The report misunderstands self custody, smart contracts, and other key elements relevant to AML policy
Yesterday the Treasury Department released a “DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment.” While the report does not announce any new or changed policy, and correctly acknowledges the much larger illicit finance...
An overbroad attempt to ban crypto using these new powers would be open to a court challenge, but the law has worryingly narrow avenues for review
The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Senators Warner and Thune, aims to block or disrupt transactions and financial holdings involving foreign adversaries that pose risks to national security. Although the primary...
A Snapshot of the Current Questions and Unsettled Policy Related to Cryptocurrency Taxation
Tax issues range from general questions about how digital assets should be taxed to technical issues dealing with accounting practices and reporting obligations. Novel technological aspects of digital assets that...
Nothing about the bill would prevent the next FTX. In fact, it puts users at more risk.
The bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, introduced today by Sens. Warren and Marshall, is the most direct attack on the personal freedom and privacy of cryptocurrency users and developers...
Tornado Cash is no “golem.” It’s a tool for privacy and free speech.
A rebuttal of a recent article in Lawfare by Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier
In a recent article in Lawfare, Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier defend sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash, a privacy tool on the Ethereum network. They argue that these sanctions are...
Coin Center is suing OFAC over its Tornado Cash sanction
OFAC does not have the authority to sanction a smart contract and Americans have a right to use privacy tools
Privacy is not the default on Ethereum. If you do your job on Ethereum, your co-workers can see your salary. If you donate to a political cause on Ethereum, the...
Does the Merge change how Ethereum is regulated? (No.)
The Ethereum Merge is resurfacing questions about regulatory differences between proof-of-stake and and proof-of-work. As we've said many times, we do not believe that the technological differences between POS and...
How does Tornado Cash actually work?
When a person uses the Tornado Cash contracts to protect their privacy, they arguably are not even engaged in the kinds of activities that can be sanctioned.
Today Coin Center published a detailed factual explanation of how Tornado Cash works. We worked with several world-class Solidity experts who generously donated their time to look directly at the...
Analysis: What is and what is not a sanctionable entity in the Tornado Cash case
By treating autonomous code as a “person” OFAC exceeds its statutory authority.
Last Monday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) made a designation adding Tornado Cash to the Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons (SDN) List that it administers....
U.S. Treasury sanction of privacy tools places sweeping restrictions on all Americans
Sanctioned Tornado Cash smart contract is a tool, not a person.
Tornado.cash—the website and associated Ethereum addresses—has been added to the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) SDN list (the list of Specially Designated Nationals with whom Americans and American businesses...