.
Creating Solutions
TDC successfully hosted a pivotal public-private sector roundtable with the U.S. Treasury and NFT industry leaders, addressing illicit finance risks of NFTs. This initiative underscores the Chamber’s commitment to proactive industry involvement in mitigating financial risks and fostering a safer digital asset ecosystem.
Relevant NFT News
