Subject: SR-CboeBZX-2018-040
From: Katie McGrath

July 18, 2018

Dear SEC,

Regarding, Release No. 34-83520; File No. SR-CboeBZX-2018-04, I would like to comment:

I am a school teacher/administrator of twenty years with a master’s degree in education. Bitcoin has captured my imagination from the moment I read the white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the unknown person or people who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, they also devised the first blockchain database. We have lived during advent of one of the greatest inventions of all time: trust-less digital money.

Before Bitcoin, to use digital money, we needed a trusted third-party to keep a ledger of who owned how much. Examples of this trusted third-party are MasterCard, VISA, or your bank. So if Alice sent Bob $100, this trusted third-party would debit Alice's account and credit Bob's account - they would update their ledger and we all had to trust this 'trusted' third-party to do the right thing and be good stewards of our money.

Now with Bitcoin, everyone has a copy of this ledger so we no longer need to trust a single third-party because there is no need to trust when you can just verify against this ledger because you have a copy of it. This decentralized ledger is called the blockchain.

An ETF will allow institutional investors to securely take part in this very important development in our civilization. The ETF transactions can be audited by anyone against the public ledger and will be insured. The Bitcoin ETF will be physically backed by secure holdings of bitcoin. The ETF is desired by the people so they can participate in a familiar way to create abundance.

Bitcoin will continue to grow, ETF or not. It is unstoppable. It has all the qualities of money: scarce, durable, portable, authentic, store of wealth (storable), fungible, counterfeit resistant, widespread usage, and global accessible. Allow investors access to this boon by removing barriers.

The ETF is a step toward accessibility, security, and legitimacy that will help:

  1. Protect investors.
  2. Maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets.
  3. Facilitate capital formation.
Thank you.

Katie McGrath