LUMMIS: We want the innovators to innovate. We want to create a space where the United States is the leader in opportunity for the creation and use of digital assets.
Another institutional hit for bitcoin–which probably had the most sustained effect–was the SEC’s refusal to approve a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). This would be a path for more mainstream people in finance to dabble with blockchain; it would allow investors to dip their toes in bitcoin without owning the actual asset. Not only that, but it would make bitcoin available on the most prominent financial markets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), however, has yet to allow such a fund to exist–mostly because it is unable to monitor crypto-transactions in order to avoid market manipulation.

FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER GOES PUBLIC: “The former Facebook Inc. employee who gathered documents that formed the foundation of The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series said she acted to help prompt change at the social-media giant, not to stir anger toward it,” the Journal’s Jeff Horwitz wrote in a profile of Frances Haugen, a former product manager hired to help protect against election interference on the platform. She “said she had grown frustrated by what she saw as the company’s lack of openness about its platforms’ potential for harm and unwillingness to address its flaws. She is scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday. She has also sought federal whistleblower protection with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Miners’ work periodically creates new copies of the blockchain, adding recent, previously unverified transactions that aren’t included in any previous blockchain copy — effectively completing those transactions.