The Stanford Blockchain Membership issued a scathing criticism of the US Division of Justice's (DOJ) prosecution of Twister Money builders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, calling it a violation of antiquated federal cash transmission legal guidelines.
In its report titled “Twister Money and the Limits of Cash Switch,” the membership challenged the Division of Justice's use of 18 USC § 1960, a statute concentrating on unlicensed cash switch companies, to cost builders of Twister Money, a decentralized ethereum. established protocol.
A 2023 Justice Division indictment known as Twister Money an “unlicensed cash switch enterprise” as a result of it permits customers to anonymize crypto transactions.
The Stanford Blockchain Membership argued that the statute, written earlier than the appearance of blockchain expertise, didn’t handle the nuances of decentralized protocols like Twister Money, which function by immutable sensible contracts with out intermediaries or directors.
In accordance with the report:
“The DOJ's aggressive utility of 18 USC § 1960 raises broader questions in regards to the dangers of extending the statutory language to new applied sciences. This strategy invitations unelected officers and the judiciary to overstep their constitutional bounds and circumvent Congress' energy to legislate.
The report highlighted the constitutional implications of utilizing govt enforcement to manage rising applied sciences. She warned that such actions circumvent the democratic course of and threat stifling innovation by conflating authorized makes use of of privateness instruments with criminality.
Recognized for its management in each authorized and technological innovation, Stanford College has a historical past of coping with advanced regulatory challenges. The Blockchain Membership report continues this custom by delving into the tensions between privateness rights and regulatory oversight within the digital monetary area.
The Twister Money case highlights the rising debate about monetary privateness and the danger of those new applied sciences being misused by unhealthy actors.
Proponents, together with the Stanford Blockchain Membership, argue that protocols like Twister Money meet legit privateness wants by permitting people to guard their identities when transacting. Critics, in the meantime, say such instruments facilitate cash laundering and different unlawful actions.
The discharge of the report represents an vital contribution to ongoing discussions about how the US authorized system can adapt to DeFi applied sciences. It stays to be seen whether or not the judiciary will think about such criticism because it continues to grapple with the complexities of blockchain regulation.
