43 years, we provide unbiased inventory -- uninterrupted coverage of commerce. the hollywood reporter wrote that c-span is america's hottest tv drama in 2023. the wall street journal says the house speaker drama has one winner, c-span. and from the washington post, c-span has become must watch tv. you never know what might happen within the walls of congress, and on one thing you can be sure. c-span will be there. just -- thanks to the support of these cable and satellite companies. c-span, your unfiltered government. powered by cable. >> francis suarez is the mayor of miami and the president of the u.s. conference of mayors. she discusses the role of digital assets, technology and cryptocurrency in shaping the economy of the future. the conversation was hosted by the wilson center. >> well, i am the creator of the digital assets forms and lab. at the outset let me applaud you for being here. you are, each of you are visionaries in your own right, you see the emergency -- emerging technology of block chain and realize it is more than headlines of crypto billionaires. you understand that this technology can change everything . this is something that we at wilson understood a couple years ago when we formed and created the digital assets form and lab. in general, our mission is to study problems of interest for congress and for the president. we help the administration think about policy as we do congress, and we hope our international partners see the vision of where policy is going in the united states. wilson is great and thinking long-term while providing insights today that can be used immediately. the reality of wilson manifest itself in individual assets in the lab. here we have created master classes, training initiatives for member -- vendors of the house and the senate and the administration. kelly whitaker and i, the height -- head of the science and technology program graded block chain explains, a podcast that describes the latest in innovation in this area. we try to bring to our stakeholders a clear and unbiased view of what is going on with the technology of block chains, and the powerful implications for everyone from main street to wall street. we advise on policy, and provide a place for practical visionaries. my partners have helped me create a safe place for dialogue and unbiased information to those who want to understand responsible use of this incredible and technology. i am honored to have a team here to turn my vision of this asset lab into a reality that can create a greater reality for everyone. we are honored to welcome one of our visionary partners, the mayor of the city of miami, francis suarez, who is president of the conference of mayors. he is here today to discuss a new american economy that can only exist because of this powerful and new technology. my honor is to head up the efforts of wilson and digital assets on the block chain to share the digital assets form and lab. the honor of introducing the mayor goes to the individual who is the real visionary at wilson, the person, whom when i presented the idea for the form and lab two years ago, understood how important it really is. so with that, i want to introduce my friend and colleague, the leader of the wilson center, the honorable mark green. thank you very much. [applause] >> allen is being way too generous and way too modest because he really was the driving force in getting the digital assets form going. i am so whether he did. we are fortunate to have his leadership, energy and expertise. welcome, everyone to the wilson center. it was established by congress, some five decades ago for the purpose in their words of strengthening the relation between the world of learning and the world of public affairs. with that really means is that while other centers may deal with data, information, we've been charged going much further into scholarship and learning. our currency is knowledge. our focus is independent analysis. our purpose is developing recommendations, options, and ideas that decision-makers can believe in. we are fiercely nonpartisan. which truly does make this the perfect place for today's discussion. we are committed to presenting reliable, unbiased information concerning the revolution in block chain technology in cryptocurrency. our job is to help policymakers understand what it is, and perhaps more portly, what it is not. one help policymakers stay informed, thoughtful, and forward-looking. want to help them understand the potential for digital assets to accelerate innovation, to extend american leadership and economic opportunity in a very competitive world. our speaker today, our guest today is at the forefront of doing just that. he is championing the efforts. it is an approach that we embrace here at wilson. the steadfast leadership and commitment in the fields is impressive. when i had the chance to meet with him in his office recently and here about his vision for digital assets and its role in innovation and competition, it was infectious. you really do believe that leaders like that are leaving -- are leading the future. this is about the decision of utilizing digital assets and the future of local innovations as well as national innovations. without in mind, please join me in welcoming him to join the conversation with kelly recker. you just heard are relatively new director who is doing a great job in driving this work. mayor? it is great to see you. welcome. kelly, over to you. we are looking forward to hearing more from you. your time has been marked by your embrace. >> my salary as a city mayor, i still get paid in bitcoin. the whole concept is digital dacian of currency. i was watching larry think this week. on foxbusiness. he