Law of Code

This episode reviews the IP ownership rights associated with Board Ape #8398, after actor and producer Seth Green (who licensed it for his series, White Horse Tavern) was scammed in a phishing attack. The stolen NFT was then sold to "DarkWing84" for $200,000. This episode is largely based on an enlightening thread by James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm), who dove deep into the issue, with additional notes from prominent crypto lawyers Drew Hinkes (@propelforward), Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky), Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne), and others. We also cover the recent decision in Jarkesy v. SEC, in which the Fifth Circuit essentially stated that the SEC must go through Federal courts in fraud cases. The implications may be greater than that, and this will be an important case impacting the future of the SEC.  Other updates include a decision from Hermès International, et al. v Mason Rothschild, an update from LUNA, LexDAO's latest guidance on metaverse lawyering, and more. Much credit for this episode goes to the incredible sources, including James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm), the CryptoLaw Newsletter (@cryptolaw_news), and a newsletter by two bright law students, Around the Blockchain - which covers everything happening within the crypto law space, every single week. You can find their newsletter on Substack, Around the Blockchain. Disclaimer: Jacob Robinson and his guests are not your lawyer. Nothing herein or mentioned on the Law of Code podcast should be construed as legal advice. The material published is intended for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

Professor J.W. Verret (@JWVerret), teaches accounting and finance, securities law, M&A, corporate law and banking law at the George Mason University Law School. A Senior Advisor @messaricrypto, J.W. is a licensed CPA in the state of Virginia, is licensed in financial forensics by the AICPA, is a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Certified Valuation Analyst.  He has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School. J.W. served on the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he advised the SEC on matters of investor protection.  He serves on the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Committee, which advises on the development of Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP).  He also serves as faculty liaison to the American College of Business Court Judges.  He previously worked as the Chief Economist at the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. J.W. holds a Bachelors degree in Financial Accounting, a Masters in Economic Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss J.W.'s work as an advisor at the SEC, his new position at Messari, the future of disclosure, securities laws, and much more. Show highlights: [3:00] J.W.'s introduction to Bitcoin [9:40] Story behind his twitter header [16:30] Learning quickly [22:00] Senior Advisor at Messari [27:00] Understanding Gary Gensler [34:43] Reg X Proposal by LeXPunK [40:00] Crypto regulation [45:00] Expanding the Howey test [51:00] Pillars of securities law [59:00] Crypto as the modern printing press [66:00] Decentralization Disclosure [72:00] DAOs [76:00] Habits & career advice If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes.

Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) is the Chief Legal Officer of Kraken Digital Asset Exchange. Known as the "Dean of Digital Currency Lawyers," Marco is a recognized authority in the law and policy of blockchain technologies. Prior to his move to Kraken, Marco was the Chief Legal Officer of Blockchain.com, as well as a Partner at both Cooley LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop, where he counseled banks, broker-dealers, exchanges, digital wallets, payment providers, and other companies making new and exciting uses of distributed ledger technology. Marco is an author of the SAFT Project Whitepaper, a self-regulatory effort to curb Initial Coin Offerings. He is an advisor to the International Monetary Fund, the Blockchain Ambassador to the State of Delaware, and was the Chairman of the Regulatory Affairs Committee of the Bitcoin Foundation. He has been quoted by the Congressional Research Service, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Coindesk, Washington Post, The New Yorker, Wired, Entrepreneur.com and Crain's New York Business. In this interview, Marco shares his journey from litigator to crypto lawyer, the importance & downside of big law, and the future of NFTs & DAOs with respect to the fourth prong of the Howey test. Show highlights: [2:15] Marco's introduction to crypto (& subsequent rug pull) [11:35] Making great decisions [18:40] Marco's journey to Kraken [21:13] Building in crypto law [26:40] Environmental misconceptions [34:20] Building a crypto bank: Bank Charter Application [39:10] Convincing regulators with examples [44:00] DAOs & the "efforts of others" [53:11] Stoicism  Links: Marco's website marcosantori.com Daily stoic newsletter If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes.

