Vitalik Pushes For Privacy Pools 🕵️

GM. This is Degen Scoop. It’s FRIDAY, here’s the scoop:

• Vitalik Pushes For Privacy Pools 🕵️

• Former FTX Exec Pleads Guilty 👨‍⚖️

• CFTC Comes For DeFi ⚖️

• Whale Moves 🐋

• Threads You CAN’T Miss 🧵

Vitalik Encourages Privacy Pools For Privacy and Compliance

It’s no secret that a fair amount of users want transaction privacy as seen in usage of Tornado cash or other mixers. Vitalik recently helped to author a research paper ‘Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium’ which sought to bridge the gap between anonymity and complying with regulations.

The authors advocate for privacy pools, technology forked from Tornado Cash, that will utilize zk tech to maintain user anonymity. Privacy pools will operate as neutral infrastructure that will enable financial privacy for all that would like it. There are centralization concerns with the structure, but it’s a work in progress. Given the fate of the Tornado Cash founders, it’s necessary to find a compromise for this tech.

Ryan Salame, Former FTX Executive, Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges

Yesterday afternoon, Ryan Salame pleaded guilty to charges and will be forfeiting over $1.5B as part of his guilty plea. Salame pleaded guilty to having contributed tens of millions of dollars to politicians in his name despite the funds having come from FTX’s hedge fund. The SBF trial is still to proceed in early October.

According to the filing, it was found that these donations were made in order to weed out anti-crypto representatives on both sides of the aisle in favor of pro-crypto candidates. Salame will be facing a maximum of 10 years in prison for his crimes of campaign violations and money transmitting. Shockinly, Salame is not cooperating with federal prosecutors to expedite the SBF trial.

The CFTC Hands Out Fines to DeFi Protocols Deridex, Opyn, and ZeroEx

Most hate directed towards regulators has been focused upon the SEC with how they have treated this industry. Many have looked towards the CFTC as a potentially better option, but today is not evidence of that. The CFTC handed out six figure fines to the aforementioned protocols for failing to register as exchanges while offering leverage and margin transactions to users.

The fines are relatively small, so the companies have agreed to settle on the charges. These actions do invite the question of whether DeFi can exist in the United States given the hostility it has received. A permissionless environment is the optimal trading environment on paper, but it doesn’t seem as though the current regulatory climate is ready to accept that.

Notable NFT Sales in the Last 24 Hours:

Notable Threads You May Have Missed:

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Conclusion

Touch grass, hit the gym, and don’t forget about what’s really important outside of magical internet coins.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter does not constitute financial advice. This is strictly educational and should not be used to make any financial decisions. Be responsible and do proper due diligence before aping.