From 1974-1986, the Golden State Killer dedicated 13 recognized murders, upwards of 67 sexual assaults and 120 burglaries in 11 completely different jurisdictions in California, however then he all of the sudden stopped. He merely disappeared, and his identification remained a secret for over 30 years, till we lastly caught him utilizing a brand new modern expertise. Using Investigative Genetic Family tree (IGG), which mixes forensic DNA evaluation and genealogical analysis, we cracked the case, and I led the prosecution crew that introduced the Golden State Killer to justice. Since we first used IGG to resolve this case, regulation enforcement all over the world has solved over a thousand chilly circumstances utilizing this modern expertise. However what would have occurred if lawmakers all of the sudden overregulated, or worse but, banned the usage of IGG? We might see numerous kids, girls and grieving households denied their due measure of justice.
We should always promote innovation, not punish it. In areas corresponding to cryptocurrency, ambiguous guidelines and enforcement result in confusion and stifle progress, which drives industries underground and offshore. This creates an atmosphere the place actual “dangerous actors” exploit the regulation and goal the susceptible – and get away with it.
Because the District Lawyer of Sacramento, I’ve spent greater than 25 years holding folks 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 cross laws, I’m aware 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 regulation that was by no means meant for them.
That distinction issues now greater than ever, as federal prosecutors have been weaponizing a statute in opposition to 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 isn’t justice, that’s overreach.
Congress enacted 18 U.S.C. Part 1960 to focus on money-transmitting companies, corresponding to storefronts, wire companies, and trade homes that deal with different folks’s cash and skirt the licensing necessities designed to stop cash laundering. It was designed because the enforcement mechanism for licensing necessities beneath the Financial institution Secrecy Act, aimed squarely at conventional cash companies companies. It was a smart software for a smart function. 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 achieve 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 consumer funds, by no means had “prospects” in any actual sense of the phrase, and by no means had any potential to intercept or redirect belongings. Neither the builders nor the software program itself controls different folks’s funds or transfers funds on their behalf. Charging them beneath 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 folks with what they really did, beneath legal guidelines designed to cowl it.
The “regulation-by-prosecution” strategy to crypto improvement fails that take a look at badly. This strategy 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 improvement. 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. regulation enforcement when one thing does go flawed.
That’s not a win for public security; that may be a self-inflicted wound.
The excellent news is that a few of that is starting to vary. In April of 2025, the US Division of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum entitled “Ending
Regulation-by-Prosecution,” making clear that the DOJ won’t implement pure regulatory violations beneath Part 1960. Following the memo, the DOJ introduced it will not approve new Part 1960 prices “the place the proof exhibits that software program is actually decentralized and solely automates peer-to-peer transactions, and the place a 3rd get together doesn’t have custody and management over consumer belongings.” That’s what the regulation has at all times required.
However neither a memo nor a speech is a statute. Prosecutorial steering can change with administrations and with U.S. Attorneys. The American innovation neighborhood and the general public deserve readability written into regulation. That’s the reason the Selling Innovation in Blockchain Improvement Act now earlier than Congress deserves severe assist. It restores the unique intent of Part 1960: defending the general public from unlicensed monetary intermediaries.
I’m not naive about dangerous actors – there are real criminals who use digital belongings to launder cash and defraud victims. I’ve prosecuted them. I assist sturdy enforcement in opposition to these criminals with the total weight of relevant regulation. The reply right here is just 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 establish the precise dangerous actor, construct the case and prosecute with proof.
Part 1960 stays a robust instrument in opposition to 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 official targets, and the regulation reaches them. It doesn’t must be stretched to achieve a software program developer in a Sacramento condo 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 exhausting work and respects the rule of regulation. The rule of regulation cuts each methods. It protects communities from violent crime, nevertheless it additionally protects innovators from overreach.
I run an workplace of almost 500 staff that prosecutes almost 30,000 circumstances a 12 months. As the top of the second-largest District Lawyer’s Workplace in Northern California, I’ve stood in courtrooms for 25 years and sworn to signify victims, the susceptible and the unvoiced. I consider that getting this distinction proper needs to be a fundamental obligation of our Federal Authorities. Part 1960 is an effective regulation 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 preserve combating for.