Shows
BanklessThe Roman Storm Verdict | Peter Van Valkenburgh & David MorrisWelcome to BanklessTV, featuring Peter Van Valkenburgh from Coin Center and David Morris of The Rage, freshly back from the SDNY courtroom with the inside scoop on the Roman Storm verdict. In this episode we unpack the split decision—how Storm beat the money-laundering and sanctions-evasion counts yet was found guilty on the hot-button “unlicensed money-transmission” charge—and what that single conviction means for every non-custodial developer in crypto. Peter breaks down the legal tightrope between FinCEN guidance and DOJ prosecution, outlines three clear appeal paths (including the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act), and explains why Roman’s case could still beco...
2025-08-0700 min
Bitcoin Magazine PodcastThe Criminalization of Privacy: Tornado Cash Guilty Verdict Analysis w/ Peter Van ValkenburghIn episode 4 of Bitcoin Politics, special guest Peter Van Valkenburgh, Executive Director of Coin Center, joins Bitcoin Magazine Political Correspondent Frank Corva to discuss the Tornado Cash trial verdict and analyze what this might mean for legal precedent and the future of financial privacy.Roman Storm of Tornado Cash was found guilty of unlicensed money transmission, a ruling with massive implications for open-source developers. Peter analyzes the outlook for future legal proceedings, breaks down what the means for privacy, code, and the future of Bitcoin and speech.🔶 Connect with Pet...
2025-08-0747 min
The Gwart Show | Blockspace MediaTornado Cash, the DOJ and Coin CenterWelcome back to The Gwart Show! Peter van Valkenburgh breaks down Coin Center's legal battle against the DOJ's crackdown on privacy tools like Tornado Cash. From First Amendment rights to money transmission laws, we explore how these cases could alter development. Peter explains why software isn't money transmission and how these prosecutions threaten innovation in America.🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @valkenburgh @coincenter 📝Quick notes & topics:• Code as protected speech• DOJ vs privacy tools• Money transmission laws• First Amendment right...
2025-02-021h 14
BanklessA Short Story About Private Law | Peter Van ValkenburghThe Director of Research at Coincenter, Peter Van Valkenburgh joins us for our final talk at the Bankless Summit with a story that hits close to home about privacy and surveillance. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 🤖 dYdX | UNLIMITED LAUNCHING SOON https://bankless.cc/dYdXUnlimited 🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT https://bankless.cc/toku 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🦄UNISWAP | BROWSER EXTENSION
2024-11-2736 min
Galaxy BrainsThe Senate Bill Coming to Kill Crypto w/ Peter Van ValkenburghAlex talks with CoinCenter’s Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh about the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act and other issues regarding privacy and crypto. Alex also talks with Beimnet Abebe (Galaxy Trading) about markets and macro.This episode was recorded on Wednesday, December 13, 2023.++Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.co...
2023-12-1451 min
Monero TalkPeter Van Valkenburgh — Could Monero be Sanctioned like Tornado CashTODAY'S 🎙SHOW: Douglas Tuman interviews Peter Van Valkenburgh who works as research director at CoinCenter. Peter is one of the most well spoken and impactful advocates for creating a positive cryptocurrency regulation landscape and makes some of the strongest legal arguments for why the gov banning of true digital cash-like cryptocurrencies would be unconstitutional.
The two discuss the history of legal issues around crypto, OFAC and the current state of AML regulations, the implications of the Tornado Cash case for the Monero ecosystem, the nuances of sanctioning decentralized exchanges, mixers and smart contracts, Monero vs. Zcash and Bit...
2022-08-281h 18
UnchainedIs TRM Labs Blocking Addresses From DeFi Protocols? Ari Redbord Says NoAri Redbord, Head of Legal and Government Affairs at TRM Labs, talks about the sanctions on Tornado Cash, and the role of blockchain analytics tools in crypto. Show highlights:
Ari’s background as a federal prosecutor and his work for the US Treasury
why regulators sanctioned Tornado Cash, according to Ari
why the Ronin hack was important for regulators to start taking DeFi hacks more seriously
the fact that for the first time the Treasury Department sanctioned software
whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) messed up
whether regulators understood the impact on regu...
2022-08-1938 minUnchainedIs TRM Labs Blocking Addresses From DeFi Protocols? Ari Redbord Says NoAri Redbord, Head of Legal and Government Affairs at TRM Labs, talks about the sanctions on Tornado Cash, and the role of blockchain analytics tools in crypto. Show highlights:
Ari’s background as a federal prosecutor and his work for the US Treasury
why regulators sanctioned Tornado Cash, according to Ari
why the Ronin hack was important for regulators to start taking DeFi hacks more seriously
the fact that for the first time the Treasury Department sanctioned software
whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) messed up
whether regulators understood the impact on regu...
