June 13, 2023
I'm writing to oppose your proposed amendments to Exchange Act Rule 3b-16.
Your attempt to expand the definition of an exchange to include \"Communication Protocol Systems\" exceeds your authority.
Your proposed amendments would have 3 main negative effects:
(1) they would stifle innovation in financial technology, driving money, jobs, businesses, and innovation overseas
(2) they would harm market participants here in the USA who are making good-faith efforts to expand financial inclusion
(3) they would create extremely dangerous precedents because of their poor definition of terms, potentially ensnaring people, such as developers or market participants, as well as software itself (protocols) in unnecessary and burdensome regulation, well outside the scope of the SEC's jurisdiction
In addition to stifling innovation and harming the citizens you are supposed to protect, this rule would be completely nonsensical and impossible to enforce. You would create a byzantine nightmare of red tape and unenforceable actions (e.g., how do you sanction a protocol?).
Chair Gensler has proven he is incompetent, intent on pushing his own agenda to the detriment of us, the citizens, for whom he is supposed to work. He must step down, and the SEC must comply with its mandate to regulate according to the law, and wait for Congress to provide clear rules of the road and not \"legislate through regulatory enforcement.\"