The Storm conviction is unacceptable in “the crypto capital of the world.” Here are the necessary steps to right this wrong and protect software developers: 1) DOJ must accept the jury’s refusal to convict on money laundering and sanctions, and must not retry the case 2) DOJ must dismiss the Section 1960 charge, or else Roman must be pardoned 3) Congress must amend Section 1960 to clarify that money transmission requires control of funds and does not apply to the developers of non-custodial software There is no greater threat to crypto than DOJ’s misguided war on developers, which started under Biden and must stop under Trump. This battle may have been lost, but the war will be won.

It's great that the jury did not convict Roman on money laundering or sanctions. Those were the most serious charges and the government failed to prove its case. DOJ should walk away from those charges and dismiss the Section 1960 charge, which it got wrong on the law all along.

Roman Storm was convicted for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business under Section 1960. The jury was deadlocked on money laundering and sanctions. DOJ will decide in the coming days if it wants to retry those charges in a new trial. A sad day for DeFi.

Thank you @HesterPeirce for correctly recognizing the nature of DeFi technology, and for your relentless advocacy for creating a more open financial system. The BSA is broken. And, noncustodial DeFi technology is fundamentally incompatible with the CeFi-suited regime. DeFi software providers that do not exercise control or custody over user funds should not be improperly classified as intermediaries. Thank you for your efforts. Read more in Commissioner Peirce's speech here:

SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce delivered an amazing speech today on financial privacy, which included references to Phil Zimmermann’s Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Eric Hughes’ A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto. She stated: “Rather than something to be feared, we should embrace these tools’ ability to help humanity live freer lives without unwarranted financial surveillance. People use these tools for bad purposes too, but treating technology as the villain will impinge on legitimate users’ privacy.”

1/ A new blockchain network in 2025 needs to either optimize for a particular application or expand the adjacent possible. Most new blockchains have focused on optimizing for speed; faster block times, higher TPS. That is no longer the bottleneck. @RialoHQ is focused on a complete suite of infra for building apps that speak to the outside world.

💥Is Privacy A Crime? The Trial Against Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm: Everything You Need to Know With @_Enoch @amandatums @tayvano_ @molly0xFFF hosted by @davidzmorris Timestamps: 04:46: What is Tornado Cash? 10:45 Understanding the charges 21:25 Implications for software developers 30:00 Could the UI stop transactions? 32:36 Did North Korea use the front end? 39:16 Could the relayers stop transactions? 42:57 The Government’s first witness: grounds for appeal? 1:00:00 What would happen after a guilty verdict? 1:02:00 Can developers be held liable for writing open source code? 1:07:00 Could free speech be a ground for appeal? 1:11:00 How do we balance the right to privacy with criminal use? 1:20:00 Dragonfly Capital pleads the Fifth 1:23:00 Chainalysis Relayer highlights breadth of charges 1:31:00 Does the Blanche Memo protect developers? 1:37:00 Closing thoughts

This Sunday. Everything you need to know about the criminal trial against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. With @amandatums @tayvano_ @molly0xFFF @_Enoch hosted by @davidzmorris

Came on Bankless today and broke my silence on the Roman Storm case. A lot to say—important discussion. We also talk Project Crypto, Ethereum's position in the market, and Zora vs Pump 👇

1/ PROJECT CRYPTO A mandate from the SEC Chair for the entire agency to update federal securities regulations so that crypto can flourish in the USA 🇺🇸 This is the start of the biggest push for regulatory clarity in crypto's history. The SEC has 3.5 years to make it a reality.