TechFlow reported on January 21 that, according to The Block, the Solana Policy Institute released an open letter on Wednesday calling for stronger legal protections for software developers following the conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Kristin Smith, Executive Director of the institute, and CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine warned that Storm's case is "not an isolated incident," but rather a test of whether the United States will continue to support open innovation.
The latest draft text from the Senate Banking Committee already includes the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), which explicitly states that non-custodial software developers should not be deemed money transmitters. The crypto community has raised over $6.3 million for Storm’s legal defense, with public support also coming from industry figures such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
