Coinbase has been focused on educating the public and lawmakers to prevent misleading narratives about crypto’s links to illicit finance from resulting in “bad laws,” according to the crypto exchange’s security boss.
”Educated lawmakers make much better decisions.” Coinbase chief security officer Phillip Martin told Cointelegraph at the Ripple Swell conference. “Lack of education leads to bad laws and the stifling of innovation.”
Martin said Coinbase has also helped United States lawmakers learn about the consumer protection, safety and security measures being implemented in crypto to combat illicit activities.
“We’re always very, very happy to help educate because, in my opinion, that’s really the silver bullet for a lot of this,” Martin said.
Coinbase is also determined to educate new people coming into the space, informing them of what the risks are and how they may be different from what they’ve previously been exposed to, he added.
“A lot of people base their opinion of crypto on the headlines in traditional, like, large media, and that’s unfortunate when we see headlines that aren’t necessarily fully reflective of the facts,” Martin said.
Martin stressed that the idea that crypto is the “king of illicit finance” is a misleading narrative that needs to be corrected.
The security chief pointed to an Oct. 1 Coinbase report stating that illicit transactions make up 0.34% of cryptocurrency volume compared to an estimated 33% of circulated cash used by criminals and tax evaders in the US.
Share of illicit crypto transaction volume between 2018 and 2013. Source: Chainalysis
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“We actually can more or less measure this in crypto; the data is there. We know what the transaction volume looks like; it’s on the blockchain,” Martin said.
He added that the same level of transparency is “flat-out impossible in the traditional financial system.”
With the US elections fast approaching, Martin is “cautiously optimistic” for a more “friendly attitude” from the winner of the presidential race.
He said there’s been a “softening” in the Democrat’s crypto approach as he claimed the party has learned a “real segment” of the US wants to see a more “fair and free financial system.”
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Additional reporting by Turner Wright.