🔥 SEC Commissioner Esther Pierce on privacy and financial supervision in the crypto industry.
➤ Crypto is changing the rules of the game. Transactions can happen without intermediaries, which means the state loses its usual data channels.
➤ In real life, the state doesn't have the right to spy on people without cause, but in finance, mass surveillance has become the norm. Yet a transaction reveals as much about a person as their home.
➤ Financial privacy is legally and culturally entrenched. People are used to the idea that their payments are monitored and accept it as normal.
➤ The blockchain paradox: it’s public to everyone, so privacy isn’t a threat but a necessary protection for users.
➤ Privacy technologies already exist. Zero-knowledge proofs let you confirm the right to conduct a transaction without disclosing personal data. Mixers enable legitimate payments without total public exposure.
➤ Privacy protection shouldn’t be seen as a sign of criminal intent. The desire to keep your personal financial life private is normal, not a red flag.
➤ The state shouldn’t impose intermediaries or regulate software developers who don’t store user funds and can’t control their actions.
➤ The focus should be targeted — pursue attackers, but protect developers and law-abiding citizens.
➤ Striking the balance between security and freedom. New technologies can boost national security without turning the financial system into a tool of total surveillance.
Text of the speech: link
Previously: - co-founder of Zcash - head of the SEC