{"id":9175,"date":"2025-01-22T20:51:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T20:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=9175"},"modified":"2025-01-22T20:51:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T20:51:26","slug":"ross-is-free-now-lets-free-the-internet-of-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=9175","title":{"rendered":"Ross Is Free. Now Let\u2019s Free the Internet-of-Money"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The release of Ross Ulbricht<\/a> and the lifting of sanctions on Tornado Cash<\/a> mark pivotal moments for the crypto community. It\u2019s more than symbolic. It\u2019s an opportunity to clearly rebrand the U.S. as a safe place to build the internet of money.<\/p>\n

Ross\u2019 freedom comes after over a decade of imprisonment \u2014 a journey defined by relentless advocacy, legal battles, and unwavering support from the crypto community. His release matters deeply to me because over a decade ago I launched Silk Road 2.0, his site\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

His double life sentence without parole wasn\u2019t just about the Silk Road, though. It symbolized the U.S. government\u2019s resistance to the blockchain industry and to the idea of a financial system controlled by individuals instead of big banks.<\/p>\n

The U.S. dollar is the world reserve currency; and, cryptocurrency has given the world democratized access to this reserve via stablecoins. Satoshi Nakamoto announced Bitcoin as a \u201cpeer-to-peer electronic cash system,\u201d and the Silk Road was the first to actually execute that vision. Silk Road opened the door to cryptocurrency and introduced Silicon Valley (and many other groups) to bitcoin. It spawned companies like Coinbase, projects like Ethereum, and paved the way for stablecoins, which are not yet private.<\/p>\n

Still, there is no legitimate marketplace for buying and selling things with bitcoin. Our industry\u2019s reputation is that we\u2019re highly speculative and scam-filled. We can\u2019t forget that Satoshi created bitcoin for payments, not speculation.The U.S. cannot miss out on the internet-of-money. During previous administrations, global developers have become nervous to even attend conferences hosted here. This has consequences for the U.S. crypto industry. Ross\u2019 release is a clear signal that the U.S. is no longer a scary place to innovate in cryptocurrency. His experience underscores the need for proportionate justice and serves as a reminder of the human cost of overreach in regulating innovation.<\/p>\n

Read more: Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Pardoned by President Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

His release is an opportunity for reflection \u2014 to celebrate his freedom while remaining clear-eyed about the past. Ultimately, his harsh sentence stymied bitcoin innovation for all of us. We must ensure his case becomes a catalyst for constructive change rather than a footnote in a history of missed opportunities, a series of memecoins, or a divisive narrative that further erodes trust.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the case of Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm \u2014 who is still in legal jeopardy \u2014 clearly shows the dangers of criminalizing innovation. Tornado Cash offers a critical function (a \u201cmixer\u201d) in enabling private Ethereum transactions \u2014 an essential component of conducting business competitively.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to create privacy technologies, but we also need to understand the line between legal and illegal use cases. Yes, launch the Silk Road, but don\u2019t allow the sale of drugs on it. Launch Tornado Cash, but don\u2019t encourage money laundering on it. The chilling effect that both cases have had on developers like me cannot be overstated. Privacy innovators in the U.S. and abroad are now second-guessing their work, fearing legal repercussions for creating tools that protect privacy.<\/p>\n

And what do you do when you launch something decentralized that takes on a life of its own? The sanctions on Tornado Cash were deemed unlawful by the Fifth Circuit Court<\/a>, yet the Department of Justice dismissed the ruling as irrelevant. Tornado Cash\u2019s developers were allegedly aware of its misuse for money laundering but did not act decisively to address it. On a decentralized platform, should its initial developers be responsible for users\u2019 activity? There is a clear need for America to define a \u201cSection 230\u201d for developers of decentralized software to not be criminally liable for what their users do on their platforms. (\u201cSection 230\u201d refers to a law freeing social media platforms from responsibility for content published on their networks.)
\nRead more: <\/p>\n

As entrepreneur-politician Vivek Ramaswamy said, \u201cYou can\u2019t go after the developers of code. What you actually need to do is go after individual bad actors who are breaking the laws that already exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

To move forward as an industry, we need to separate the tools from the misuse of those tools. Privacy technologies like Tornado Cash, Monero, and Zcash are unfairly stigmatized due to their potential use for illicit activities. But they hold transformative potential for legitimate use cases, from safeguarding personal financial data to enabling secure business transactions.<\/p>\n

Zcash, with its optional shielded transactions, provides individuals and businesses with the ability to conduct secure, private transactions while remaining compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. Such innovations bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and traditional industries, empowering businesses to adopt crypto without exposing sensitive financial details.<\/p>\n

Privacy tech like Zcash also addresses a fundamental flaw in bitcoin and other public ledger cryptocurrencies: the exposure of transaction data that creates competitive disadvantages and privacy risks. Soon, Zcash will be on Mayachain, allowing a decentralized way to convert between bitcoin and Zcash. It will also soon support ZSAs (shielded assets), which will enable stablecoins to be issued privately for the first time.<\/p>\n

The new administration has proposed a national \u201cStrategic Bitcoin Reserve\u201d but this raises questions about privacy and decentralization. Unlike other reserves, such as gold, Bitcoin\u2019s blockchain discloses deposits and withdrawals to the public forever. Is the Trump Administration aware of this? This level of transparency is a double-edged sword, making privacy technologies even more essential for maintaining competitive and strategic advantages.<\/p>\n

So, where do we go from here? Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency industry are at a crossroads. This is a moment to refocus on the principles that drove early adoption: a perception of privacy, financial freedom and, most importantly, peer-to-peer payments.<\/p>\n

The U.S. crypto landscape, currently a mess of regulatory uncertainty, scams, and collapses, needs reevaluation. Rather than demonizing privacy innovations, policymakers must work with developers to create clear, enforceable standards for responsible uses of \u201celectronic cash.\u201d This means proactive education and collaboration with regulators, more investment in privacy technologies, and development of a regulatory framework that encourages U.S. blockchain innovation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The release of Ross Ulbricht and the lifting of sanctions on Tornado Cash mark pivotal moments for the crypto community. It\u2019s more than symbolic. It\u2019s an opportunity to clearly rebrand the U.S. as a safe place to build the internet of money. Ross\u2019 freedom comes after over a decade of imprisonment \u2014 a journey defined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-9175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}