Having The Bitcoin Privacy Discussion With Politicians Will Be Difficult — Please Help

1 week ago

I’ve spoken with a fig of politicians successful the past fewer weeks. They each spot bitcoin arsenic a store of worth and judge that U.S. citizens person the close to clasp their backstage keys.

I can’t accidental that it doesn’t consciousness bully to perceive U.S. elected officials explicit these views and adjacent propose bills that would codify pro-bitcoin authorities into law. It’s surely refreshing, particularly aft the governmental antagonism that Bitcoiners and the Bitcoin manufacture endured nether the Biden administration.

With that said, determination is inactive enactment to beryllium done, and overmuch of that enactment involves advocating to sphere our close to transact with bitcoin privately.

One of the champion privacy-preserving tools we person astatine the Bitcoin basal furniture is bitcoin mixers, which assistance users to anonymize their transactions.

And 1 of the astir well-known mixers was Samourai Wallet, which enabled users to premix their bitcoin successful a noncustodial fashion. That is, the developers and maintainers of the wallet ne'er touched users’ backstage keys.

This bundle was unopen down aboriginal past year, though, erstwhile the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) pressed charges against the Samourai developers including conspiracy to run an unlicensed wealth transmitting concern and conspiracy to perpetrate wealth laundering charges. (The developers of Tornado Cash, open-source mixing bundle deployed connected Ethereum, are besides facing akin charges.)

Some politicians, including Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) person travel retired successful enactment of the Samourai developers, drafting a letter to the erstwhile U.S. Attorney General, the Honorable Merrick Garland, successful which they outlined that the developers intelligibly did not run a wealth transmitting concern arsenic per the explanation of specified a concern successful FinCEN guidance from 2019. (With that said, Senator Lummis has besides coauthored a bill successful which she calls for the U.S. Treasury to “conduct a survey connected combatting anonymous crypto plus transactions similar plus mixers,” but I digress.)

Mixers are incredibly important for quality rights activists who request to support their anonymity erstwhile sending and receiving funds arsenic good arsenic to mundane radical who worth transactional privacy.

Therefore, we request to bring this contented to the attraction of politicians, arsenic galore are unfamiliar with it, truthful to hopefully person much of them travel retired successful defence of the Samourai developers and to spot the value of preserving U.S. citizens’ close to usage mixers.

For this reason, I’m asking you to usage the missive template published by my workfellow Shinobi astatine the extremity of this piece to constitute your representatives.

Just arsenic we’ve rallied to Free Ross and to support the close to aforesaid custody, we indispensable rally successful enactment of transactional privacy.

This is thing that I, the governmental analogous for this publication, cannot bash alone. I request your help. So, delight heed this telephone to enactment and pass your representatives astir this substance truthful that by the clip I person a speech with them astir it, they person immoderate knowing of the issue.

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