• Her remarks are made at the same time as the verdict in Roman Storm’s Tornado Cash trial is approaching.
  • US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce spoke on Monday to a gathering of blockchain experts and practitioners.

Lawmakers and regulators must safeguard individuals’ freedom to engage in private transactions, according to US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce , who spoke Monday to a gathering of blockchain experts and practitioners. Her remarks are made at the same time as the verdict in Roman Storm’s Tornado Cash trial is approaching.

During her speech at the Science of Blockchain Conference, Peirce emphasized the need to defend privacy-enhancing technology. Along with the freedom to keep cryptocurrency in one’s own possession, and the autonomy of open-source privacy software developers, who should not be held accountable for the actions of people using their programs.

Strong Backing of Crypto Privacy

Just as individuals could use actual coins to discreetly transfer value in the days when the Fourth Amendment was being drafted, we should take tangible efforts to preserve people’s capacity to communicate privately as well, she said.

Requiring that it adhere to financial monitoring measures is pointless since an immutable, open-source protocol is accessible for anyone’s usage in perpetuity. Even if a centralized middleman or even a DAO deploying a DeFi application might put in limits on its use, Peirce added.

Peirce claims that governments want to keep powerful cryptography out of private hands in the 1990s. This was due to concerns about national security. She pointed out that cryptographers like Phil Zimmermann, who created the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption software, and court actions were necessary to change the tide and bring about several technical advances.

Strong cryptography was essential to the success of the internet. Therefore a group of committed cryptographers fought back and persuaded the government that private cryptography was beneficial.

Regulators shouldn’t demand that firms keep track of who they or their customers do business with, according to Peirce. Who made a similar point in the same speech on the so-called DeFi broker rule. Tornado Cash , like any tool, may be used by both good people and evil people, according to Storm’s defense team and the industry. The makers of the program shouldn’t be held accountable for what other people do with it.

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