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

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Tornado Cash, the DOJ and Coin Center