2022-08-1938 min
UnchainedThe Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. In this episode, Laura Shin, host of Unchained and author of The Cryptopians, also joined the conversation. Show topics:
What Tornado Cash is and why it got sanctioned by the OFAC
The difference between Tornado Cash and blender.io
Whether privacy is dead as a category and whether regulators are going after it
How these sanctions have a negative impact on the funding of privacy projects
How people wit...
2022-08-181h 18UnchainedThe Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. In this episode, Laura Shin, host of Unchained and author of The Cryptopians, also joined the conversation. Show topics:
What Tornado Cash is and why it got sanctioned by the OFAC
The difference between Tornado Cash and blender.io
Whether privacy is dead as a category and whether regulators are going after it
How these sanctions have a negative impact on the funding of privacy projects
How people wit...
2022-08-181h 18
UnchainedTornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, talks about Tornado Cash, why it was sanctioned, and what this means for privacy in crypto. Show highlights: what Blender.io is and how it relates to Tornado Cash how hackers have used Tornado Cash to launder money whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control made a mistake, according to Jerry how Americans were affected by the sanctions why Jerry believes OFAC should have done an analysis to estimate how many people would be impacted by its decision whether the sanctions should have been aimed at North Koren wallets an...
2022-08-1237 minUnchainedTornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, talks about Tornado Cash, why it was sanctioned, and what this means for privacy in crypto. Show highlights: what Blender.io is and how it relates to Tornado Cash how hackers have used Tornado Cash to launder money whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control made a mistake, according to Jerry how Americans were affected by the sanctions why Jerry believes OFAC should have done an analysis to estimate how many people would be impacted by its decision whether the sanctions should have been aimed at North Koren wallets an...
2022-08-1237 min
Law of Code#52 - Peter Van Valkenburgh: Constitutional Challenges & Crypto PrivacyPeter Van Valkenburgh (@valkenburgh) is the director of research for Coin Center, the leading non-profit focused on the policy issues facing cryptocurrencies. He was previously the Google Policy Fellow for TechFreedom and is a graduate of NYU School of Law, as well as a self-taught designer and coder.
In this episode, we discuss Peter's role at Coin Center, the U.S. Constitution & Crypto, and the SEC's definition of an exchange.
Show highlights:
[1:10] Genesis block
[9:20] Writing
[13:50] Societal impact
[18:00] Decentralization
[24:00] Exchanges
[29:10] Legal interpretations
[34:00] B...
2022-06-271h 06
UnchainedWhy the SEC's Proposed Rules Affecting DeFi Could Violate the First AmendmentPeter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, discusses a proposed rule by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that has massive implications for the free-speech rights of crypto software developers in the US. Show highlights: why an SEC proposal changing the definition of “exchange” could violate the right to free speech of US crypto developers whether the SEC is going after DeFi on purpose – as its 200+ page proposal never mentions crypto or DeFi what precedent Peter has found that should prohibit the SEC from taking away software developers’ right to free speech how Peter and Coin Center s...
2022-04-2242 minUnchainedWhy the SEC's Proposed Rules Affecting DeFi Could Violate the First AmendmentPeter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, discusses a proposed rule by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that has massive implications for the free-speech rights of crypto software developers in the US. Show highlights: why an SEC proposal changing the definition of “exchange” could violate the right to free speech of US crypto developers whether the SEC is going after DeFi on purpose – as its 200+ page proposal never mentions crypto or DeFi what precedent Peter has found that should prohibit the SEC from taking away software developers’ right to free speech how Peter and Coin Center s...
2022-04-2242 min
Speaking of Bitcoin (formerly Let's Talk Bitcoin!)SOB #453 - Washington, Regulation & Bitcoin Custody with Peter Van ValkenburghOn this episode of Speaking of Bitcoin, CoinCenter’s Research Director, Peter Van Valkenburgh, joins the hosts for a discussion about FinCEN’s “Self Custodied Wallet” rule. The recently proposed, much commented attempt to extend rules which govern how banks must report on their customers would apply to companies like CoinBase plus a whole lot more. It’s a bit of a wonky topic, but one that’s critically important as bitcoin continues its march towards the mainstream and governments seek to grapple with the implications.
Interested in sponsoring Speaking of Bitcoin? Send an email to Sponsors@SpeakingofBit...
2021-02-0729 min
Zero KnowledgeCoin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh on regulation & cryptoIn this week’s episode, Anna & Josh Cincinnati chat with Peter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at Coin Center. Coin Center is a non-profit research and advocacy group focused on the public policy issues facing cryptocurrency and decentralized computing technologies. In this conversation, they cover the various branches in the US system, how these interact with the crypto/blockchain community, what the process is for making regulation and how coincenter gets involved. Here are a few of the groups that they mention: FinCen: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.SEC: U.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionCFTC: Commodities futures tr...
