A senior official of the United States Department of Justice knew that the Cryptographic Hearing in Wyoming had fresh software developers when he told them on Thursday that his department does not want to chase digital asset software developers who do not have money laundering intentions.
Matthew Galeotti, an interim assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the DOJ, made those guarantees in an event organized by the new American innovation project of the Crypto group, causing vigorous applause.
“The department will not use the federal criminal statutes for fashion a new regulatory regime on the digital asset industry,” he said. “The department will not use accusations as a legislation tool. The department should not leave innovators guessing what could lead to criminal prosecution.”
He added that “simply writing code without bad intention is not a crime.”
Those feelings arrive in the context of a couple of recent developments in the Court Chamber in which US prosecutors won sentences against cryptographic developers. The highlight, Tornado developer Cash Roman Storm was declared guilty of managing an illegal business of money transmission.
That followed closely from the agreement of a guilt agreement that involves developers behind Samourai’s wallet declared conspiracy guilty to operate a money transmission business without a license, a significantly lower load for what they had originally faced.
Galeotti directly addressed concerns about that specific criminal code in which all were convicted. He said that the Department of Justice would not use it in cases of cryptography unless prosecutors have “evidence that a defendant knew of the specific legal requirements and violated it deliberately.”
He said that the new positions will not be pressed under that code in cases where “the software is really decentralized and automates only peer transactions, and where a third party has no custody and control over user assets.”
An April memorandum issued by the attached attorney general Todd Blanche had established the position of the department under the leadership designated by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. He pointed out that the National Cryptocurrency Compliance Team had dissolved and said that the Department of Justice would adopt a careful approach to cases of cryptography after the previous administration “created a particularly uncertain regulatory environment around digital assets.” Despite the Blanche Memorando, the Southern District of New York (SDNY) He pressed forward with his cases against Storm and Samoruai wallet developers.
“Neutral tools developers without criminal intention should not be responsible for the misuse of another person of these tools,” Galeotti said in Thursday’s event, the first in the hands of the AIP that was launched this week. “If the misuse of a third violates the criminal law, then that third must be processed, not the well -intentioned developer.”
The protection of cryptographic software developers has been a central lobbying point for the industry in their negotiations with legislators and regulators in Washington. The structure legislation of the cryptographic market that currently moves through Congress has included protections of such developers, although the final version is not yet set in the Senate.
“The fact that the Department of Justice acknowledged that software developers should not be responsible for the improper use of third parties of their code affirm what we have been advocating for years,” said Amanda Tuminelli, executive director of the Defi Education Fund, in a statement after Galeotti’s comments. “Let’s celebrate this as a moment of progress and remember that there is still more work to do to change the law permanently.”
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