When you’re a world chief hoping to rework your nation into a world Internet 3 hub, Andreessen Horowitz desires to point out you the way in which.
On Friday, the enterprise capital agency – usually referred to as a16z for brief – launched a coverage agenda geared toward world governments with 10 guiding ideas on how you can “construct a greater web.”
Within the agenda, a16z encourages world leaders to assume proactively about Internet 3 coverage, beginning by establishing a transparent imaginative and prescient, offering clear and honest tax guidelines as they apply to digital property, embracing multi-stakeholder governance and extra.
Internet 3 refers to a doable subsequent era of the web that encompasses decentralized protocols and goals to scale back web customers’ dependency on tech giants like Fb and Amazon.
The coverage agenda will not be a primary for Andreessen Horowitz.
Final October, the VC agency put out an analogous 35-page report geared toward U.S. lawmakers referred to as “Learn how to Win the Future,” in addition to suggestions to the Senate Banking Committee on clarifying the legal guidelines round digital property. A16z’s coverage push is mirrored by comparable efforts undertaken by Coinbase, which launched its Digital Asset Coverage Proposal calling for the creation of a brand new regulator to supervise the crypto trade. In the meantime, cryptocurrency alternate FTX has printed a number of weblog posts on what regulatory coverage might appear like.
The globally-reaching coverage agenda, penned by former U.S. diplomat Tomicah Tillemann – now the worldwide head of coverage for a16z – is the product of what Tillemann described as a “demand pushed effort” to answer an inflow of worldwide leaders reaching out to a16z for assist shaping coverage frameworks for Internet 3.
“We’re seeing a rising variety of governments approaching us saying that they need to be Internet 3 republics,” Tillemann mentioned.
Tillemann, one in all a16z’s companions, informed CoinDesk that the VC agency has spoken with “key leaders on each populated continent,” although he declined to call any nations a16z is working with.
The coverage agenda additionally recommends that world leaders “embrace the position of well-regulated stablecoins,” and supply clear regulatory frameworks for personal stablecoin initiatives.
Central financial institution digital currencies (CBDCs) is likely to be gaining velocity round the world, however Tillemann was adamant that any improvement of CBDCs ought to happen along with “the colourful personal market for stablecoins” and that it could be a “mistake” to focus solely on CBDCs.
“We’d like the dynamism and the innovation that exists in a non-public stablecoin market so as to make sure the optimum outcomes,” Tillemann informed CoinDesk. “There’s a cause why individuals profit from having a selection of various fee mechanisms.”
Tillemann additionally mentioned {that a} world give attention to CBDCs over stablecoins would put the U.S. at a drawback.
“[The U.S. is] behind the curve and different nations, significantly authoritarian nations, are a lot additional alongside in creating CBDC structure,” Tillemann mentioned.
The previous U.S. official additionally took a jab at American lawmakers, saying:
“It’s necessary for U.S. policymakers and regulators to grasp that we’re far behind in a race that lots of them don’t appear to acknowledge is underway,” Tillemann informed CoinDesk. He believes the truth that a16z printed the coverage agenda would possibly serve to emphasise this level.
“We expect [the global policy agenda] is a helpful reminder to policymakers in the USA that different governments are usually not standing nonetheless – actually, they’re transferring at gentle velocity in lots of instances to undertake and embrace these improvements in a method that U.S. policymakers are frankly fighting.”
