The Parable of Clearville, the Land of Glass Houses
summary
Legal and policy stakes around Tornado Cash smart contracts are concrete: Coin Center sues Treasury over OFAC sanctions, DOJ prosecutes alleged developer liability, and courts debate whether developers who publish and update privacy code can be charged. The talk points to a rule‑of‑law problem: long‑standing FinCEN guidance said anonymizing providers aren’t money transmitters, yet prosecutors treat them as such. Practical context: global systems like SWIFT move about $2.8 trillion in illicit funds annually, far larger than Tornado Cash.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction to the Tornado Cash Legal Conflict
- 0:15Welcoming Peter Van Valkenburgh
- 0:52Coin Center's Mission and Background
- 1:31Miscommunication Between Regulators and Technologists
- 2:50The Parable of Clearville
- 9:00Connecting Clearville to Cryptocurrency
- 10:07The Role of Tornado Cash
- 11:15Legal and Ethical Questions
- 17:39Rule of Law and Policy Making
- 21:08Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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