A U.S. lawmaker requires the federal government to start thinking about a national blockchain strategy. U.S. House Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) proposed a bill designating on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to examine the prevalence of blockchain technologies over industry, government, and the globe.

If passed, the bill, which had no cosponsors when applied to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would provide the FTC two years to manage the survey and an additional six months to inform Congress on what it learned.

Guthrie asks for suggestions on state-level blockchain adoption,  blockchain development plans, business sector blockchain adoption, risk mitigation strategies, legislative frameworks, and how to consolidate potentially prohibitive federal statutes.

The recommendation package would adequately describe a comprehensive blockchain strategy for the United States. Some U.S. partners already have such a framework, including Germany. (The recommended FTC survey would provide lawmakers a rundown of at least ten countries’ blockchain strategies’ relative to the U.S.).

But Guthrie’s central concern seems to be the explicit leader of national blockchain strategies, and an adversarial one at that: China. “We cannot let China beat us,” he said in a press statement. In April, China launched the Blockchain Services Network, and it is now transferring quickly forward with testing of its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. It has aggressively courted state-sponsored blockchain use cases far beyond the actions of the U.S.

Staying a step forward of China has gotten only more significant in the age of COVID-19, Guthrie stated. “The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made it clear that we need to maintain American leadership in technology,” he said in the statement. “America is a nation of innovation and enterprise – and we need to keep it that way.” The bill is part of an emerging tech legislative package by House Republicans.