2021-02-031h 20
BanklessSotN#26: Defending our Nodes w/ Coin Center's Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: http://bankless.substack.com/ ✊ STARTING GUIDE BANKLESS: https://bit.ly/37Q17uI❤️ JOIN PRIVATE DISCORD: https://bit.ly/2UVI10O🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/ 👕 BUY BANKLESS TEE: https://merch.banklesshq.com/ ----- GO BANKLESS WITH THESE SPONSOR TOOLS: ⭐️LEDGER - BEST HARDWARE WALLET TO SECURE YOUR CRYPTOhttps://bankless.cc/ledger 🚀 ARGENT - INVEST IN DEFI FROM ONE PLACE (download it now!) https://bankless.cc/argent 💳 MONOLITH - GET THE HOLY GRAIL OF BANKLESS VISA CARDS https://bankless.cc/monolit...
2020-12-091h 25
UnconfirmedWhy the Congressional Hearings on Facebook's Libra Were Good for BitcoinPeter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, explains the significance of all the governmental activity around crypto in the last week -- the President's tweets, the Treasury Secretary's and Fed Chair's remarks and of course the Congressional hearings about Libra. We discuss whether Facebook's baggage could harm regulation of the space broadly, just what Libra is and who controls it (especially compared to decentralized networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum), and how that might require different regulatory approaches. We also covered how the lack of partisanship in the line of questioning could affect Libra's prospects, the odds that...
2019-07-1945 min
Let's Talk Bitcoin!Let's Talk Bitcoin! #391 Exploring California's Crypto-LegislationOn Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin... Adam B. Levine explores AB1489 or "The California Bitlicense" and AB953 "or The California Stablecoin Cannabis Taxation Bill" through a series of short interviews on various sides of the issues. First, we speak to Colin Gallagher, a longtime community member in California who shares his concerns about the process and substance of both the bills we're discussing today. Next, Peter Van Valkenburgh joins us from Coincenter for his perspective on why the California Bitlicense is a de-regulating bill, why they help craft good legislation for those...
2019-03-101h 01
???? WORDS?MUSIC DJ SANO MOTOHARUCFTC Talks EP066: Coincenter.org Peter Van ValkenburghThis week on CFTC Talks, we bring on Coincenter.org Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh. We discuss the key new innovation underneath bitcoin: the consensus mechanism. Curious how bitcoins are created and why there’s a limit? Listen and find out. This show was originally broadcast on 12/28/2017.
2018-10-0539 min
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesPeter Van Valkenburgh: Where US Cryptocurrency Regulation is HeadingOver the past year, as cryptocurrencies and ICOs started to go mainstream, we have seen a huge surge in regulatory activities. In the US, many different regulatory bodies including SEC, CFTC and FinCEN stepped forward to regulate crypto projects in different ways. Seemingly contradictory statements have added to confusion and fear of a broad crackdown looming.
We were joined by CoinCenter Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh to shed clarity on recent developments and understand where things are heading.
Topics covered in this episode:
The recent congressional hearings about cryptocurrencies and ICOs
How the...
2018-03-211h 10
Let's Talk Bitcoin!LTB #355 - Pachyderms and PoliticsOn Today's Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin... Adam sits down with Peter Van Valkenburgh, Director of research at CoinCenter.org to talk about the meaning and implications of the recent US Regulatory hearings on cryptocurrency. Then, the complete testimony plus question and answer session is presented for those who want to get the complete picture, or who are just curious about how both regulators and lawmakers are thinking about tokens in 2018. This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! was sponsored by EasyDNS.com and edited by Adam B. Levine. Thanks to Peter Van Valkenburgh and Adam B. Levine for participating in...
2018-02-102h 13
The Third WebThe Ether Review #32 - Peter Van Valkenburgh, The DAO & RegulationPeter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at Coin Center explains the regulatory considerations that may bear on DAO tokens. This episode was recorded before the hack but is still an excellent guide for those interested in understanding the importance of due legal diligence in advance of a crowd sale. https://coincenter.org/ etherreview.info Thank you to cryptocompare.com Content: Arthur Falls, Peter Van Valkenburgh
2016-06-2247 min
The Third WebThe Ether Review #32 - Peter Van Valkenburgh, The DAO & RegulationPeter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at Coin Center explains the regulatory considerations that may bear on DAO tokens. This episode was recorded before the hack but is still an excellent guide for those interested in understanding the importance of due legal diligence in advance of a crowd sale.https://coincenter.org/etherreview.infoThank you to cryptocompare.comContent: Arthur Falls, Peter Van Valkenburgh
2016-06-2247 min