Bitcoin gets an industry-backed advocacy group

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin -- and the technologies around it -- has a newly organized group of advocates behind it, headed by someone with deep experience in translating technologies for political consumption.

Jerry Brito, a law professor who was until recently the head of the technology policy program at George Mason's Mercatus Center, announced that he will be heading an organization called Coin Center, what he describes as a "new non-profit research and advocacy center focused on the public policy issues facing cryptocurrency technologies." "Our mission is to build a better understanding of these technologies and to promote a regulatory climate that preserves maximum freedom of action for digital currency innovation," Brito writes. "We will do this by producing and publishing policy research from respected academics and experts, educating policymakers and the media about block chain technology, and by engaging in advocacy for sound public policy." Coin Center will, according to Brito, have an annual budget of more than $1 million, with contributions from venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and RRE Ventures and bitcoin-tied firms like BitPay, Coinbase, and Xapo. Board members will include innovator and entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan, bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik, Hudson River Trading partner Alex Morcos, and Stanford business professor Susan Athey.