Law & Policy

NEW: On July 7, 2025, DEF, Paradigm, Bitcoin Policy Institute, Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation, Digital Chamber of Commerce, Solana Policy Institute, and the Uniswap Foundation, filed an amicus brief in Michael Lewellen v. Pamela Bondi in support of Lewellen’s opposition to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss. 

Let's dive in🧵

"[the prosecution of software developers as unlicensed money transmitters] is no different from holding firearm companies liable for gun crimes, car companies liable for speeding, or telecom providers liable for criminal conspiracies hatched over the phone." 👏 👏 👏

Tech Transactions and IP attorney with an NFT obsession. I like suing people. Get all my legal updates here: https://linktr.ee/birdnals

Interested in legal technology, crypto, blockchain, DeFi and real world assets.
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That's what it was. Broke the causal connection. Concept seems to hold though. If I publish something open source, I have no control over how others use it.

That’s more a causation thing (proximate cause standard). Here it’s not about causation, it’s statutory criminality and how the statute doesn’t make you a criminal subject to jail time for publishing non-custodial software, even if people commit crimes in part using that software.

Oof. It's been a long time. What is it called? Was it "intervening criminal act?" Is that the phrase we learned in law school?