New U.S. Senate bill requires all restaurants, cafes and vending machines to accept Bitcoin payments

• The US Senate is considering a concurrent ACCEPT Resolution that will see vendors at Capitol Hill accept crypto as payments.
• The resolution is one of the most direct attempts by the Senate to integrate crypto as anticipation for a comprehensive regulation grows.

The United States Senate is likely on track to get a new resolution that will help advance the acceptance of Bitcoin (BTC) on Capitol Hill. The new initiative dubbed ACCEPT Resolution was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz and it is an acronym for Adopting Cryptocurrency in Congress as an Exchange of Payment for Transactions Resolution.

Should the resolution become law, it will pave the way for vending machines, and food vendors on Capitol Hill to accept Bitcoin as a medium of payment. The government will also be able to form contracts with food vendors who are more favorably disposed to digital currencies. As the Resolution is not necessarily a full-fledged Bill, its impact, if adopted cannot have any influence outside of the Capitol. The resolution reads:

A concurrent resolution requiring the Architect of the Capitol, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives to contract with food service contractors and vending machine contractors for the Capitol Complex that accept cryptocurrency, and for other purposes.

There are a number of grey areas with respect to concurrent resolution. While it is generally known that Bitcoin is the most popular digital currency and the proposal may specifically be more linked to it, the resolution did not specifically point out which digital currency it will support and which it will not.

₿REAKING: New U.S. Senate bill would require all restaurants, cafes, and vending machines on Capitol Hill to accept #bitcoin payments pic.twitter.com/coZD72NN1I

— Documenting ₿itcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) January 27, 2023

As detailed by the resolution, other vendors on Capitol hill including the gift shops will also be permitted to accept payment in crypto if the resolution is passed, extending the overall utility of the nascent asset class for lawmakers.

Bitcoin and Crypto imbalance in the US Senate

The United States is one country in which the stance of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is much under a lot of dispute. While there are several regulators that lays claim to the provision of oversight on the burgeoning industry, there is neither a specific nor an encompassing regulation that guides the crypto ecosystem.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are even more divisive on the subject of cryptocurrencies. While a handful of Senators including Ted Cruz and Cynthia Lummis are pro-crypto advocates, others like Elizabeth Warren are vocal critics of the digital currency and industry in general.

While the core aim of the Concurrent Resolution remains largely unknown, the move might come in handy to give the US Senate members a first-hand understanding of the operating model of these nascent asset classes. This way, they will be well-equipped in terms of knowledge of what it takes to expand the regulatory allowance for the industry as a whole.

The attempt to regulate Bitcoin and crypto by both the US Senate and the House of Representatives has been a very volatile subject. The industry was riled up when the government wanted to tax all Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs) to fund the $1 trillion infrastructure Bill introduced by President Joe Biden when he assumed office.

Some terms in the Bill had to be altered after much wrangling to exclude some VASPs like crypto miners whose involvement in the space is not focused on direct interactions with customers.

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