Feb 02 2025 74 mins 16
Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Peter van Valkenburgh breaks down Coin Center's legal battle against the DOJ's crackdown on privacy tools like Tornado Cash. From First Amendment rights to money transmission laws, we explore how these cases could alter development. Peter explains why software isn't money transmission and how these prosecutions threaten innovation in America.
🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @valkenburgh @coincenter
📝Quick notes & topics:
• Code as protected speech
• DOJ vs privacy tools
• Money transmission laws
• First Amendment rights
• Regulatory overreach
• Trump vs Biden crypto policy
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:46 Peter bio
02:02 What is Coin Center?
07:01 Other advocacy groups
12:54 Alignment w/ older orgs
24:59 Location specific legal interpretation
30:01 Tornado Cash case update
33:47 3 charges in Tornado Cash case
38:46 Samurai v Tornado Cash
44:41 How does this fail?
48:21 On & off ramps
51:17 Tornado Cash token
53:37 Token complications
55:43 Securities law
1:02:28 Legal response to immutable code
1:06:49 Optimism & timelines
1:10:51 What should we do?
1:15:16 Solana's got the same problems
👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.
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