Warren Davidson proposes the ‘Keep Your Coins’ bill to restrict the government from controlling crypto

Warren Davidson, a congressman from Ohio’s eighth district, has introduced the “Keep Your Coins” bill in the House of Representatives to protect people’s self-custodied crypto wallets against government control.

The bill was introduced on February 15, just one day after the Canadian government used the Emergencies Act to freeze bank accounts and monitor major transactions (including cryptocurrency) without a court order, as TheCoinRise reported. The decision was made in reaction to the COVID-19 policy-focused Freedom Convoy protesters’ fundraising efforts.

The bill’s name, ‘Keep Your Coins,’ is a pun on KYC and refers to protections that prevent crypto users from having their digital assets taken away from them.

The bill is aimed to “prohibit Federal agencies from restricting the use of convertible virtual currency by a person to purchase goods or services for the person’s own use,” and for other reasons like crypto transactions, if it gets approval.

However, it’s uncertain how much support the bill will receive from Democrats, who have historically been against crypto and blockchain technology:

“Been working on that since 2016. Unbelievable that Congress won’t unite to end the unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional practice of civil asset forfeiture — AKA government theft.”

While it looks like the bill was launched at an opportune moment, given the Canadian government’s actions, Warren Davidson indicated on Twitter yesterday that the bill had been developed for six years before being presented to the House of Representatives.

Our office will be introducing legislation in the US House of Representatives shortly to protect Americans from this version of overt theft.

Please let your Member of Congress and Senators know… https://t.co/UbNdcj8ZZ4

— Warren Davidson 🇺🇸 (@WarrenDavidson) February 15, 2022

Many support Warren Davidson

Along with pro-crypto colleagues like Senator Cynthia Lummis, Warren Davidson has long campaigned for the privacy and freedom of crypto wallets.

Davidson said last year at the Miami Bitcoin conference that potential over-regulation of the crypto sector in regards to private wallets was “a horrible approach.”

He remarked, “I wish the country would take the threat to privacy as seriously as they take the threat to the second amendment.”

#DefendFreedom
“So, while financial privacy should already be protected by the Constitution (the Fourth Amendment), preventing the government from being able to prohibit or restrict the use of self‐​hosted wallets is a much‐​needed policy improvement.” https://t.co/RfpyY6yLQ8

— Warren Davidson 🇺🇸 (@WarrenDavidson) February 16, 2022