The Collapse of UST and LUNA - This was the most eventful week in many months, but, unfortunately, the end result was that $500 billion was wiped off the total cryptocurrency market cap. A calculated attack on UST triggered Terra's LUNA to crash more than 99% over the past few days. This caused a corresponding fall and de-pegging in the price of UST, Terra's algorithmic, decentralized stablecoin. This episode offers a deep dive into the events behind the $500 billion+ loss of value in the crypto space, as well as insight into how UST & Luna worked. We also cover the most recent updates in the crypto law space, including an NFT ruling from the UK and a DAO lawsuit in California. This episode pulled insights from the CryptoLaw Newsletter, Jake Chervinsky, Wassie Lawyer, @OnChainWizard, @ItsAlwaysZonny, and @tatianakoffman. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review or letting me know (@JacobRobinsonJD). You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes. Thanks to our sponsor - Hedera Hashgraph (@Hedera). Hedera is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy. They are looking to add bright legal minds to their team. You can review the available openings at hedera.com/future. When you apply, be sure to mention you heard about it on the Law of Code podcast!

Jesse Pollak (@jessepollak) currently works on protocols, public goods, cities, and currencies at Coinbase & beyond (more coming soon). He previously led all Retail engineering at Coinbase, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet. Way back when, Jesse started Clef and was an engineer at BuzzFeed. He also writes open source software and takes incredible photos. You can find Jesse at jesse.xyz on ETH and on Twitter, Github, & LinkedIn. In this episode, we discuss building at Coinbase, Jesse's introduction to Bitcoin during a conversation with Olaf Carlson-Wee (Polychain Capital CEO), his project to bring crypto awareness and knowledge to the city of Oakland, and much more. Show highlights: [1:30] A conversation with Olaf Carlson-Wee [8:00] Cultivating coding skills [19:30] Minting a CryptoPunk [24:00] Online Pseudonymity [32:00] Software-enabled corporations & the future of DAOs [39:00] Perspective shifts in Web3 [42:00] Building @ Coinbase [48:00] Oakland Community Currency [54:00] Focus and discipline in Web 3 If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes. Thanks to our sponsor - Hedera Hashgraph (@Hedera). Hedera is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy. They are looking to add bright legal minds to their team. You can review the available openings at hedera.com/future. When you apply, be sure to mention you heard about it here on the Law of Code podcast!

Laura Shin (@laurashin) is a crypto journalist, host of the Unchained podcast, and author of “The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze” (PublicAffairs, 2022). During the course of writing her book, she and her sources uncovered who they believe was behind the biggest whodunnit in crypto — the 2016 DAO attack on Ethereum. Formerly a senior editor at Forbes, she was the first mainstream journalist to cover crypto full-time, and her podcasts and videos have had more than 19 million downloads and views. Shin has spoken about cryptocurrency at places such as TEDx San Francisco, the International Monetary Fund, Singularity University and the Oslo Freedom Forum. In this interview, Laura shares her original intention behind writing The Cryptopians, interviewing Vitalik, and her favourite moments from the book! Show highlights: [2:30] Laura's first piece of journalism [6:00] Full-time Bitcoin reporting [11:00] Staying updated on crypto [14:00] Laura's favourite moment writing The Cryptopians [17:00] Self-care in crypto [23:00] The importance of writing [25:30] First week writing The Cryptopians [33:30] Interviewing Vitalik [39:00] Difficult moments [48:00] Remaining neutral while reporting [56:00] What was left out of The Cryptopians [57:00] Truth vs Consequences  [63:00] Legal side of crypto [68:30] Other professions Laura considered [73:40] Blind spots [79:00] Religion & Crypto [85:00] Doing what you love Links: Laura's Book: The Cryptopians Laura's Newsletter: Unchained Laura's Podcast Channel If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes. Thanks to our (first-ever) sponsor - Hedera Hashgraph (@Hedera). Hedera is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy. They are looking to add bright legal minds to their team. You can review the available openings at hedera.com/future. When you apply, be sure to mention you heard about it here on the Law of Code podcast!

