The US Securities Commission Wants To Regulate Cryptocurrency

JAKARTA - The United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to regulate the economic value of cryptocurrencies. The plan was submitted to the candidate for chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler in front of the US banking senate committee.

"Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies bring new thinking to payment methods and financial inclusion, but the issue of protection for investors we still need to address", said Gensler, quoted by Reuters, Friday, March 5.

Previously, President Joe Biden appointed Gensler to be the candidate for SEC chairman. Gensler also said that cryptocurrencies are "catalysts for change".

Until now, the SEC has no specific policy regarding digital currency. However, the aim of regulating crypto money is to provide transaction protection as well as a legal umbrella for investors.

“It's very important for the SEC to provide guidance and clarity (for cryptocurrencies). Sometimes the clarity will be good, but even if the clarity given is not good, it is still important to give", said Gensler.

Although the plan is well-intentioned, the question arises of how to regulate bitcoin. The reason is, the prima donna of crypto money is decentralized.

This means that bitcoin cannot be controlled by anyone and any authority in the real world. In this case, the central bank also cannot control the value of bitcoin.

This decentralized system is different from bank bookkeeping, where it will only record every transaction in a ledger or ledger managed by cryptocurrency users from various parts of the world. This system allows transactions to be more transparent.

Apart from that, bitcoin also uses a peer-to-peer mechanism. This means that there are no third parties in bitcoin transactions so there is no need to provide additional fees or interest as is the case in the banking system.