Billboard Calls out Alabama Senator for Blocking Infrastructure Bill's Crypto Amendment

For quite some time now, U.S. crypto advocates have been concerned about the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that contains a controversial and broad definition of a cryptocurrency broker. The organization Fight for the Future, a group of advocates that “fight to ensure technology is a force of empowerment,” started an initiative called the #Dontkillcrypto campaign when the cryptocurrency provision was added to the infrastructure bill. The campaign has purchased a billboard in Alabama which calls out U.S. senator Richard Shelby for blocking an amendment to the infrastructure bill.

Fight for the Future’s #Dontkillcrypto Campaign

A majority of Americans are likely unaware that U.S. senators have added a controversial and broad definition of cryptocurrency requirements to the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. The measures added to step up tax enforcement surrounding digital currencies immediately saw criticism and an amendment crafted by the U.S. senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Rob Portman (R-Oh.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az.) was filed.

However, the digital asset reporting requirements were pushed through and the definition was not amended. Fight for the Future’s #Dontkillcrypto campaign recently purchased a billboard in Birmingham, Alabama to spread the word. The billboard calls out senator Richard Shelby ((R-Al.) for blocking the amendment to the infrastructure bill that may have fixed the harms of the cryptocurrency reporting provision. Moreover, Fight for the Future has completed 41,360 calls and 1,622 emails to politicians so far and they are continuing to fight against the added crypto definitions.

“The #DontKillCrypto campaign formed in opposition to a cryptocurrency provision in the must-pass infrastructure package that mandates mass surveillance of the crypto-economy in the name of reducing tax avoidance,” Fight for the Future’s blog post about the subject says. “This puts many fundamental cryptocurrency participants in an impossible position: to either collect information that they structurally cannot get access to, or to operate outside the U.S.”

Fight for the Future further added:

Either way, mass surveillance of everyone in the cryptocurrency ecosystem is a massive blow to human rights. Cryptocurrencies are both a testing ground and a foundational investment in the move to decentralization. The issues at hand aren’t simply about taxes—they’re about the United States’ ability to participate in cryptocurrencies and a decentralized future that puts the rights of people above the exploitative and manipulative business models of Big Tech.

‘Accountability Is Sweet’

On August 15, Fight for the Future further tweeted about the billboard they purchased and said “Accountability is sweet.” “#Dontkillcrypto would have won essential protections for small developers if [senator Richard Shelby] hadn’t betrayed us on the Senate floor. This billboard went up in Birmingham thanks to small crypto donations [to Fight for the Future].”

Fight for the Future further said that the organization’s focus will now turn to the House of Representatives in order to get them to “publicly commit to fixing the broken and absurd cryptocurrency provision in the infrastructure bill.”