was talking about -- don't adjust the mic. ok. have feeling. i'm good no? ok, great. he was just talking about the inefficiency and transfer funds in transferring money and the fees associated with that. when you think about miami coin, it is developed outside of the city. we were the beneficiary of that project. the concept there was not too different from that point in many respects, digitize currency with two slight differences. one, that percentage of the revenue of authentication, a percentage went to the benefit of the city. if you think about bitcoin in the process of bitcoin, think about it as a dial, decentralized thomas organization. you can actually change the code in a decentralized, voting democratic process. you could change the code to say from this point forward we feel we will give a percentage of our revenue. when bitcoin was trading at a very high value, working to give a percentage of that to the public good. obviously, there was a point where we thought it could take off and caused a large portion of our revenue. 5 million of which we set aside for housing. to address housing issues and concerns in the housing market. what remains to be seen is how these type -- continue technologies and variations in technology will benefit the public sector. the idea was a good idea. i think we will continue to see ideas come out in the future that will have the same public benefit. >> when you bring up cryptocurrency, not address the environment we are in right now. we're seeing a bit of a rebound right now. it has been a shaking public trust in this technology. i would love to hear from you, what your opinion on what the future looks like for cryptocurrency? >> i think it screams for regulation. when you consider the amount of money that was circulating through these companies, with very little oversight, as to what they were doing. let's keep in mind that some of these technologies were business people. many of them were young, extremely young. maybe they didn't -- they certainly didn't get the kind of advice that they should have gotten, technical on the business side and the finance side. the should've been regulations on what some of these could do with assets. there like banks. the assets that they had were enormous. what they were doing, when you peel back the layers of the onion, is frightening. right? basically, same party lending, with very little oversight and very little control. it is not shocking that when you see what was happening that you saw the outcome. these are things that, throughout the history of banking, we've seen as problematic inking process. there's reason why some regulation exists in the banking industry. basically, you get some of the smartest people in the room. people that were not guilty of doing some of these things. i put this in the affordable housing context. you sit them down. people like michael seiler. you sit them down to get them together. because they have the technical knowledge. you have to update our laws. our laws have a tendency to be very reactionary. something happens and then we react, as opposed to being proactive, which would have been great. we saw the mainstream of digital assets happen right before our eyes, over the last 12 to 24 months. our government did nothing. in the prior administration did not do anything either. this is not something i'm trying to blame a particular party or -- but neither site did anything. they saw this happening. they did not engage. that lack of engagement hurt. in the sense that a lot of these entities are offshore companies. they might have on short, how they felt that there was a regulatory environment. i think that hurt the country. the lack of regulatory certainty hurt the country because it did not allow for the ecosystem to grow in an appropriate fashion. it was growing outside of our borders in an inappropriate fashion. and much to our detriment. >> my next question, what would be your recommendation to people who are looking to craft this smart legislation? you mentioned legislation has option -- often been reactionary. how do we approach it properly when we are looking at decentralized finance? >> there has to be a recognition from the federal government of its importance. we really legislate the things we feel are important to legislate. i saw a statistic that when bitcoin was at 60,000, it was the 11th most fallible -- valuable currency in the world. i'm not sure what it ranks now. i'm sure it's whatever market cap is now. maybe it was a trillion then. it was the 11th most valuable currency in the world. we have to first, understand its importance. and where it will take us in the future. secondly, i don't mean to demean anyone but we have to roll up our sleeves and study. this is a job where you are challenged to learn new things. if you want to reg late them, you have to take the time and energy to read about them and understand them and sometimes we make things more complicated than what they are. i don't think this is as complicated as many people think it is. i can break it down in a very simple fashion so that people can understand it. at the end of the day, this is digitizing currency and taking it outside of the mainstream system. why is that important? we see what the fed is doing right now and what is happening with inflation. we see what is happening with the debt ceiling. those are three perfect examples of why there is a potential need to have a currency that fits outside the system. there is massive amounts of pull is a shin of the process. -- politicalization of the process. if we don't solve our debt, he would not answer the question because i think he was afraid. we were all afraid, as some level, what the