- A top DOJ official says writing code “without ill intent is not a crime.”
- The promise comes after the conviction of the Tornado Cash developer.
- The DOJ vows not to use indictments as a lawmaking tool for crypto.
Standing before an anxious audience of cryptocurrency innovators in Wyoming, a senior official from the US Department of Justice delivered the precise message they were desperate to hear: the government’s perceived war on software developers is over.
In a landmark speech, he declared that the simple act of writing code, when done without criminal intent, is not a crime.
The official, Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s criminal division, made the powerful assurances on Thursday at an event hosted by the new crypto advocacy group, American Innovation Project.
His words, met with vigorous applause, represented a dramatic and deliberate shift in tone from a department whose recent actions have sent a chill through the entire developer community.
A line in the sand after the storm
Galeotti drew a firm line, promising that the DOJ would not weaponize the legal system to indirectly regulate the digital asset space.
“The department will not use federal criminal statutes to fashion a new regulatory regime over the digital asset industry,” he said.
The department will not use indictments as a lawmaking tool. The department should not leave innovators guessing as to what could lead to criminal prosecution.
Then came the centerpiece of his address, a clear and unambiguous declaration: “merely writing code without ill intent is not a crime.”
This was not a vague promise. Galeotti directly addressed the legal statute used to convict the developers behind both Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, stating that the DOJ would not press charges under that code unless prosecutors have “evidence that a defendant knew of the specific legal requirements and willfully violated it.”
He went further, extending a shield to projects where “software is truly decentralized and solely automates peer-to-peer transactions, and where a third party does not have custody and control over user assets.”
The shadow of the Southern district
But those words of reassurance were delivered…