Coinbase joins Internet Association

Internet Association (IA), based in Washington DC, is a public policy group that is involved in lobbying regulators on internet freedom and innovation. Coinbase is the first bitcoin company to join IA, which has highly reputed founding members including Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google, along with over 40 general members including Airbnb, Lyft and Uber.

"The idea of an emerging internet technology would be discriminated against or couldn't compete because of policy or regulatory issues that is something all of our companies care about", IA CEO Michael Beckerman told CoinDesk.

He added that he considers the organisation to be very particular in choosing members, and that Coinbase was recruited for its readiness to be a productive part of the conversation revolving around the internet today.

John Collins, head of government affairs at Coinbase, said that the main reason behind the company's decision was the association's role in helping regulators to adjust outdated laws.

"We're investing a lot in helping policy makers to set the policies of decentralized networks, like the bitcoin protocol," Collins said. "That's something that IA has a lot of experience in and we think they can help us."