You don’t fully grasp how much of your life is tracked until you’re sitting in a courtroom, watching federal prosecutors use your digital history against you, down to your most harmless Google searches. Your entire life becomes an open book, and even your most innocent actions can be twisted into something sinister. They get to tell the most damning version of your story. To tell yours in your own words, you have to take the stand.

Just to be clear about where we are with open source code these days. In 2026, developers are asking COURTS for permission to publish software. Asking for protection from future prosecution, and still not getting it. @LewellenMichael is doing exactly that. After watching Roman Storm v. USA, he does not feel safe shipping his code. Case: 5th Circuit Appeal:

One thing before I start: everything in this post is public information from my own docket. None of it is new, and I'm not revealing anything you can't already find in the court filings yourself. The retrial just got pushed to April 26, 2027. The order came down today (Dkt. 300). My acquittal motion is still sitting there, undecided. I honestly don't know when this ends. Prosecutors are supposed to protect American interests and go after people who broke the law. A jury deadlocked on the two most serious counts against me. And still SDNY won't stop, because this case was never just about me. It's about setting an example. Don't take my word for it. Tara La Morte, the chief of SDNY's Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit, said it herself at a New York City Bar Association event (Law360, Feb. 23, 2024; filed on my docket as Doc. 25-2): "We want the industry to take notice." "What we're trying to do is sort of bring the industry into compliance, and I think Tornado Cash is an example of that." An example. Out of a developer who wrote code. At that same event, her deputy praised the government's blockchain-tracing partner, Chainalysis. Here is what they didn't tell the audience. All of it is from the public docket in my case. According to the trial transcripts, Chainalysis was running its OWN Tornado Cash relayer, and earning fees on the transactions flowing through it. - Chainalysis's own lawyers admitted to "a relayer node that Chainalysis operated"; my subpoena sought documents on Tornado Cash relayer(s) "used from March to August 2022." (Dkt. 211) - In open court, the prosecutor said it plainly: "I think the parties agree as to that part of the testimony, that the Chainalysis relayer earned fees." Same hearing: "there's zero evidence that the defendant was in any way aware that Chainalysis was running a relayer." (Dkt. 259, July 25, 2025) So the company that helped trace my "criminal" transactions was itself profiting from Tornado Cash transactions, while I was prosecuted over software I helped create. And when my lawyers subpoenaed them to testify? - Chainalysis moved to quash. (Dkt. 211) - The government backed them: "Your Honor, we agree with the position outlined in the motion." (Dkt. 255) - The night before, prosecutors called Chainalysis's counsel. The judge asked point-blank: "Did you let them know that they were potentially subject to investigation or prosecution?" The answer: "We have discussed at a high level some of the issues surrounding the relayer with Chainalysis." (Dkt. 259) - The Chainalysis witness took the Fifth. My lawyers learned about that call only afterward, from Chainalysis's own lawyer. (Dkt. 263) The jury never heard any of it. This spring, at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, something happened that I still can't quite believe. The Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, and the FBI Director, Kash Patel, sat on a panel called "Code is Free Speech." Think about that. The two top law enforcement officials in the country. Blanche told thousands of developers: if you're a coder and you're not the one committing the crime, "you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged." He said the last administration's crypto cases were "outrageous attacks on the industry." Patel praised "the Chainalysises of the world" as FBI partners. And when the moderator pointed at the elephant in the room, my case, Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, the Acting Attorney General called it a "lingering case" they are "continuing to deal with." So here is my hypothetical question. If code is free speech, why am I still being prosecuted for writing it? And if the Chainalysises of the world are the partners, the same Chainalysis that ran its own Tornado Cash relayer and earned fees from Tornado Cash users, while I never did, why is it off the hook? They made an example out of a developer for writing code. Their own vendor ran the same infrastructure, pocketed the fees, and got a phone call instead of a prosecution. Sources 👇👇👇

Why Zcash? All of crypto is an open database that is traceable. If you want self sovereign money safe from government overreach and seizure, it also needs to be undetectable. Zcash has the same economic policy as Bitcoin (21m total coins, same halving schedule started later), but it becomes entirely fungible by encrypting the ledger. When you realize that even Satoshi himself can’t use his Bitcoin, the importance of total encryption hits home. I think this gets more important as we face the confluence of 1) USD monetary issues via money printing, inflation and unlimited debt, 2) the rise of communist movements and authoritarian wealth seizures, and 3) the massive increases in AI capabilities leading to more tracking and surveillance When Bitcoin was started in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the concern over money printing aka “quantitative easing” was just beginning, it was not yet obvious there would be a problem. At the same time, money as system of control was merely an issue for terrorists and murders. Now the theoretical issue has become real as freezing or confiscation of political adversaries becomes more common. Today we face all these pressures at the same time: monetary debasement, political censorship, and hyper surveillance. These were less apparent when Bitcoin was started, and the threat of hyper surveillance was not solved until Zcash forked Bitcoin’s code and made it encrypted Bitcoin. This is why Zcash. Zcash, not communism.

