They are co-opted by the biggest financial interests they regulate.
From American Banker:
Almost since Bitcoin arrived on the financial scene in 2009, traders and exchange operators began contemplating the prospects for a self-regulatory organization that would be organized by bitcoin participants for the purposes of outlining and recommending best practices.
Now, more than four years on, an SRO in the spirit of the National Futures Association and National Association of Realtors could be emerging for the disruptive Bitcoin cryptocurrency and other digital assets. The Committee for the Establishment of the Digital Asset Transfer Authority is set to announce its launch Tuesday in conjunction with several leading industry participants and the well-connected Promontory Group as an advisor.
As a longtime cryptocurrency advocate and the recently appointed executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, I welcome the emergence of SROs. (Unlike the foundation, the D.A.T.A. will cover a broad range of virtual currencies, including Ven and Ripple). A non-governmental body formed to promote good industry behavior has a distinctly free market heritage. Groups born out of mutually-beneficial community trade can also define a set of common principles that they want to abide by referred to as lex mercatoria. This is Latin for "merchant law," the body of commercial law used by merchants throughout Europe during the medieval period emphasizing contractual freedom and alienability of property. Merchants relied on this legal system they developed and administered while shunning legal technicalities and deciding cases ex aequo et bono – "from equity and conscience."
Although SROs can be extremely beneficial in advancing an industry, clear political lines must be drawn to mitigate the risk that an SRO would be co-opted by government and this is where it gets tricky. To avoid more direct and onerous regulations, the government may ask the SRO for certain guidelines or rules to be incorporated among its membership. If such modifications are objectionable to the majority of industry participants, the SRO faces the dilemma of challenging the authorities and risking its relevance or being complicit in harmful and over-reaching backdoor legislation....MORE
