{"id":13481,"date":"2023-10-03T04:13:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T04:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=13481"},"modified":"2023-10-03T04:14:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T04:14:00","slug":"jw-verret-is-tracking-the-money-while-advocating-for-crypto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=13481","title":{"rendered":"JW Verret is tracking the money \u2014 while advocating for crypto"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script>\n<p>J.W. Verret is a Harvard-educated attorney who teaches corporate finance and accounting at George Mason University. His work has increasingly intersected with the cryptocurrency sector in recent years, as his legion of Twitter followers \u2014 who know him as \u201cBlockProf,\u201d or the Blockchain Professor \u2014 are poignantly aware.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from his work at GMU, Verret has become known as a vocal advocate for crypto as the top honcho at Crypto Freedom Lab, a think tank fighting devoted to preserving \u201cfreedom and privacy for crypto developers and users.\u201d He also serves as a professional legal witness for defendants accused \u2014 wrongfully, Verret would argue \u2014 of evading financial-tracking laws, and is authoring a book, tentatively titled \u201cBlockchain Privacy and Forensics.\u201d In between, he finds time to serve as a regular columnist for Cointelegraph.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-1-you-re-very-busy-professionally-nbsp-teaching-at-george-mason-university-serving-on-committees-with-the-securities-and-exchange-commission-going-to-trials-as-expert-witness-how-did-life-lead-you-to-cryptocurrency\">1) You\u2019re very busy professionally \u2014\u00a0teaching at George Mason University, serving on committees with the Securities and Exchange Commission, going to trials as expert witness. How did life lead you to cryptocurrency?<\/h2>\n<p>I spent 15 years as a libertarian regulation\/financial person, writing it, think-tanking it in Washington, D.C. For the first 10 years, I lost everything I fought for in the Dodd-Frank era.<\/p>\n<p>The thing with crypto is that it\u2019s been a freedom revolution in finance. It fixes, or aims to fix, problems in finance that government regulation only aims to fix. Regulation entrenches intermediaries where crypto fixes problems by eliminating the need for those intermediaries. And that was very interesting to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-you-served-on-the-sec-s-investor-advisory-committee-but-you-ve-also-been-very-vocal-in-criticizing-sec-chairman-gary-gensler-how-was-that-experience\"><strong>2) You served on the SEC\u2019s Investor Advisory Committee, but you\u2019ve also been very vocal in criticizing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. How was that experience?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was good. I replaced Hester Peirce when she became an SEC commissioner. I wrote a lot of dissents as a committee member, so I hope I did Hester proud, but I do not think they\u2019ll invite me back in the future under the current chairman. It seems like he\u2019s been trying to just destroy this industry. <\/p>\n<p>He could\u2019ve reached out to the industry to try to make things work, but he has no interest in that, and he\u2019s sued some of the best actors in crypto \u2014 Coinbase and Kraken \u2014 while ignoring the worst.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-you-re-a-vocal-proponent-of-zcash-explain-your-interest-there\"><strong>3) You\u2019re a vocal proponent of ZCash. Explain your interest there.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Zcash is like Bitcoin, but private. It\u2019a a great invention. Whoever the developers were\u00a0 deserve a Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n<p>I own a lot of Bitcoin. I think it\u2019s a tremendous innovation. But for day-to-day payments, I think we need some privacy, and it\u2019s hard to get that with Bitcoin. I\u2019m also a fan of Monero. which has some pretty good privacy technology. But they\u2019re both pretty good projects \u2014 t\u2019s possible to like both the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Also read: The Supreme Court could stop the SEC\u2019s war on crypto<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are no other privacy tokens that are in the same ballpark. There are some that are really neat innovations, but they\u2019re not at the level you need to have the same privacy. Other projects I\u2019m very excited about are Samourai Wallet and Sparrow Wallet, which offer a bit of privacy for BItcoin transactions.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-4-on-that-note-how-do-you-think-the-future-of-crypto-is-going-to-be-defined-is-it-going-to-be-defined-as-a-way-to-achieve-greater-privacy-in-transaction-will-it-be-defined-by-efficiency-in-the-sense-that-it-s-easier-to-use-than-traditional-finance-instruments-will-it-be-defined-by-crime-or-will-it-be-some-mixture-of-these\"><strong>4) On that note, how do you think the future of crypto is going to be defined? Is it going to be defined as a way to achieve greater privacy in transaction? Will it be defined by efficiency in the sense that it\u2019s easier to use than traditional finance instruments? Will it be defined by crime? Or will it be some mixture of these?