This articleTweeted by Circle founder Jeremy Allaire

Odaily Translator |

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury requested sanctions on ETH addresses associated with Tornado Cash. Circle, as a U.S. financial institution regulated by the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), together with its partner Coinbase, has restricted the movement of USDC funds in these sanctioned addresses.

It is likely that most responsible registered crypto asset service providers have taken appropriate measures to prevent customers from transacting with these addresses, or face charges of willful evasion of US sanctions compliance obligations, which may face up to 30 years in prison.

The regulatory intervention in this case has crossed an important threshold in the history of the Internet, as well as in the history of decentralized blockchain finance:The government of a large country forces all parties to completely block and restrict the operation of open source software on the Internet.

This raises a discussion on "Internet privacy, security, and the future of public Internet digital currencies." Among policy issues, we have noted the tension between privacy and security, and what happened yesterday is a realistic projection of that tension.

blogblog, which describes the actions we're taking and suggests some ways forward for the industry.

In short, now is a critical time for the crypto industry to increase its focus on major policy issues related to financial privacy.

Encrypted assets and blockchain infrastructure represent an open Internet of value exchange, and challenge the decades-old regulatory framework in terms of market structure, payment system, custody and settlement, risk management, and the most basic privacy security.

Policy direction to date has largely focused on market regulation and stablecoin issues, while global efforts continue to strengthen anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) controls on digital asset operators and intermediaries.

But the rapid growth of open-source, self-running protocols is challenging policymakers everywhere. So if we don't act now, there will be more tough enforcement action.

Next, Circle will call on encryption industry leaders, associations, and protocol developers to jointly promote legal frameworks and policy formulation, help advance legal frameworks and policies, protect user privacy and security, and develop financial integrity rules for open source protocols.

This is critical to securing the future of DeFi and digital assets on the open internet. It's not about or representing any one organization, but it's about everything we build and stand for together, and the future we believe in.