Original title: Future of Finance: Coinbases Shirzad on public policy, crypto companies shaking off the FTX stigma, and empowering the unbanked

Interview, written by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune

Compiled by: Frank, Foresight News

Just when cryptocurrency legislation was gaining momentum in the U.S. Congress, FTX’s collapse and SBF’s arrest damaged the reputation of the crypto industry and made many lawmakers reluctant to get involved. Nearly a year later, things are looking up, and Coinbase is leading the charge in Washington, D.C., to defend cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this year, the company raised $215,000 for cryptocurrency advocacy organizations through the public minting of NFT shield and helped found the independent non-profit organization Stand with Crypto Alliance aimed at gaining grassroots awareness of cryptocurrency in the United States. support.

Fortune spoke with Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad to learn more about Coinbase’s work in helping advance crypto legislation and how lawmakers’ views have changed since FTX’s collapse.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: I want to start by asking about your background, career and how you first became interested in crypto?

Faryar Shirzad：I have had a very Washingtonian career, growing up in public policy and government affairs. I practiced law for many years and then served on the staff of the Senate Finance Committee covering international trade. I then went to the Bush-Cheney transition team to manage the transition between the Clinton and Bush administrations, and then held many positions in the administration.

I worked at Goldman Sachs for many years before joining Coinbase, and I had certainly heard of cryptocurrencies like most people. But I didnt start digging into it until I was talking to people like Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong about joining Coinbase. The more I dug into cryptocurrencies, the more interested I became and wanted to get involved in shaping public policy around cryptocurrencies.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: Stand with Crypto Alliance has just been established. Can you tell me more about this organization and the philosophy behind it?

Faryar Shirzad：We did some research and found that approximately 50 million Americans have purchased cryptocurrency at some point, which is a large percentage of the U.S. population. More Americans buy cryptocurrency than are unionized, own electric cars, and do many other things people care about more.

What we know from conversations with policymakers in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere is that few realize how widespread cryptocurrencies are in communities across the country, a broad group with a very diverse demographic — and perhaps it’s skewed towards Young people, maybe Democrats, Republicans, urban people, rural people.

We ultimately realized that unless these people had the opportunity to participate in the political debate surrounding the future of cryptocurrency in the United States, we would have a hard time convincing policymakers who couldn’t understand the technology.

So we helped create this organization, Stand with Crypto. This is essentially about building a grassroots community of crypto enthusiasts who want to become advocates and help policymakers understand that making the right decisions when it comes to cryptocurrency regulation is critical. The response has been beyond my imagination and we already have about 100,000 registered users.

In short, Stand with Crypto Alliance is an independent organization that we helped launch and fund. It has already started operations, including organizing activities and holding grassroots gatherings. It’s still early days, but it will be very exciting to show how cryptocurrencies can become an integral part of American society, and policymakers need to be aware of this.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: Is there anything else you can tell me about Stand with Crypto NFT minting?

Faryar Shirzad：Initially, they were assigned to a number of organizations advancing cryptocurrency policy. Since we first started Mint, we created the Stand with Crypto Alliance and now funds flow directly to the Stand with Crypto Alliance, an independent entity.

In terms of corporate contributions, we obviously fund the organization, but the idea is that the Stand with Crypto Alliance will, through various means, start generating its own revenue from its members, which will help pay for a lot of the grassroots political activities .

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: What is Coinbases typical approach when working with lawmakers in Washington?

Faryar Shirzad：Coinbases primary approach to working with lawmakers in Washington, D.C. is through education, meeting with policymakers, which for most lawmakers means starting almost from scratch. Ive worked in public policy, and Ive never come across a situation where this happens regularly in any of the fields Ive worked in:

You walk into a room and theres a legislator in there, and then inevitably theres someone else, like a staff member, a family member of the legislator, or whoever, who knows a lot about cryptocurrency and talks about it, so the conversation with the legislator The conversation usually starts with their keen interest in learning more.

Coinbase, others in the industry, and grassroots citizens all have a responsibility to help policymakers understand, What is cryptocurrency? What does it matter? Why do we need to get public policy right? I think once we do that Talk and things will inevitably move in a better direction.

We are fortunate that this is not a partisan issue. There are policymakers who are very hostile to cryptocurrencies—Elizabeth Warren is probably the top one, as is Gary Gensler of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

But overall, this is not a partisan issue, Democrats are open to it, Republicans are as well, but as a community and as an industry, we have to accept and take responsibility for education.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: Are there any unique difficulties in defending cryptocurrencies in Washington, D.C.?

