WIN BITCOIN
Amanda Tuminelli — executive director and chief legal officer for the DeFi Education Fund (“DeFi” includes Bitcoin in Tuminelli’s eyes) — understands well the high-stakes implications of the Tornado Cash trial as it pertains to developers of noncustodial Bitcoin and crypto technology as well as privacy-preserving software.
I sat down to speak with Tuminelli for this week’s episode of Bitcoin Politics.
The release of the episode corresponds with the third and final week of the Tornado Cash trial, as it’s meant to help those curious to better understand what’s happening as the trial comes to its conclusion.
In my interview with Tuminelli, she provided an overview of the three charges being levied against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, while diving in deep on the conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge.
Tuminelli is an expert on 18 U.S. Code § 1960, the U.S. federal law that prohibits the operation of a money transmitting business without a proper license. She broke down 18 U.S. Code § 1960, while highlighting that Storm hadn’t violated this statute in creating and operating Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service built on Ethereum.
Tuminelli and I also discussed the CLARITY Act and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), both of which include language that protects developers of “non-controlling” (noncustodial) crypto technology. These bills stipulate that developers and purveyors of this technology don’t need a money transmitting license, nor should they be subject to existing money transmission laws.
What is more, Tuminelli also touched on why the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) shift away from 2019 FinCEN guidance threatens innovation in the crypto space and how it may create a scenario in which the U.S. government continues to press charges on other developers like Storm (despite the fact that U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in an April memo that the DoJ would stop targeting crypto entities including mixing and tumbling services.)
Regarding the Tornado Cash case, she shared her thoughts on how she feels the trial is progressing as well as what the defense might have considered as it made its case to the jury.
Finally, she described the amicus briefs that the DeFi Education Fund has written and submitted to the courts for both the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet cases (despite the fact that the court rejected the submission of the brief for the former case).
This video is a must watch for anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of what’s happening in the Tornado Cash trial as well as what the potential implications of the trial might be.
