That's my feel too. The chair seems to be really really interested in bitcoin and how bitcoin works. They [the panel] repeatably mentioning Tor Foundation, Bitcoin Foundation partnership on dealing on this issue. I think the government, at least from the Senate's perspective, what is absent in regulating virtual concurrency. I am all for government and business regulating if the regulation benefit the public consumer (not deep web consumers) in the long run. They also praise the pros and cons of the bitcoin protocol, history of bitcoin and etc.

Chair: "You don't think it was Al Gore [created the bitcoin], do you?"

laughers

Chair: "I like this quote from Mrs. Einstein: 'I understand the words but not the sentences.' Thanks the panel."

Side note: I thought I saw Snowden... http://imgur.com/IaAPGjx

And the hearing record is only saved for 15 days...