Small businesses need crypto clarity

Today the Senate will vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and the stakes reach from Wall Street to Main Street.

My wife and I started Prevail Coffee to create value for our community, provide good jobs, and earn enough to give our family a measure of security and comfort.

Running a small business is very difficult, which wasn’t surprising. What we weren’t prepared for were the added burdens our financial system creates. Payment costs eat into already-thin margins. Capital is difficult and expensive to access. Businesses struggle to turn local goodwill into the resources they need to grow.

Hardworking, successful community entrepreneurs are faced with a difficult binary: they can either struggle against unstable, razor-thin margins or surrender their life’s work to private equity, turning a once-vibrant neighborhood cornerstone into a footnote in an out-of-town portfolio.

That realization sent me searching for a better way. I found it in an unlikely place: crypto. Most people encounter crypto as a high-tech, speculative asset class. Beneath that, I found a neutral, open technology stack that could enable people to build tailored financial tools.

I also realized the promise blockchain technology held for small businesses was matched by the friction of regulatory uncertainty. There were no clear rules of the road for a business like ours to put these tools to use.