Overview
- Coin Center released a report that frames writing and publishing cryptocurrency software as speech protected by the First Amendment.
- The paper draws a bright line that regulation should begin only when a developer controls user funds or executes transactions for a user.
- The group cites Supreme Court precedent, including Lowe v. SEC, and earlier rulings like Bernstein v. U.S., to argue that publishing code is like publishing a book or recipe.
- The report responds to legal pressure on developers, pointing to convictions tied to Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing tool, and Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused Bitcoin app.
- The authors warn that licensing or pre-registration for code publishing would be a prior restraint on speech, and they say courts should apply existing speech doctrine rather than invent new rules for software.