From 1974-1986, the Golden State Killer dedicated 13 identified murders, upwards of 67 sexual assaults and 120 burglaries in 11 totally different jurisdictions in California, however then he instantly stopped. He merely disappeared, and his id remained a secret for over 30 years, till we lastly caught him utilizing a brand new revolutionary expertise. Using Investigative Genetic Family tree (IGG), which mixes forensic DNA evaluation and genealogical analysis, we cracked the case, and I led the prosecution workforce that introduced the Golden State Killer to justice. Since we first used IGG to resolve this case, legislation enforcement all over the world has solved over a thousand chilly instances utilizing this revolutionary expertise. However what would have occurred if lawmakers instantly overregulated, or worse but, banned using IGG? We might see numerous kids, ladies and grieving households denied their due measure of justice.
We should always promote innovation, not punish it. In areas resembling cryptocurrency, ambiguous guidelines and enforcement result in confusion and stifle development, which drives industries underground and offshore. This creates an atmosphere the place actual “unhealthy actors” exploit the legislation and goal the susceptible – and get away with it.
Because the District Lawyer of Sacramento, I’ve spent greater than 25 years holding individuals accountable. I prosecuted gang members, charged hate crime offenders and went after drug traffickers. I’ve additionally prosecuted fraud, monetary crimes, corruption and high-tech crimes on the highest ranges. As somebody who has authored and helped go laws, I’m conscious that each prosecutors and the general public want readability in regards to the legal guidelines that govern them. I do know what actual crime appears like, and I do know the distinction between a real prison and an business caught within the crosshairs of a legislation that was by no means meant for them.
That distinction issues now greater than ever, as federal prosecutors have been weaponizing a statute towards software program builders who’ve by no means touched a buyer’s funds, by no means operated a enterprise within the conventional sense, and by no means harbored prison intent. As somebody who has devoted his profession to justice, I’m right here to say that’s not justice, that’s overreach.
Congress enacted 18 U.S.C. Part 1960 to focus on money-transmitting companies, resembling storefronts, wire providers, and change homes that deal with different individuals’s cash and skirt the licensing necessities designed to stop cash laundering. It was designed because the enforcement mechanism for licensing necessities below the Financial institution Secrecy Act, aimed squarely at conventional cash providers companies. It was a smart software for a smart goal. What it was by no means meant to do is criminalize the writing of software program.
But that’s exactly what has occurred. Federal prosecutors have stretched Part 1960 to succeed in builders of noncustodial, peer-to-peer blockchain expertise. These are individuals who constructed open-source instruments that automate transactions between keen events, however who by no means held a single greenback of person funds, by no means had “clients” in any actual sense of the phrase, and by no means had any capability to intercept or redirect belongings. Neither the builders nor the software program itself controls different individuals’s funds or transfers funds on their behalf. Charging them below a statute constructed for conventional monetary intermediaries is a mistake, as a result of it’s misinformed and misdirected. As prosecutors, justice requires that we cost individuals with what they really did, below legal guidelines designed to cowl it.
The “regulation-by-prosecution” method to crypto growth fails that take a look at badly. This method chills open-source innovation, pushing many U.S. builders offshore. This unfairly saddles some with a prison conviction and erodes American technological management in an space of consequential monetary innovation. The U.S. share of open-source builders fell from 25% in 2021 to 18% in 2025, pushed by a scarcity of clear guidelines for software program growth. Each developer we chase abroad is a developer who now builds infrastructure past the attain of U.S. oversight and past the attain of U.S. legislation enforcement when one thing does go fallacious.
That isn’t a win for public security; that may be a self-inflicted wound.
The excellent news is that a few of that is starting to alter. In April of 2025, the USA Division of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum entitled “Ending
Regulation-by-Prosecution,” making clear that the DOJ won’t implement pure regulatory violations below Part 1960. Following the memo, the DOJ introduced it could not approve new Part 1960 prices “the place the proof reveals that software program is really decentralized and solely automates peer-to-peer transactions, and the place a 3rd celebration doesn’t have custody and management over person belongings.” That’s what the legislation has all the time required.
However neither a memo nor a speech is a statute. Prosecutorial steerage can change with administrations and with U.S. Attorneys. The American innovation group and the general public deserve readability written into legislation. That’s the reason the Selling Innovation in Blockchain Growth Act now earlier than Congress deserves critical assist. It restores the unique intent of Part 1960: defending the general public from unlicensed monetary intermediaries.
I’m not naive about unhealthy actors – there are real criminals who use digital belongings to launder cash and defraud victims. I’ve prosecuted them. I assist sturdy enforcement towards these criminals with the complete weight of relevant legislation. The reply right here is solely to not abandon the excellence between the software and the prison who wields it. We do not cost e mail suppliers for wire fraud. We determine the precise unhealthy actor, construct the case and prosecute with proof.
Part 1960 stays a strong instrument towards real money-transmitting criminals within the digital asset area. Custodial exchanges that knowingly course of prison proceeds, centralized mixers operated particularly to obscure illicit funds, platforms that flout FinCEN registration whereas holding buyer belongings – these are legit targets, and the legislation reaches them. It doesn’t should be stretched to succeed in a software program developer in a Sacramento residence who wrote a peer-to-peer protocol and by no means held a dime of another person’s cash.
I got here to this nation as a baby refugee from Vietnam, with nothing however my household and the idea that America rewards onerous work and respects the rule of legislation. The rule of legislation cuts each methods. It protects communities from violent crime, but it surely additionally protects innovators from overreach.
I run an workplace of almost 500 workers that prosecutes almost 30,000 instances a yr. As the pinnacle of the second-largest District Lawyer’s Workplace in Northern California, I’ve stood in courtrooms for 25 years and sworn to characterize victims, the susceptible and the unvoiced. I consider that getting this distinction proper must be a fundamental obligation of our Federal Authorities. Part 1960 is an effective legislation that has been misused in relation to these concerned in creating really decentralized finance expertise. Repair the applying, goal the precise criminals and let American innovation breathe. That’s what justice calls for, and that’s what I’ll maintain preventing for.