Roman Storm remains convicted — and @millercwl calls it "the most chilling policy issue" facing crypto development in the U.S. today. "The DOJ's theory in the Storm case is so expansive, it could reach Satoshi."

Yesterday, @brian_armstrong, @vladtenev, @arjunsethi, @mikebelshe, @SergeyNazarov, @OneMorePeter, @cameron, @tyler, @cdixon, and @alanapalmedo were with President Trump as he claimed his administration had ended the war on crypto Meanwhile, the US government is still prosecuting @rstormsf for developing Tornado Cash, a privacy protocol Many of these same industry leaders now say privacy is one of crypto’s greatest needs. If you have direct access to the president and publicly champion privacy, but refuse to say Roman’s name or speak up for him, your support for privacy is hollow You cannot claim to support privacy while remaining silent as a developer is prosecuted for building it

Cointelegraph, it would be fair to include a link and mention that the opinion is absurd, just like my case. Of course, I don’t think Google and OpenAI should be held liable, and I ended my post by saying that toolmakers are not criminals. I’m sure OpenAI and Google will do everything they can to prevent misuse, which is another major topic of discussion and controversy these days. Another important distinction is that those companies are in 100% control of their services, while Tornado Cash is not under my control or anyone else’s. Don’t take my word for it; read the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in the Van Loon case. That’s precisely why Tornado Cash is still working today and no one can do anything about it. Yet I’m being prosecuted for allegedly failing to prevent its misuse, even though no one can provide a technically viable way for me to have done so. The DOJ presented expert testimony claiming otherwise, but that testimony completely disregards how the technology actually works and is based on imaginary, untested theories. Any competent technical expert can explain why the proposed measures would not prevent 100% of misuse.

Ohh wow. "They used ChatGPT for writing and coding, including to answer basic questions and complete assignments they struggled with themselves. They preferred Google Gemini for image alteration and document forgery." That's from an investigation into North Korean IT workers - people whose salaries help fund Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program (~$800M in 2024 alone, per US Treasury). So let's apply the DOJ's logic from the Tornado Cash case: @Google and @OpenAI know their tools are being used by DPRK operatives. They've known for years. They keep providing the tools and profit from every subscription. Facilitating crime? Enabling it? Founders in prison? Sounds absurd, right? Yet that's exactly the theory behind USA v. Roman Storm: build a neutral tool, bad actors abuse it, and the developer gets prosecuted instead of the criminals. If that logic is absurd for Google and OpenAI - it's absurd for Roman Storm. You prosecute the criminal, not the toolmaker. Writing code is not a crime. So let's be consistent: subpoena every Google and OpenAI employee. Dig through their text messages for any hint they knew their tools were used by DPRK. Indict them for 20 years in prison on IEEPA charges. Source:

I just beat the NH Attorney General's office in federal court. No lawyers. No law firm. I represented myself, and my legal team was AI. The federal magistrate judge recommended granting my preliminary injunction: the Secretary of State should be ordered to accept my Declaration of Intent and put me on the US Senate ballot. Their office had every resource of the State. I had a laptop. The State gets 7 days to object. Bring it. Full story tonight, 8 PM ET, on The Aaron Day Show.

Free Roman Storm The ENTIRE tech industry (not just crypto) should take a close look at the very unfair case that Roman, an innocent developer, is going through Tech only advances if we PROTECT software developers

Free Roman Storm The ENTIRE tech industry (not just crypto) should take a close look at the very unfair case that Roman, an innocent developer, is going through Tech only advances if we PROTECT software developers

Free Roman Storm. The ENTIRE tech industry (not just crypto) should take a close look at the very unfair case that Roman, an innocent developer, is going through. Tech only advances if we PROTECT software developers.

Free Roman Storm The ENTIRE tech industry (not just crypto) should take a close look at the very unfair case that Roman, an innocent developer, is going through. Tech only advances if we PROTECT software developers.

Free Roman Storm The ENTIRE fucking tech industry (not just crypto) should take a close look at the very unfair case that Roman, an innocent developer, is going through Tech only advances if we PROTECT software developers

Free Roman Storm The ENTIRE tech industry (not just crypto) should take a close look at the very unfair case that Roman, an innocent developer, is going through Tech only advances if we PROTECT software developers