What a week! Roman Storm's trial for Tornado Cash started, the Genius Act was signed into law, Ethereum decided it was finally time to run hard and teleported to 3600. Every dog shit token you have forgotten about went up too. Oh and don't forget about that doctored Epstein surveillance video drama. The world got a little less free and a little more surveilled like it does every week.
I got some new subscribers, welcome my friends! I hope you enjoy the latest Round Up of Cool Shit, Fucked Up Shit, and Dog Shit (working title)! I try not to take the round up too seriously and don't obsess over every word like I do sometimes with my regular articles, so if there are any errors I'm sorry!
The Rage (great example of real journalists) has continued it's excellent reporting on the Tornado Cash case, they have boots on the ground at the trial of Roman Storm which started on the 17th. So far we have discovered the Feds suck at math, they wrongly attributed a TG chat message to Storm when it was from a reporter, and the prosecutors don't want Storm's defense bringing up privacy at all. I never understood how in a so called "free society" with enshrined freedom of speech why you can be prohibited from speaking on certain topics during a criminal trial. Maybe someone can explain that one to me please.
Some highlights
The defense asked the Jury how they would feel if someone published their bank accounts on the Internet. The Government isn't happy.
Also here is an interview with Roman Storm
WATCH our exclusive interview with @rstormsf out on all platforms NOW! 
Looks like the Government did a botched cover up once again. Honestly, they probably don't really care if we find out they are lying, because they assume we can't do anything about it. The problem with having so much power is it makes you feel invincible, kind of like you can just off someone and get away with it by just using Adobe Premier on the surveillance video! It was not long after the release before the video was confirmed as altered, but even before that was confirmed @adamscohran noticed lots of weird things about the video and has some good threads about it.
Here's his first thread on the video if you missed it
More great analysis of the Epstein surveillance video from @adamscochran, apparently there wasn't just footage removed, the footage was doctored as well.
The Smoking Gun: Proof the Epstein Footage was not just cut, but *ALTERED*
A brief rant about the Genius Act passing:
I've been watching CT celebrate stablecoin and crypto regulation like it's a good thing. What we really needed was a bill that just says - math is math, code is speech, do whatever the fuck you want with code as long as you aren't causing direct physical harm or violating property rights. Like you probably shouldn't be allowed to launch a decentralized tokenized network of killer attack drones, or be allowed to outright steal someone's crypto. Other than robbing or hurting people, you should be able to do whatever. If I want to launch a tokenized unregistered securities offering to anyone with crypto to spend, I should be able to. If I want to create an unregistered online casino with no ID verification/KYC, why the fuck not? If I want to offer NFTs made out of illegally downloaded academic papers, that should be cool too. How about a decentralized 3D gun printing operation in which token holders get a cut of all gun sales? A token offering partial ownership in a decentralized Silk Road 2.0? Yes sir please thanks.
Unfortunately the crypto legislation that just passed is nothing cool like my imaginary freedom maximalist bill. Instead we get a bunch of regulations that protect incumbents, stifle innovation, and attack privacy. A good rule of thumb is, if it passes Congress, it's almost always a net negative for your freedom some how some way. It might not always be obvious how it does, but there is a 99% chance.
The main good thing I can say about the passage and signing of the Genius Act and the passage in the House of the other crypto related bills is that at least cryptocurrency developers have something to go by now. When you have a clear set of rules, we can immediately start to figure out how to work around those rules. You can look for loopholes and hover on the very edge of legality. Before we had legislation, the Government was doing regulation through enforcement, which just meant crypto developers had no idea what was going to get them in trouble and what wasn't, they were flying blind. The Government was arbitrarily making shit up on the fly and picking and choosing who to go after for imaginary violations of imaginary rules. At least now you can point to the law and be like no asshole, you said this was legal, so get off my back. This means it will be easier for developers to know exactly how to stay out of prison and to avoid getting fined. It's hard to develop freedom tech if you are broke and/or in prison.
Of course that also means that developers will make decisions about their software and tokens partially based on what's legal instead of what is best for users. What's best for the project from a technological perspective is often different than from a regulatory perspective. Because regulations make people and businesses alter their behavior, they often lead to unintended consequences regardless of good or bad intentions. Only time will tell what unintended consequences will result from the Genius Act.
The Genius Act (S.1582) basically turns USDC into the CBDC we were trying to avoid and creates a regulatory moat around the incumbents that prevents any new stablecoins from entering the United States market without jumping through a lot of hoops. Post Genius Act stablecoins aren't allowed to give users yield either, because the Government wants you to be as poor as possible because poor people are too busy just trying to pay rent they don't have time to be troublesome to the state or question authority.
