lawyer @0xhorizonslaw // co-founder @ValisDigital // human em dash proponent
Joined June 2020
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cairo retweeted
A binding precedent now says that money that went into a mixer contributes to laundering money – and almost nobody noticed.
End of September, the DC Circuit Court dismissed Roman Sterlingov’s appeal, finding “that transfer of funds to and from Bitcoin Fog furthered Bitcoin Fog’s ability to launder the funds of all users."
This, at least, is what SDNY now seems to be alleging against Roman Storm.
In a letter last night, SDNY told the court that it should dismiss Storm’s rule 29 motion, which will decide whether the Tornado Cash developer will be tried (again) in New York.
Why? Because one user was based in New York, and all funds deposited in a mixer-like protocol contributed to the criminal conspiracy charged, as US v Sterlingov just found.
"There was abundant evidence of the importance of increasing the number of deposits and withdrawals into the Tornado Cash pools via deposits from users, [...] to make the pools more effective for concealment purposes," SDNY says.
And of course, the privacy of all users of a privacy protocol increases the more people use it; just like the Tor browser is not useful to conceal your identity when you are the only person using it.
But let’s not forget what evidence SDNY showed the court on Storm’s intent to engage in any criminal activity:
As far as I remember, they had a T-Shirt, and a private message on how to launder large amounts of criminal proceeds – that turned out to have actually been written by a journalist for research purposes, as we were first to report last year.
The effect, if SDNY’s argumentation is allowed to stand, will be much worse than the mixer rule that was abolished yesterday.
It could mean that anyone depositing funds into a mixer-like technology could be charged with engaging in a criminal conspiracy.
i’m actually going to call my senators for the first time in years
no one understands how big of a deal this is, bravo @prestonjbyrne
BREAKING: @SenMikeLee HAS INTRODUCED THE GRANITE ACT FOREIGN CENSORSHIP SHIELD BILL IN THE U.S. SENATE!
congress.gov/bill/119th-cong…
trustless, programmatic cash flows > legally secured rights to potential future value
for technologists who don’t believe this, consider that the most important data in the legal practice are not publicly available or ever written down, let alone used for training models
most disputes settle out of court and confidentially
the paper and the conversations that lead up to it are very different things
most importantly, ai models didn’t go to law school with opposing counsel and can’t golf with the judge
Earlier this year I said exactly this and got attacked, mocked, and ultimately blocked by some of the self-proclaimed AI-native legal geniuses.
So let me repeat:
> A person or team with nominal experience in our profession, using a very new technology, is NOT going to revolutionize our storied profession.
I don't care where you got your MBA or law degree from, it just simply not going to happen...
Legal innovation is not a technology problem.
Until you understand the financial incentives, the non-financial incentives, the behavioral psychology, the clients, the lawyers, the competition, and all the weird quirks about how this profession actually works... you don't stand a chance.
The innovators will come from people who understand the game deeply and figure out how to implement new technology intelligently and responsibly.
This Bill Belichick clip explaining long snapping is a perfect analogy.
From the outside, it looks so simple.
Then someone who has spent decades around the game explains all the tiny details you never even knew existed.
You don’t know what you don’t know until you’ve been around the game for a while.
[Belichick video below]
cairo retweeted
Every week, more of our data is leaked on the internet.
And instead of protecting it, Governments around the world continue to expand its collection – “for your safety.”
So we decided to make a film about KYC’s real world consequences.
WRENCHED - coming soon 🔪
Data leaks have real world consequences.
WRENCHED – a documentary by @Jake_Hanrahan and The Rage.
COMING SOON 🔪
this has always been the better way forward
begging bankers and politicians for money and rules is pretty lame way to make a counterculture financial system a reality anyways
have yet to see one coherent argument as to why the clarity act’s passage would be even remotely bullish for token prices
this is the hill to die on: last version of the clarity act would have prevented the government from slapping non-custodial blockchain devs with money laundering charges if criminals used their software for crime without the dev’s knowledge or intent.
that is gone now.
i'm with andy. my first trade ever was buying doge on robinhood.
chronically trading memecoins and nothing else is the fast lane on the road to ruin for 99.9% of traders, but trading memecoins *can, potentially,* also be a way for young people develop a mental model for understanding price action, identifying trends, bubbles, and selloffs, and ultimately selling real assets for more than they paid to buy them.
sure, they'll burn through a few hundred bucks learning, but when they get tired of getting rugged on animal coins, a significant proportion of them will have the basic skills and experience necessary to trade better assets, and many of them probably will.
sports betting and traditional gambling do not give you a the same kind of experience that is directly applicable to trading and investing.
as a gator, this is incredibly embarrassing
THE BLOCK: The University of Florida has signed a multi-year partnership with Ripple that will bring ripple:native branding to the school's athletics, starting with the 2026 football season, including a prominent logo placement on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
The deal also includes branding across digital properties and events, while Ripple will support financial and technology education for Florida student-athletes and the campus community.
this is one of the biggest reasons why the clarity act and new sec guidance will not reshore the vast majority of crypto issuers
Yes, keep it simple. But remember that US C corps:
- Are taxed on raising through token sales (unlike equity or debt sales).
- Generally need to collect tax forms, withhold on foreigners, and do information reporting on airdrops & token incentives.
- Need to amortize offshore R&D over 15 years.
😵💫
I still think a standalone US C corp is the most sensible structure for the vast majority of US-based projects. But it doesn’t always feel like Congress agrees.
this is awesome
onchain indicies would be a great usecase for @MetaDAOProject's infra
futarchy is kind of the perfect way to govern asset selection in an index in a way that doesn't depend on an intermediary and might even lead to superior curation
Bitwise Automated Token Portfolios are here: institutionally designed model portfolios for tokenized stocks that live in your crypto wallet—powered by @base and @glider.
Join us tomorrow at 1pm ET to hear what ATPs mean for onchain finance, straight from the builders:
@Matt_Hougan
@RasterlyRock
@antoniogm
@BrianInCrypto
