The crypto industry must do more to promote encryption, says Meltem Demirors

“I like to call myself a future, or aspiring, cult leader,” Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares — a publicly listed investment firm managing around $5 billion in assets — told Cointelegraph. 

Demirors, who first entered the Bitcoin (BTC) space in late 2012, further mentioned that it has been “fun to see how big the crypto sector has become,” noting that people from all walks of life are now interested in the cryptocurrency space. As such, Demirors explained that “crypto cults” are bringing people together in a positive manner, especially since it gives people a sense of purpose and belonging. 

When it comes to regulations — one of the most important topics facing the crypto industry today — Demirors expressed skepticism. “Having been in this industry professionally for eight years, I’m tired of talking about regulations, particularly in the United States,” she said. While U.S. regulators continue to pass frameworks around the treatment of digital assets, Demirors pointed out that there has been “too much talk and not enough cogent action.” Moreover, Demirors remarked that a number of crypto bills are attempting to minimize consumer use of encryption, which she believes to be the backbone of the internet.

Demirors elaborated on this topic, along with the development of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) during an interview with Cointelegraph at Consensus 2022.

Cointelegraph: What are your thoughts on recent regulatory frameworks in the United States?

Meltem Demirors: I do think that the Lummis-Gillibrand bill and the Token Taxonomy Act of 2021 have been good attempts at categorizing and classifying digital assets. But, the challenge I have with so many of the crypto bills and regulations is that all are all focused on financial services and taxation. They are focused on where and how we govern, tax and extract value for the government. Therefore, the biggest issues I’m excited about are those centered around consumer privacy, self-sovereignty and freedom of speech, which are not being addressed in these bills.

Unlike so many bills that focus purely on the side of the financial services, the industry needs to focus on crypto infrastructures like data centers, connectivity, computations, semiconductors and the actual plumbing that makes any technology function. We also need to make sure that the U.S. is a friendly jurisdiction for people to develop not only software but also hardware that can be…