A new bipartisan bill introduced by US lawmakers on Wednesday aims to completely outlaw government usage of any Chinese-linked blockchain tech — and even cryptocurrency. Besides a blanket-ban, the bill also calls for a pointed ban of any government dealings with iFinex — the parent company of Tether, the world's largest stablecoin cryptocurrency (by market cap).
The proposal, named The Creating Legal Accountability for Rogue Innovators and Technology (CLARITY) Act, is co-led by a bipartisan duo of U.S. Reps. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Abigail Spanberger, D-N.J. There are already a number of crypto-related bills on the floor, some of which also include security concerns around China-based blockchain tech. In a statement provided to Coindesk, the lawmakers clarified that the CLARITY Act aims to ensure that foreign adversaries don't have any sort of backdoor access that could be used to access critical national security intelligence and American's private information.
Other targets of the bill include The Spartan Network, The Conflux Network, and Red Date Technology Co., the latter of which is the official architect behind China's national blockchain project and central bank digital currency (CBDC) development for the digital yuan.
Red Date specifically responded to the bill, clarifying that its blockchain tech (namely the BSN Spartan Network) is arranged towards traditional IT, not crypto (of course, there's also the problem that the world of IT is just as vulnerable to information-stealing back doors). The company also invited U.S. officials to look over their open-source code and, well... make their own conclusions.
The bill further proposes that the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State, and the Director of National Intelligence develop a synchronized plan toward "preventing the risks posed by China's and other foreign adversaries' development of blockchain technologies."