Faryar Shirzad：I wouldnt call it difficult, one feature that I love but actually takes a lot of time to do is that the crypto industry is a community. When I talked to Brian Armstrong about joining Coinbase, I was lucky enough to quickly understand and embrace his vision.

But more importantly than any one crypto company, millions of Americans have embraced cryptocurrency and use it in their daily lives. I know Brian Armstrong and I definitely feel a responsibility to this community.

I had never been on X (Twitter) before joining Coinbase, but I now use it and am quite active, not because I always feel like I want to be public, but because all of us in crypto have to maintain a dialogue with the community, This is a unique thing about cryptocurrencies, but it’s also a great feature.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: How has communication with policymakers changed compared to before the FTX collapse?

Faryar Shirzad：Yes, I would say, broadly speaking, policymakers attitudes have gone through three stages. Before FTX went under, they were curious about cryptocurrencies and generally open and willing to learn more, but we all have a lot to do to educate policymakers.

After the collapse of FTX, policymakers, especially Democrats, were very worried about the cryptocurrency industry because they were worried about the criminal behavior of people like SBF. As an industry, we must address this issue to show and explain that there are many legitimate, compliant, regulated, transparent, audited, publicly traded cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase in the United States.

I think over the past few months, weve come out of that period with SBF and FTX, and now people are open to crypto again and want to roll up their sleeves and figure out how to do the right thing, and I think the crypto industry Showing yourself better.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: So has the crypto industry, and Coinbase to some extent, erased that stigma?

Faryar Shirzad：I think so. Thats ironic, right? It’s frustrating because FTX is an unregulated offshore entity, and it’s the kind of offshore unregulated players that we wanted regulation to deal with, but instead it’s being used to punish the regulated domestic U.S. industry. participants.

But I think people are starting to get over that now, and I often say to policymakers: If youre pro-cryptocurrency, you should support federal regulation of centralized players; if youre anti-cryptocurrency, you should also be Support federal regulation of centralized actors”, both paths should lead you to the same conclusion.

I can see this logic starting to take hold, and while the Biden administration is divided on the issue, they are already on official record to express support for stablecoin legislation and crypto commodities legislation to give crypto to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commodity spot market supervision authority. So they are nominally in the right place — just making sure cryptocurrencies have a place on the priority list.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: Are you optimistic that the upcoming encryption bill or similar legislation will be passed?

Faryar Shirzad：There is no doubt that encryption legislation will pass, it is only a matter of time. For someone like me who has been through the legislation year after year, you understand that there are many things you can control and there are many things you cannot control. When I hear people say, Oh, legislation is hard, its not going to happen, I always smile a little because thats the basic story.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: What should lawmakers consider first?

Faryar Shirzad：The first thing lawmakers should consider is that 83% of countries in the G20 have enacted or are in the process of enacting cryptocurrency legislation. They should also remember that incorporating crypto-asset innovation into their financial systems and national technology strategies is already part of the national strategies of many major economies, such as the EU, the UK, and perhaps most importantly, China.

We lose about 2% of our open source coding and developer talent to other markets every year. I think many policymakers are unaware of the geopolitical context in which the global competition for cryptocurrencies is taking place. I worry that we will cede our undisputed leadership to other countries, including China, as we did with 5G or semiconductors.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: What role do cryptocurrencies play in national security?

Faryar Shirzad：National security involves many aspects. That includes military strength, of course, but it also largely includes economic strength and leadership in technological innovation.

Cryptocurrency is one of the key components in the modernization of the financial system and is driving the modernization of the global financial system as we speak. Cryptocurrency is the next iteration of the Internet, bringing not only the ability to transmit information, but also the ability to transmit value. So the two important pillars of our national security—economic and financial strength, and technological innovation strength—are the real issues. Cryptocurrency use cases and applications are being developed, but they should be developed in the United States.

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez: What do you think the future of finance is?

Faryar Shirzad：I think the future of finance is similar to the future of society, it will be increasingly online and eventually will be completely on the chain.

The role of intermediaries in society has diminished and we are operating in a more autonomous and independent manner, which is where finance is headed. Large intermediaries will continue to exist in some aspects of finance, but in many other aspects the fact that we can move assets as easily as texting, at lower cost, with greater resilience and less risk, will inevitably be incorporated into finance system.

It will be a very different architecture and regulation will have to adapt to it, and we will end up with a financial system that is cheaper, simpler and easier to use. It will be on-chain, it will be more democratized, and people will be able to organize themselves in a more efficient way. Its going to allow tens of millions of Americans who cant even open a bank account to be able to participate in our economy, and I think thats really important.

For billions of people outside the United States who cant even imagine being able to have the things that we Americans take for granted, this would be a major step toward giving people the power to control their finances and be able to plan for their economic future.