Uncategorized
Ross Is Free. Now Let’s Free the Internet-of-Money

The release of Ross Ulbricht and the lifting of sanctions on Tornado Cash mark pivotal moments for the crypto community. It’s more than symbolic. It’s an opportunity to clearly rebrand the U.S. as a safe place to build the internet of money.
Ross’ freedom comes after over a decade of imprisonment — a journey defined by relentless advocacy, legal battles, and unwavering support from the crypto community. His release matters deeply to me because over a decade ago I launched Silk Road 2.0, his site’s successor.
His double life sentence without parole wasn’t just about the Silk Road, though. It symbolized the U.S. government’s resistance to the blockchain industry and to the idea of a financial system controlled by individuals instead of big banks.
The U.S. dollar is the world reserve currency; and, cryptocurrency has given the world democratized access to this reserve via stablecoins. Satoshi Nakamoto announced Bitcoin as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” and the Silk Road was the first to actually execute that vision. Silk Road opened the door to cryptocurrency and introduced Silicon Valley (and many other groups) to bitcoin. It spawned companies like Coinbase, projects like Ethereum, and paved the way for stablecoins, which are not yet private.
Still, there is no legitimate marketplace for buying and selling things with bitcoin. Our industry’s reputation is that we’re highly speculative and scam-filled. We can’t forget that Satoshi created bitcoin for payments, not speculation.The U.S. cannot miss out on the internet-of-money. During previous administrations, global developers have become nervous to even attend conferences hosted here. This has consequences for the U.S. crypto industry. Ross’ release is a clear signal that the U.S. is no longer a scary place to innovate in cryptocurrency. His experience underscores the need for proportionate justice and serves as a reminder of the human cost of overreach in regulating innovation.
Read more: Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Pardoned by President Trump
His release is an opportunity for reflection — to celebrate his freedom while remaining clear-eyed about the past. Ultimately, his harsh sentence stymied bitcoin innovation for all of us. We must ensure his case becomes a catalyst for constructive change rather than a footnote in a history of missed opportunities, a series of memecoins, or a divisive narrative that further erodes trust.
Similarly, the case of Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm — who is still in legal jeopardy — clearly shows the dangers of criminalizing innovation. Tornado Cash offers a critical function (a “mixer”) in enabling private Ethereum transactions — an essential component of conducting business competitively.
It’s important to create privacy technologies, but we also need to understand the line between legal and illegal use cases. Yes, launch the Silk Road, but don’t allow the sale of drugs on it. Launch Tornado Cash, but don’t encourage money laundering on it. The chilling effect that both cases have had on developers like me cannot be overstated. Privacy innovators in the U.S. and abroad are now second-guessing their work, fearing legal repercussions for creating tools that protect privacy.
And what do you do when you launch something decentralized that takes on a life of its own? The sanctions on Tornado Cash were deemed unlawful by the Fifth Circuit Court, yet the Department of Justice dismissed the ruling as irrelevant. Tornado Cash’s developers were allegedly aware of its misuse for money laundering but did not act decisively to address it. On a decentralized platform, should its initial developers be responsible for users’ activity? There is a clear need for America to define a “Section 230” for developers of decentralized software to not be criminally liable for what their users do on their platforms. (“Section 230” refers to a law freeing social media platforms from responsibility for content published on their networks.)
Read more:
As entrepreneur-politician Vivek Ramaswamy said, “You can’t go after the developers of code. What you actually need to do is go after individual bad actors who are breaking the laws that already exist.”
To move forward as an industry, we need to separate the tools from the misuse of those tools. Privacy technologies like Tornado Cash, Monero, and Zcash are unfairly stigmatized due to their potential use for illicit activities. But they hold transformative potential for legitimate use cases, from safeguarding personal financial data to enabling secure business transactions.
Zcash, with its optional shielded transactions, provides individuals and businesses with the ability to conduct secure, private transactions while remaining compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. Such innovations bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and traditional industries, empowering businesses to adopt crypto without exposing sensitive financial details.
Privacy tech like Zcash also addresses a fundamental flaw in bitcoin and other public ledger cryptocurrencies: the exposure of transaction data that creates competitive disadvantages and privacy risks. Soon, Zcash will be on Mayachain, allowing a decentralized way to convert between bitcoin and Zcash. It will also soon support ZSAs (shielded assets), which will enable stablecoins to be issued privately for the first time.
The new administration has proposed a national “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” but this raises questions about privacy and decentralization. Unlike other reserves, such as gold, Bitcoin’s blockchain discloses deposits and withdrawals to the public forever. Is the Trump Administration aware of this? This level of transparency is a double-edged sword, making privacy technologies even more essential for maintaining competitive and strategic advantages.
So, where do we go from here? Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency industry are at a crossroads. This is a moment to refocus on the principles that drove early adoption: a perception of privacy, financial freedom and, most importantly, peer-to-peer payments.
The U.S. crypto landscape, currently a mess of regulatory uncertainty, scams, and collapses, needs reevaluation. Rather than demonizing privacy innovations, policymakers must work with developers to create clear, enforceable standards for responsible uses of “electronic cash.” This means proactive education and collaboration with regulators, more investment in privacy technologies, and development of a regulatory framework that encourages U.S. blockchain innovation.
Uncategorized
CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: SUI and POL Rise 7.5%, Leading Index Higher