implications of the that it stays defaulting on a debt. people are asking, what is bitcoin based on? they asked me that question all the time. what is the u.s. dollar based on? it's east on the faith and credit of the united states. full faith, credit, and nuclear arms. sure. the military power of the united states is important. we are not going to invade a country as a means of protecting our credit. u.s. taxpayers saying that we are going to pay the debt. if we don't pay the debt, that we created, by fiscal recklessness, then what is the dollar back by? i think bitcoin is backed by a network of people that trust that system more than they trust the system. it is susceptible to runs. we saw in the 2008, 2009 real estate crash, the federal government step in and stimulate and give hundreds of millions of dollars to baking systems to keep it from completely collapsing. that did not happen in this iteration of the crypto winter, as you call it. it is interesting to see how that plays out. the week -- the companies that didn't do anything right, they are dying. what you will see as a strong company, the companies that were ryan properly, will take over their productive assets and will continue going forward. i think we are in the second inning of this digitization of our world. >> let's talk about web three more broadly. what's your take on a role that web three can play in transforming the u.s. economy? what is that look like? i know we are still in the early days. >> it is going to become a bigger and bigger part of the u.s. economy. on the software side, on the virtual side, i have seen statistics that talk about how big a percentage of our economy will be, over 70% over the next several decades. i think the second part is when you look at what power web three are and what devices are micro trips. 80% of which are being produced in taiwan. i was recently speaking to the ceo. i don't know if he wants me to talk about this public. i was recently speaking to a ceo of a major tech company that produces the microchips. they were telling me that if taiwan's economy were completely shut down, it would impact the u.s. economy to the tune of 10% to 14%. we would have a 10% to 14% reduction in gdp. that is how dependent we are on taiwan's economy. which powers web three. all you have to be as apparent, to understand how inevitable web three is. i have an eight-year-old and four-year-old. if i let my eight-year-old play nintendo switch all day long, he would literally play it from six in the morning until my wife puts him down at 830 at night. he would play the whole time. my daughter once shocked me. when she was two years old. by taking a pretend l3 with her pacifier. i said while this is really crazy. think the struggle will be what is that interplay between the analog world and the digital world. i used to think it was going to create issues with socialization. i actually know don't believe that. because i'm seeing my children socialize. i'm taking a step forward. i'm starting to see socialization opportunities involved in teen myself and children. flank and tender games with my son. it is exciting and fun in an opportunity to bond and spend time together. at the beginning i thought this could be a problem and lack of social skills. because you're so digitized. but i also am seeing them play these games with their friends. they are virtually online with their friends and they are playing and talking and socializing. it is just a new world that we are getting into. it will be interesting to see how it plays out. >> when thing that we have been able to see is the tech economy workforce. what are some of the policies you use to help you create that ecosystem for innovation that what that growth happen? >> i think this is the most important question. because this is about the future. now the present. and about how do we build an ecosystem in our city, that is creating the maximum amount of prosperity for the maximum amount of people for the maximum amount of time? when you look at the answer to that question, it's no different from how you do that nationally? the same set of challenges, opportunities exist at the national level. if you think of miami as a microcosm of what the country can be, i think what we have done can be skilled. what we do? we saw 10 to 12 years ago, this evolution from the highly industrial economy to a highly digital economy. we started to position eyes -- to position ourselves at that opportunity. i think a lot of cities having seen the tsunami purging have taken cover. even cities that dominated that space. i will give you an example. you had new york famously push out amazon. 50,000 new paint jobs. and they said no thank. why by set a problem? it's a problem because you're pushing away 50,000 high-paying jobs. i don't think any entry has the luxury of being able to do that. that's the micro. that macro is more problematic because you're telling the country we don't want you. your creating innovation, we don't want you. same situation san francisco. they basically told elon musk, this is pre-twitter, at elon musk. he replied, message received and left and to kiss company to austin. -- to take his company to austin. i think it's the message. what is the signal? if you're successful, if you are going to create prosperity, we don't want you. and you couple that with some bad policies on safety in cities and on homelessness. i think you have a cauldron for a declining city. we live in a very mobile, very decentralized world where people -- i think you solace in covid, when can a fan move his entire operation from new york to palm beach four seasons. he was able to trade, and not lose market share or business out of that location. but