Why this U.K. Member of Parliament supports Bitcoin

Lisa Cameron is a UK politician or Member of Parliament. She regularly attends Westminster where she makes the case for her constituents across Scotland. She's also important to the world of crypto because she's the chairperson of the Crypto and Digital Assets All Party Parliamentary Group. In brief, this group is responsible for guiding the UK on its mission of becoming a global cryptocurrency hub. So I took a break from moderating and comparing at the UK's major Bitcoin conference called the Bitcoin Collective to interview Lisa. She then made the case for bitcoin and crypto in Parliament. Just days later, she requested to meet with Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He's arguably the second most important person in Britain after the new crypto friendly Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Firstly, I mean, we just came off a talk here with Samson Mao where he's talking about how, you know, governments can run with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But I wanted to ask you just a general thing, why are you here at a bitcoin conference?

Well, it's in Scotland, which is my home turf, so that's a big draw for me. As part of my education as chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group, I'm, you know, engaging with the sector and the industry in the widest way. So I have spoken to companies who are involved in cbdc, stablecoins, we've looked at crypto tokens and bitcoin is obviously part of the sector. It's very important for me to understand the differentiations, but also to understand, you know, how the technological advances and what's happening internationally as well as, you know, the potential for the UK can be taken forward.

Interesting. And you mentioned lots of these cryptocurrency buzzwords that we all deal with now on a daily basis. What for you personally is the difference, say between bitcoin and crypto or Bitcoin and NFTs, or is there a difference or do you see them all in the same sort of.

Well, as part of the. As chairing the All Party Parliamentary Group, we're looking at the sector as a whole. So we're not sort of saying, well, we're only going to deal with bitcoin or we're only going to deal with. Because consumers who are our constituents are engaged with the industry right across the board. And our key sort of issue is about consumer protection. It's about looking at regulatory frameworks moving ahead in the uk, which in my understanding and from the session we've had today at the bitcoin conference, you know, some of that relates to Bitcoin, some perhaps not so so greatly because of the decentralized nature of it. So what we need to do, I think, is firstly in the Parliament, have an understanding of all of these things, which is no mean feat. You know, it's, it's quite a different language, as I said. You know, when we first had the discussions in the Parliament and money was being grouped to this sector and Fiat, you know, like we were explaining to the MPs that fiat wasn't a car, so. No, yeah.

Really, they're looking at Fiat 500s instead of Fiat Money.

It's different terminology. We are, you know, having to think of all the acronyms that are used and incorporate them now into our understanding and knowledge. So we, and I include myself in that. We are on a learning curve and it's just very, very important because UK government has policy vision that UK will become an international hub of cryptocurrency and digital assets. So we need to understand the workings of that, the challenges ahead. We need to understand how to put consumer protection at the core of that as well, and what businesses need in terms of regulatory clarity. And I need to understand how Bitcoin fits into all of that or how it doesn't, how it might be separate.

Okay, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. It's interesting to see the level of understanding. Like, have there been any conversations that have been quite striking? You brought up Fiat. I recently had a conversation with an energy company and they were asking where you find the Bitcoin, when you mine it, because they thought it was a physical mining operation. What sort of level of understanding is there currently in Westminster?

It's growing now. The group's been running for about seven months now. We have our inquiry ongoing. What we find is that when the group was formed, obviously we get a lot of interest from members of the Parliament, members of the House of Lords who are already aware of the sector, who are also, you know, perhaps financial, you know, have financial backgrounds in perhaps their formative careers. But now what we're having to do and want to do is scoop up the educational evidence base and understanding of those MPs who perhaps haven't been aware at all much of the sector, and who maybe have formed their basis of understanding solely on sensationalism rather, rather than an evidence based, information based understanding or knowledge. Because when we come to have debates in the Parliament, we want those to be very balanced and evidence based. Moving ahead.

Yeah. Which is the hardest part, right? Cutting through all that noise and that sensationalism. That you bring up. What about personally, can I ask, have you ever say, bought an nft? Have you ever bought bitcoin?

People have asked me that. And no, I don't have. As chair of the group, I feel it's important that I have a kind of objectivity and distance from that in terms of, you know, my own personal.

But you have fiat money, right? You don't have a Fiat car, but you have fiat money.

I do have fiat money, yeah. And that's a very good point. But just in terms of making sure that, you know, anybody who's looking at the work we're doing and scrutinizing it, which is, you know, perfectly the way it should be in terms of democratic politics, is not thinking that I have some, you, personal investment in this that's driving it ahead. We're looking at it very objectively and, you know, we want to hear from all parts of the sector. We want to, you know, have an informed approach going ahead and we don't have any preconceived notions of that. What I want to do is learn about the technology and learn how it's used. But I think if I all of a sudden became, you know, like Bitcoin Maxi. Yeah, exactly. There's a new part of technological language, Bitcoin Maxi.

Yeah. Maximalist.

Yeah.

It means you only really care about bitcoin and everything else you see is separate.

Right, okay.

Is what Samson was talking about with Pierre Poilievre, the Canadian minister.

If that were to happen, then I think it would skew the report. It could, you know, mean that I'm less objective.

But right now, you're a Fiat Maxi.

You are technically to buy the wine that was talked about in the session.

Yeah.

Wow. You know, I think we all know, particularly from the pandemic, that finance is shifting. Most people pay for things using digital technology now and actually, you know, Fiat notes, pounds, currency. Yeah, that's all shifting and progressing and Web three and the innovations moving forward and the whole industry of digital assets is transforming and we have to. We have to really understand that in Parliament and we have to make sure that we support the vision that the UK is a hub of the future, because otherwise, if we don't, then we'll fall behind. And I think so. There is tremendous potential for innovation and growth and jobs of the future. And we see that already developing and fantastic research base here in terms of technological expertise, universities right across the UK who are at the helm of innovation and technology. We want to really maximise all of that and be a place that people want to do business for the sector. And I think part of my role is it's almost apolitical, in a sense, because we have MPs and members of the House of all parties, is about just making sure we have the education piece. We understand what's needed in terms of clarity, moving ahead. We can keep prioritising these matters in the Parliament because they weren't spoken about before. We had a first debate just a couple of months ago.

The first debate on these matters.

Yeah.

So it's so early.

Yeah. Okay. So. And. And I raised a question on Monday to Jeremy Hunt, the new Chancellor, mentioned about the conferences that are ongoing in the UK this week, how important they are. And you spoke about this conference? Yes, I did. I mentioned the. Yes, I mentioned the Digital Asset Summit and also.

Of course.

Yeah, that was in London.

Bitcoin Collective summit. Yeah. So I mention both. And speaking of both. And he's aware of it, we're meeting with the Minister to take forward his understanding and engagement with the sector. And, yeah, Westminster's really open to this technological discovery advancement, wants to be at the helm of it.

Very good.

I think it's a lovely note to finish on. Thank you so much, Dr. Lisa Campbell.

Thank you.

This has been a Cointelegraph interview.

It.