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2556.62, up 2.1% (+52.39) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.
Fifteen of 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: SUI (+7.5%) and POL (+7.5%).
Laggards: FIL (-4.5%) and XLM (-1.6%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
Uncategorized
DAO Infrastructure Provider Tally Raises $8M to Scale On-Chain Governance

Tally, a leader in on-chain governance tooling, has secured $8 million in Series A funding aimed at scaling its governance technology to more crypto-native decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
Tally is best known for the Tally Protocol, which powers infrastructure to help leading protocols conduct effective on-chain governance of their DAOs, including Arbitrum, Uniswap DAO, ZKsync, Wormhole, Eigenlayer, Obol and Hyperlane.
«We’ve built this complete stack of software for operating these on-chain organizations,» Dennison Bertram, CEO and co-founder of Tally Protocol, said in an interview with CoinDesk. «We can take you from your idea to launching your token, to distributing your membership or ownership, all the way to the value accrual for your protocol.»
The platform began as a DAO governance tool and has evolved into the most widely adopted software stack for on-chain organizations across the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, it said in a release.
«On-chain governance and capital formation could, in theory, dramatically reduce the complexity and cost of forming and operating organizations by moving these processes entirely into software rather than traditional jurisdictions guided by platforms like Tally,» Bertram said.
One day, on-chain organizations might be seen as a way to compete with nation states, he argued, referencing the costly and lawyer-intensive process of registering foundations and other legal entities typically used for crypto.
«Whoever embraces crypto really fully might actually be embracing fully the future,» he said.
Fixing vote turnout for better governance
One issue that Tally aims to tackle with funding from the Series A is low voter participation and apathy in DAO governance, which has led to sometimes controversial outcomes.
Last year, for example, a group of CompoundDAO token holders, called Golden Boys, successfully passed a controversial proposal to create a yield-bearing product called goldCOMP.
Despite initially gaining traction, the proposal faced significant controversy due to perceived irregularities, low voter turnout and a lack of widespread community engagement.
Ultimately, the Golden Boys agreed to cancel goldCOMP, which highlighted the broader issue of governance apathy within DAOs rather than any technical exploit or malicious intent.
«Many of the people that you should expect to vote ‘no’ on something like this didn’t show up,» Bertram said in an earlier interview. «What it shows is that the democratic process of governing a DAO is imperfect and needs improvement.»
To address this, Tally has developed staking mechanisms designed to reward active governance participants economically. Users can stake their governance tokens to receive Tally Liquid Staked Tokens (tLSTs), earning passive, auto-compounding yields while retaining voting rights within DAOs.
“This fundraise is really about leaning into the original vision,” Bertram said. “Now that we’ve proven that this works, that you can have these large organizations, it’s time to really scale it up.”
Institutions are getting involved in DAOs
Bertram also emphasized that recent regulatory clarity and shifts in attitude toward crypto governance in the U.S. have opened the door for increased institutional participation in DAOs.
“With this clarity, we’re going to get a lot more participation, not necessarily from average Joe token holders, but actually from large organizations that depend on the infrastructure they’re building on,” he said. “These organizations are going to need and want the ability to actually govern the infrastructure that they operate on.”
Ultimately, Bertram sees Tally’s role as pivotal in advancing decentralized governance and unlocking greater economic value for token holders by directly rewarding active, informed participants.
«Given the new acceptance of crypto as a key driver of future value in America, it’s time to scale it beyond crypto and make it a core primitive for creating new organizations,” he said.
The round was led by Appworks and Blockchain Capital with participation from BitGo amongst others.
Tally previously raised $7.5 million in 2021 across two funding rounds.
Uncategorized
Dutch Bank ING Said to Be Working on a New Stablecoin With Other TradFi and Crypto Firms

Dutch bank ING is working on a stablecoin, looking to take advantage of Europe’s new cryptocurrency regulations that came into force last year, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.
ING’s stablecoin project could take the form of a consortium effort involving other banks and crypto service providers, both people said.
“ING is working on a stablecoin project with a few other banks. It’s moving slow as multiple banks need board approval to set up a joint entity,” one of the sources said.
ING declined to comment.
Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets regime [MiCA] requires stablecoin issuers across EU member countries to hold an authorization license, while promoting the potential of euro-denominated stablecoins (the vast majority of the stablecoins in circulation are pegged to the U.S. dollar).
MiCA’s stablecoin rules, which also require issuers to maintain significant reserves in banks based in Europe, have strengthened compliant offerings like Circle’s euro stablecoin EURC over its main rival Tether, according to a note early this year from JPMorgan.
Banks like ING entering the European stablecoin space means French lender Société Générale, the first big bank to offer a stablecoin through its SG Forge innovation division, will soon have some competition.
Read more: Stablecoin Market Could Grow to $2T by End-2028: Standard Chartered
-
Fashion6 месяцев ago
These \’90s fashion trends are making a comeback in 2017
-
Entertainment6 месяцев ago
The final 6 \’Game of Thrones\’ episodes might feel like a full season
-
Fashion6 месяцев ago
According to Dior Couture, this taboo fashion accessory is back
-
Entertainment6 месяцев ago
The old and New Edition cast comes together to perform
-
Sports6 месяцев ago
Phillies\’ Aaron Altherr makes mind-boggling barehanded play
-
Business6 месяцев ago
Uber and Lyft are finally available in all of New York State
-
Entertainment6 месяцев ago
Disney\’s live-action Aladdin finally finds its stars
-
Sports6 месяцев ago
Steph Curry finally got the contract he deserves from the Warriors