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>That\u2019s an interesting question. I think it will be some combination of all those things. Crime is often a testing ground for new technology. It certainly was for the internet. In the 1990s, a lot of criminals used the internet. I think the strongest forces in determining what cryptos survive will be some mixture of efficiency and scale, but I think privacy will be a part of it. As governments and big corporations fight back against trustless, disintermediated property transfers, the only way to protect yourself will be through the use of privacy coins and privacy protocols.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-5-you-re-also-serving-as-a-professional-witness-in-u-s-v-sterlingov-where-the-u-s-government-is-charging-33-year-old-roman-sterlingov-with-developing-bitcoin-fog-a-crypto-mixer-the-fbi-arrested-him-at-los-angeles-international-airport-lax-in-2021-and-they-re-accusing-him-bitcoin-fog-of-laundering-336-million-tell-me-about-that\"><strong>5) You\u2019re also serving as a professional witness in U.S. v. Sterlingov<em>, <\/em>where the U.S. government is charging 33-year-old Roman Sterlingov with developing Bitcoin Fog \u2014 a crypto mixer. The FBI arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in 2021, and they\u2019re accusing him [Bitcoin Fog] of laundering $336 million<\/strong>.<strong> Tell me about that.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I spend a lot of time as a forensic accountant, but I\u2019m also into privacy. Some people think that\u2019s a conflict: How can you be privacy while also following the money? But I don\u2019t see that as a conflict at all. Some of the people most into privacy who I know are forensic investigators. I\u2019m a believer in public information. People should learn what it takes to be private. The worst people tend not to be smart anyway \u2014 they make mistakes, and they don\u2019t use privacy tools optimally.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Also read: CipherTrace expert says Chainalysis data contributed to \u2018wrongful arrest\u2019 of alleged Bitcoin Fog founder<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In terms of U.S. v. Sterlingov<em>,<\/em> I\u2019m providing some expert help in forensic accounting and money laundering. It\u2019s been helpful to merge my legal and accounting perspectives to aid the legal team.\u00a0 I also do some work helping customers of large crypto exchanges when their crypto is frozen, and we ultimately resolve it when we figure out that the customer did nothing wrong \u2014 but were falsely flagged by crypto tracing tools.<\/p>\n<p>Read also<\/p>\n<p>                            Features<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Account abstraction\u2019 supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                            Features<\/p>\n<p>As Money Printer Goes Brrrrr, Wall St Loses Its Fear of Bitcoin<\/p>\n<p>False positives in crypto tracing can have a real cost and that is one thing that concerns me about the dominance of some of the tracing firms. TRM and Ciphertrace seem like they try to get things right \u2014 and don\u2019t overclaim their tracing capabilities \u2014 but that\u2019s not true of every firm in this industry.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-6-i-hear-you-have-opinions-about-ufos-can-you-tell-us-what-you-know\"><strong>6) I hear you have opinions about UFOs. Can you tell us what you know?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019m really into podcasts about the history of investigations into UFOs. Some good ones are \u201cStrange Arrivals\u201d and \u201cHigh Strange.\u201d I\u2019d also recommend reading J. Allen Hynek\u2019s \u201cThe Hynek UFO Report,\u201d which is about the Project BLUE BOOK Report. He was a physics professor at a little school [Ohio State] and the Air Force asked him to look into it one day. I think they thought he\u2019d be a front man \u2014 and he was, but then he changed.<\/p>\n<p>The government knows no more now than it did 50 years ago. They may know more than they\u2019ve shared, but I don\u2019t think they understand it. The Navy pilot revelations are pretty amazing. So I think they do exist. I think they\u2019re probably probes of some kind that are unmanned \u2014 nothing armageddon or conspiracy. I just think they want to see what we\u2019re up to.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe<\/p>\n<p>The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a<br \/>\n        week.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"author__name\">Rudy Takala<\/h2>\n<p>Rudy Takala is the opinion editor at Cointelegraph. He formerly worked as an editor or reporter in newsrooms that include Fox News, The Hill and the Washington Examiner. He holds a master\u2019s degree in political communication from American University in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/6-questions-for-jw-verret-an-attorney-whos-tracking-the-money-but-advocating-for-crypto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J.W. Verret is a Harvard-educated attorney who teaches corporate finance and accounting at George Mason University. His work has increasingly intersected with the cryptocurrency sector in recent years, as his legion of Twitter followers \u2014 who know him as \u201cBlockProf,\u201d or the Blockchain Professor \u2014 are poignantly aware. Aside from his work at GMU, Verret [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitcoin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13483,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13481\/revisions\/13483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}