The Breakdown

To look at the US Government, it is the best of times and the worst of times for personal financial privacy. 

On the one hand, in comments before the Senate Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that FINCEN is planning more strict regulations around anti-money laundering and crypto. 

At the same time, the CEO of DropBit was arrested on money laundering charges around a bitcoin mixing service he ran between 2014 and 2017. 

In this new enforcement regime, one of the government’s major partners is Chainalysis, who have seen more than $10m in Federal agency contracts since 2015. 

Yet privacy advocates are also surprisingly enthused by comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell, who suggested in testimony to Congress that any potential US digital dollar would need to be privacy preserving.

After Monday’s quick retrace, bitcoin and the rest of the market went green again. In this episode, @nlw breaks down the shifting sentiment, looking at:

• How a partnership between Hedara Hashgraph and Google Cloud pumped HBAR more than 50% - featuring commentary from Hedara CEO Mance Harmon 
• Why Figure is launching a TV campaign to educate people about blockchain
• CNBC Fast Money actively (and convincingly) promoting the narrative of bitcoin as a safe haven asset.

Last week, Blockstack announced a new proposal through which node operators would be rewarded in bitcoin. The concept behind Proof of Transfer is that, for the cryptoasset ecosystem to run, electricity should only have to be converted into digital scarcity once. 

In this interview with @nlw, Blockstack CEO Muneeb Ali explains how, by tying the security of Blockstack’s Stacks blockchain to bitcoin, and allowing miners to be rewarded with BTC, Blockstack might be setting a new precedent for how the crypto ecosystem looks to bitcoin as a base layer.

Last week, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed Rule 195 to give token projects a 3 year safe harbor. This proposed period would allow them to distribute tokens without fear of violating securities law so long as they achieve certain standards of decentralization in that time.

Coinlist is a platform for compliant token sales. On this episode of The Breakdown, Coinlist CoFounder & President Andy Bromberg and @nlw discuss:

1. The cost of regulatory clarity in the US, including projects leaving US shores
2. Historic approaches to “compliant” token sales and what problems they still leave
3. What Commissioner Hester Peirce’s proposed Rule 195 includes 
4. The potential implications for the US crypto markets 
5. The chances that Rule 195 comes to pass

The week's full episode run in one long-run, long-drive ready podcast.

Monday | Deplatforming, Ethereum Marketing and Whether Brexit Matters for Crypto feat. Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier

Tuesday | Are Uncensorable Web Domains Blockchain's Next Killer App? Feat Namebase CEO Tieshun Roquerre

Wednesday | What All This VC and M&A Activity Tells Us About The State Of The Crypto Markets

Thursday | The Federal Reserve Has Its 'Come to Satoshi' Moment

Friday | Kraken's Dan Held on What's Different About Bitcoin At $10k This Time