Ben Samaroo (@BenSamaroo) is CEO/Co-Founder at WonderFi Technologies Inc, one of the largest players in the Canadian crypto space. Ben began building WonderFi with the mission of lowering barriers to entry to crypto and decentralized finance in support of a more equitable financial system.  Previously, Ben was an executive and regulatory consultant with broad experience in managing corporate finance, risk and compliance on behalf of Fintech companies. He previously served as Regulatory Consultant and Advisor at Netcoins, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for First Coin Capital, a Vancouver-based company that was acquired by Galaxy Digital. Prior, he was a lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where advised public and private companies on M&A and capital raises.  In this episode, we discuss DeFi, taking risks, and building one of Canada's largest crypto companies. Show highlights: [2:50] Ben's Genesis Block [9:30] WonderFi [12:35] Best Decisions [16:00] Taking Risks [25:13] Playing Offense in Business and Life [32:00] WonderFi's Foundation & Acquisitions [38:44] Legal Experience - Asset or Burden? [49:24] Flair Airlines [52:00] Habits [56:10] Great Lawyers If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes.

(April 28) This episode is an overview of the legal landscape for digital assets, outlining the implications, pertinent news, and updates in the crypto law space from the past week. It is a collaboration between the Law of Code Podcast and the CryptoLaw Newsletter, by Ann Sofie Cloots. This will be a weekly installment to ensure you're up to date on the regulations impacting digital assets. This "solo-pod" is an attempt to add value to the space by highlighting ongoing blockchain regulation across the world - with a focus on the legal implications. It's a work in progress and can only get better. I appreciate any feedback on this format - please send your thoughts to @JacobRobinsonJD. If you have suggestions for topics for future solo-pods, I'd love to hear that as well. Now go subscribe to the CryptoLaw Newsletter (@cryptolaw_news)!

Stepan Simkin (@SimkinStepan) is the co-founder and CEO of Squads (https://squads.so/) and a former attorney at the international law firm Clifford Chance LLP.  Squads raised millions to build DAO tooling for the Solana ecosystem. Squads' goal is to simplify the DAO framework and make it accessible to the majority of users who are familiar with web3 or are just discovering it. By combining the core DAO primitives under one platform and building it on a fast and scalable layer 1 blockchain like Solana, they hope that Squads will become a social hub for web3 coordination. Their focus is on a clean and simplified UI/UX combined with scalability and predictable fees to democratize the DAO framework. In this episode, we cover Stepan's transition from lawyer to CEO, solving problems DAOs face, buying NFTs and Squads.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes.

Miles Jennings (@milesjennings) is the general counsel of a16z crypto, where he oversees the firm's investments, works on regulatory and policy matters, and works with the firm's portfolio companies and DAOs on decentralized operations, protocol design and regulatory matters.  Miles was previously a partner at Latham & Watkins in its capital markets and emerging companies group, and co-chaired its global blockchain and cryptocurrency task force, which was composed of over 80 lawyers around the globe. In that role, Miles acted as lead counsel for nearly every large investor in the sector, including a16z, Paradigm, Pantera, ParaFi, Ribbit, Coatue and others. In addition, he was a go-to, trusted advisor for countless startups and crypto projects, including ConsenSys, Uniswap, Aave, Bitwise, Avalanche, Element, Idle, Connext, 3Box, and Aztec.  Miles has written extensively on legal frameworks for digital assets and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and on the design of decentralized systems. He previously co-authored “A Legal Framework for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations” with David Kerr.  In this episode, we discuss his recently published “Principles & Models of Web3 Decentralization” paper. You find a summarized version of the paper here.  Show highlights  [5:08] Legal work in crypto  [7:52] SAFTs & issues around them  [10:45] Why he wrote a paper on decentralization  [14:00] Surprising insights while writing about decentralization  [20:20] Goal of writing on decentralization  [29:00] Howey: efforts of others & DAOs - best practices  [37:50] Conflict of interest for a16z  [48:20] VCs as legal clients  [58:00] Information asymmetry  [69:50] Writing strategies  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest episodes.