Donald Trump’s Crypto Platform Is Missing One Thing

Donald Trump’s new Republican Party platform includes a pro-innovation crypto policy but lacks a commitment to protecting developers of decentralized projects. This article explores the implications of this omission and the broader political context.

Points

• Trump’s platform supports Bitcoin mining, self-custody of digital assets, and free transactions.
• The platform lacks a commitment to protect developers of decentralized projects.
• The Biden administration has been hostile to crypto companies, particularly privacy-preserving technologies.
• Legal and regulatory protections for developers are crucial for innovation in the crypto space.

The Republican National Convention has approved former president Donald Trump’s new platform for the Republican Party. The vast majority is standard Republican fare, with one significant exception: a pro-innovation crypto policy. Trump’s commitment to defending Americans’ rights to mine Bitcoin （BTC）, self-custody digital assets, and transact freely are welcome additions to the platform. However, there is one crucial piece missing: a commitment to protect the developers of decentralized projects from government interference and the threat of criminal prosecution.

The Biden administration has been notably hostile to crypto companies such as Ripple and Coinbase, but it has treated developers of privacy-preserving technologies even worse. President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice has repeatedly prosecuted software developers for creating products that some malicious actors happen to use for nefarious purposes. This issue is exemplified in the administration’s treatment of Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, developers behind Tornado Cash, a fully decentralized protocol for private transactions on Ether （ETH）.

After the Tornado Cash protocol was used by bad actors, most notably the North Korean-backed Lazarus Group, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ETH, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the protocol. While controversial, this response was far more reasonable than what followed. The Department of Justice indicted Storm and Semenov for conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Semenov has yet to be brought into custody, but Storm is currently facing trial in New York.

The prosecutions of Storm and Semenov are fraught with issues. The prosecution inaccurately portrays the defendants’ actions as executing transactions when they only enabled individuals to execute their own transactions. Additionally, as Coin Center explained in an amicus brief in defense of Storm, publishing open-source software is protected speech under the First Amendment, and sanctions law should not apply.

On a more fundamental level, prosecuting developers like Storm and Semenov for when their tools are misused by others sets a dangerous precedent that could stifle innovation in privacy-preserving technologies. Tools like Tornado Cash are not inherently malicious; they can be used for both legitimate and illicit purposes. Punishing developers for potential misuse by others disregards the broader benefits these tools provide.

Technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs, secure multi-party computation, and homomorphic encryption provide robust methods to protect personal data without compromising functionality. These technologies ensure that sensitive information remains confidential, even in the face of sophisticated cyber threats. It is for these reasons that the U.S. government has supported the development of privacy-preserving technologies such as Tor and Signal for decades.

Conclusion

A second Trump administration has expressed intentions to support innovation and create a more accommodating environment for the crypto industry. However, if it truly wants to champion innovation and end what it calls the Democrats’ “unlawful and unAmerican Crypto crackdown,” it must also commit to defending the rights of the people building the tools that enable these technologies.

解説

• Trump’s platform supports fundamental crypto rights but lacks protection for developers, which is essential for innovation.
• The Biden administration’s actions against developers highlight the need for legal and regulatory reforms.
• Protecting developers from prosecution for the misuse of their tools by others is crucial for fostering innovation in privacy-preserving technologies.
• Robust legal protections for developers will encourage the development of technologies that enhance privacy and security.