As a joke they also passed the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (H.R. 1919) to win over the last few holdouts for the Genius Act. This bans the Federal Reserve from ever issuing a CBDC. The joke is that doesn't actually matter because the Genius Act puts USDC and other stablecoins under Federal oversight. USDC is already freezable and trackable, now it's under federal oversight as well instead of just Circle. Mass adoption of USDC is not far off, and once everyone is using it instead of using something decentralized and permissionless, it will be incredibly easy for the Federal Government to freeze and control funds. Let's say you attend an unapproved protest and get your face scanned by surveillance drones. You might wake up the next day to find that all your USDC is frozen and you won't be able to do a damn thing about it.
By giving it's blessing to existing centralized US Treasury backed stablecoins like USDC that will be fully compliant with KYC/AML regulations, they are ensuring demand for US Treasuries continues which will fund war and a massive surveillance state. We should be using stablecoins that are decentralized and backed by crypto assets like Bitcoin, not US debt. Developing new stablecoins will become very expensive because of all the regulations you now have to deal with to be allowed in the United States.
Everything that people were worried about happening with a CBDC, such as the government tracking payments, freezing funds, and controling what you can spend or not spend and on what, is now potentially being replicated with private stablecoins that are now under Federal oversight. It is just a CBDC under a different name. It's a brilliant and evil rebranding move. Why waste time and resources developing a CBDC and pissing off people, when you can just use USDC, regulate it, and pretend like it's not a CBDC simply because Circle developed it and not the Fed? It still has all the features of a CBDC, everything the Federal Government needs to create a dystopian financial surveillance state in which most transactions are traced, taxed, and tightly controlled. Circle has (whether they intended to or not) created the de facto CBDC for the Federal Government and the Genius Act seals the deal. USDT will enable the same thing, except internationally so that the United States can also extend it's financial surveillance worldwide because they use usually use USDT overseas rather than USDC.
The solution is build and adopt alternatives to these centralized US treasury backed stablecoins. We need to create privacy preserving alternatives, backed by Bitcoin, and we need to do it now. Thank God we have Monero at least, which does function as private digital cash, but like most cryptocurrencies it's relatively volatile. Obviously, a lot of folks want something that is going to be worth the same amount tomorrow as it is today, that's why stablecoins are so popular. There have been several attempts at a private stablecoin, but all of them have either failed outright or failed to get any adoption. We need to keep trying though, this is really important.
Bitcoin ATM data breach, yet another example of the dangers of KYC. 57,000 users are now at risk of 5 dollar wrench attacks thanks to the state forcing Bitcoin ATM operators to collect unnecessary personal information on their customers.
Also Bitcoin ATMs are now banned in New Zealand because of "money laundering" which is code for "we want to control every aspect of your life".
Dogecoin corporate treasuries is either a top signal or a signal to buy DOGE, idk which.
If you tried to buy the pump dot fun ICO on a CEX it probably failed, whereas onchain transactions worked.
European authorities are misrepresenting GrapheneOS as a tool for criminals rather than what it is, a tool for anyone who cares about personal privacy.
Los Google Pixel son los máximos representantes de Android, con permiso de Samsung. Es por ello que convencen a los usuarios entusiastas del sistema...
Trump signs an executive order to allow people to invest in Bitcoin, Gold, and other alternative assets through their 401ks. That only opens up, oh you know just a measly....NINE TRILLION dollars in potential bitcoin investment. You don't have enough sats. Neither do I. I also don't have a 401k or even a bank account, but I do have a Bitcoin wallet.
If you have a Brother printer might want to take a look at this new vulnerability and update your firmware. I know, only nerds update firmware on their printer but in a world where every device connects to your home internet network, that means every device is a potential attack vector. So update your firmware, regularly, on everything! Maybe also think twice about your next smart device purchase..do you really need a smart fridge?
More age verification rolling out, this one is Bluesky in the UK. Age verification will fuck up the internet, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to resist age verification if you think a free and open internet is important.
Don't snitch, as this story demonstrates the government won't protect you because
a) they are incompetent and
b) they don't give a shit about you beyond what they can use you for!
Official was connected to FBI probe of cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
Now they are using routers to track motion inside your house. This is why you should consider using your own router and not your internet company's equipment.
This is old news but in case you missed it Ledger will no longer be supporting Nano S's, which happens to be one of the wallets I still use (I know I know). Supposedly it doesn't have enough memory to continue supporting it or something.
Tails 6.17 released
Rand Paul trying to audit the Fed, like father like son.
BREAKING: Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Rand Paul (R-KY) file legislation MANDATING A FULL AUDIT of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors and all regional Fed Banks.
Fiat found more addictive than Meth!
The success of "contingency management" belies the notion that addiction is an uncontrollable disease caused by a drug's impact on dopamine levels.
New Cloak and Dagger episode:
Thanks for reading! I'll try to get another Round Up out for you next week! Or maybe the following week...we'll see what happens.
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