he proved was ubiquity. right? he proved that you could be anywhere and not -- physical location was no longer the predominance. once he proved that, the floodgates are open. anybody can move anywhere, at any time. your physical location is no longer the preeminent factor. that benefits miami greatly. we lead into that on december 4, 2020, when a member of the founders of a big tech fund put -- said what if we move to miami. i said oh my god are you serious? i've been trying to do this for 10 years. we are a small company that was bootstrapped and we got our direct, ipo moment. i said how can i help? once i said that, what was i sending as a signal? the exact opposite signal new york and silicon valley was sending. we were sending the signal, we don't want you. i was sending the signal, we want you. that's all they needed. think about this, you start a company in your garage. you put in all of your life savings and build an incredible company and you can't walk the streets of the city because you are a pariah. who wants that? who wants to live that life? nobody. nobody want to spend their time and energy building a company, a significant amount of wealth for other people and then be told you're not welcome. i saw a video by jeff bezos reminiscing on the fact that he was maybe the world's richest person. he was saying i'm worth $200 billion. but my company, amazon, is a trillion dollars. which means that created a hundred billion dollars of wealth for other people. right? i own 20% of the company. i think people forget about that. they focus on what the person has crated for themselves or they forget about what they have created for everybody else, not to mention employees, etc.. >> we are coming up on time. i will leave us with one question. we are looking ahead at a big year intact. we have had momentous movements in blac chyna digital assets and i -- nai. what are you watching this year with technological innovations? >> i think ai is going to be our generations --. whereas, we dismantle the ussr by outspending our nuclear weapon he, defense technology as china emerges, wonder if we will see a similar conflict in our generation on ai. where we are going to try to outspend each other and come up with the technology that will decrypt our encryption that will allow us to disrupt our communication, disrupt our technological devices. because so much is dependent on this. weapon systems, etc.. i think that will dominate. i don't know how many of you have used to chat ip, artificial intelligence. show of hands if anyone has used it. pretty much everyone has used it. you could write a letter to your mayor. it just writes the letter. that technology is there. the amount of data that is being fed into the system, the ability to learn. i think that is going to be the number one thing. obviously, certainly blockade technology. we use these fancy terms. it is really an accounting system of data, with unique data identifiers. this is not complicated stuff. the thing with data is ubiquitous. we talk about an fts, and fts is not complicated. and nft is how do you differentiate a photo. if i take a picture and send it to all of you call -- all of you. all of you have the same picture. but do we differentiate when picture from another picture. you can do that digitally by having a digital signature. were you have numbers and letters that have an identifier that is different. there is an infinite number of letters and numbers and you can create uniqueness. a digital asset is a unique asset. that is why it is called non-fungible token. just a fancy way of saying it is unique. you can tell digitally that is unique because it has a digital signature. that's it. why is it important? it is important and a digital world to understand if you're getting something. if you're trading a digital dollar, you need to know that it is a unique dollar. as opposed to another dollar. otherwise, you can't account for a dollar being account -- passed from one person for another -- to another. that is one of the reason why bitcoin works. because you can't account for it ended an intensive way. it is just numbers. not complicated data. you could put it on computers. at the beginning, the bitcoin leisure was on people's personal computers. you can party on personal computers and have the entire ledger of the entire bitcoin system. >> mayor, thank you so much. such a wonderful conversation. >> i'm getting worked up. i started getting pumped up. >> we appreciate your time. thank you for coming by. >> i appreciate it. [applause] we will take a look at house commitment to america plan, first with steph kite, discussing immigration and border security and defense when directive editor on house republicans defense and national security proposal. and the manhattan institute will talk about house gop policy proposals related to crime and public safety. watch washington journal, live a seven easter, wednesday morning on c-span or on c-span now, our free mobile app. join the discussion with your phone call, facebook,, text, or tweet. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including media,. >> media column supports c-span as a public service along th these other public television survivors, giving you a front row seat of democracy. >> tv, every sunday on c-span two, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at ap and eastern time, pretty soon natosha details there attempt to launch the passion -- russian version of sesame street in the early 1990's. at 10 p.m. eastern on -- plip bump, author of the aftermath examines how baby boomers have impacted the u.s. economy and its effect on teachers generations. he
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