I (virtually) attended the final status conf. for the Tornado Cash case today. (I showed up for the in-person hearing, but it was changed to a virtual one.) Here’s what I learned from the final convo btw the judge, the prosecution, & the defense before trial starts on Monday:

Sometimes, I’m so excited about what I do for a living that I don’t want to go to sleep.

Does anyone out there subscribe to any cool tech- or start-up-focused newsletters?

I think this price action is giving me the bends.

Julian Fahrer, the founder of Bitcoin Laws, and I just broke down what happened this week in the world of Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related legislation. https://www.youtube.com/live/KBWsr96Bvp8?si=zBWWtq_t-vTTPYfs

“For us, having financial freedom is a way to fight back against the regime, and a cryptocurrency like bitcoin is a tool for our survival. It’s the money of the people, and it gives us hope.” Roya Mahboob, on women using #Bitcoin in #Afghanistan

The Bitcoin Policy Institute, the Blockchain Association, The DeFi Education Fund, and other institutions have teamed up to issue an amicus brief in defense of open-source developers who are being wrongfully prosecuted as money transmitters. The brief argues that these devs aren’t in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1960. Link to full brief: https://www.defieducationfund.org/_files/ugd/84ba66_a0475d7bbcf4436a83f68e792c554b4a.pdf

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what happens in America doesn’t stay in America [when it comes to] Bitcoin policy. The norms, laws, and rules that are laid out here… have an impact on nearly everybody in the world.” @gladstein

A U.S. court has dropped Coin Center’s appeal to OFAC regarding Tornado Cash. But the developers behind the tech are still facing criminals charges. More in my latest:

Bitcoin Magazine

U.S. Court Brings Coin Center’s Tornado Cash Appeal To A Close

Coin Center’s appeal to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) regarding Tornado Cash is now over.

In 1889, crowds gathered outside The Tower Building (below), one of the first skyscrapers in Manhattan, waiting for it to fall over. (It never did.) The modern day version of the people in those crowds are those waiting for Bitcoin to fail or go to zero.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t care how big #Nostr gets. I’m just glad it exists.