On Friday, the SEC announced that its Crypto Task Force was hitting the road to get input from people across the country in order to assist it in its efforts to establish a regulatory scheme for digital assets. The SEC’s website has a page devoted to the task force’s road trip, and here’s what it has to say about what it’s hoping to accomplish:

Following five insightful roundtables in Washington D.C. and hundreds of written submissions from industry participants across the country, the SEC’s Crypto Task Force is hitting the road and coordinating opportunities for additional stakeholders to meet with Commissioner Hester Peirce, who leads the Crypto Task Force.

The Crypto Task Force wants to hear from those who weren’t able to travel for the roundtables, and from voices that may have been historically underrepresented in other policymaking efforts. The Crypto Task Force is acutely aware that any regulatory framework will have far-reaching impact, so it wants to ensure that outreach is as comprehensive as possible.

Commissioner Peirce and members of the task force will be visiting several cities in the coming months, and they are particularly interested in hearing from representatives of crypto-related projects that have 10 or fewer employees and are less than two years old.

The page has information on the dates and locations of the various roundtables, as well as instructions on how to make a request to participate in the dialogue. Regrettably, there’s nothing in there about how to purchase tour merchandise. I also think the SEC missed an opportunity by not kicking off its announcement of the task force’s road trip with a classic intro like “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, half a packet of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses… HIT IT!”

Speaking of SEC task forces, the agency also announced late Friday that it had established a task force to “spearhead the agency’s efforts to enhance innovation and efficiency in its operations through the responsible use of AI.” Valerie Szczepanik, the Director of the SEC’s Office of the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology, has been named the SEC’s Chief AI Officer and will lead the task force.

– John Jenkins