Tim Ryan: Pass Clarity Act to secure blockchain infrastructure | Opinion

Almost every major period of economic expansion in American history was preceded by determined and innovative investments in our infrastructure.

Lincoln built the transcontinental railroad that led to the expansion of the Western frontier of America. Former New York Governor Clinton DeWitt championed the Erie Canal, which connected the Hudson River with the Great Lakes and dramatically quickened transportation and lowered costs, leading to the expansion of the Great Lakes region. Teddy Roosevelt spearheaded the development of the Panama Canal, which helped make the U.S. a global power. Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.

America’s manufacturing power grew from its rivers, rail lines, and reliable power clustered near highways and ports. This infrastructure lowered costs and sped up the movement of natural resources through the supply chains. The internet created entire industries wherever investments in research, broadband and talent came together. Each generation of infrastructure gave businesses a reason to invest and workers an opportunity to thrive in new and emerging economic sectors.

During my two decades representing Northeast Ohio in Congress, I saw how profoundly those decisions shaped a community’s future.

America is now making the same choice about digital financial infrastructure. Blockchain is becoming part of the machinery through which money moves, assets are issued, and ownership is recorded. The countries that build these systems will capture the work around them, not just the technology itself.

Washington still too often discusses blockchain as if it were only a market for tradable tokens.

That view misses the larger economic opportunity for American workers. I’ve seen that opportunity up close, advising Lumia, whose blockchain infrastructure handles the full cycle of tokenizing real-world assets, from issuance to settlement.

Building this infrastructure requires software developers, security engineers, product teams and union construction workers to build the data centers needed to bring it all together. But the work extends further than that. Bringing real-world assets on-chain also requires accountants, auditors, lawyers, risk managers and compliance professionals. Financial institutions need expertise in custody, identity, reporting, and consumer protection, while implementation creates demand for consultants, educators, sales teams, and customer support.

That is what a new industry looks like as it takes root: not one category of jobs, but an entire network of skilled work growing around it.

For communities, that network becomes payrolls, business for local insurance and accounting companies, and a strong tax base to fund local schools and community services. Most importantly, it gives young people opportunities so they no longer have to leave home to build a career.

These are the kinds of skilled, well-paid jobs communities across America want.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment growth from 2024 to 2034 of 15 percent for software developers, 29 percent for information security analysts and 19 percent for financial examiners. Their 2024 median annual pay ranged from about $90,000 to $133,000, far above the national median of $49,500.

Those projections cover the wider economy. Blockchain will compete for the same talent, and America is already losing ground. Electric Capital found that the U.S. share of the world’s crypto developers had fallen 51 percent since 2015 and stood at just 19 percent in 2024. Those developers live in every state, with nearly two-thirds located outside California and New York. This can be a national jobs story, but only if companies have a reason to build here.

Companies will not build long-term engineering teams, establish compliance departments, or retain American professional services firms if they cannot tell which regulator has authority or what requirements will apply next year. Uncertainty does not stop the technology; it just sends the investment and expertise somewhere else.

The Senate should finish its bipartisan work on the CLARITY Act and establish durable market structure rules with clear agency responsibilities, strong consumer protections, and workable compliance pathways. That clarity should be matched by workforce investment through community colleges, universities, apprenticeships, and industry credentials, positioning American workers not simply to participate in the next financial system, but to lead it.

Clear rules will give companies the confidence to invest, and American workers will give them the capacity to build and scale. Together, they can create new industries, strengthen communities, and open a generation of high-paying careers across the country.

The next financial system is already taking shape. The nations that build its infrastructure will set its standards, attract its capital, and secure the jobs that grow around it.

Past leaders in America knew this. They could see around the corners of the American economy and had the courage to lay the groundwork to allow America to thrive in that new economy. We are here again. And I pray our leaders have the same foresight to make it happen.

The next generation deserves that kind of leadership.

Tim Ryan is co-chair of Blockchain Innovation Project and a former 10-term U.S. Congressman.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.