Last week, the crypto world celebrated a major legal victory when a federal appeals court struck down OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts in a Coinbase-funded lawsuit. While this decision is a significant win for crypto, its implications go far beyond the industry—it challenges the very limits of U.S. sanctions authority on open-source code.In this episode, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal and VP of Legal Leah Bressack discuss the case, the reasoning behind the court’s decision, and its broader implications, especially given that other cases are still in court. They address whether they think the government will appeal, how this ruling impacts other privacy tools and the other lawsuits, and why the case is a critical precedent for the intersection of code, law, and innovation.Plus, what does this mean for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm? Show highlights:Why the decision was so significant, according to PaulWhat reasons the judge used in the rulingThe basics of Tornado Cash and why OFAC sanctioned it in 2022Why Coinbase decided to get involved in the case Why a District Court had previously agreed with OFAC Whether the government will appeal and what the implications of the case are outside of cryptoWhen users could start using the protocolWhether users will be safe to use relayers, which add privacyWhy Paul believes that the 11th Circuit, where the Coin Center Tornado Cash lawsuit was filed, will not ignore this ruling from the 5th CircuitWhether the judges were encouraging Congress to update IEEPA to make it possible for OFAC to sanction smart contractsWhether there’s a risk that under new legislation OFAC could sanction smart contractsHow the case of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm could be impacted by this decisionPaul’s and Leah’s take on Balaji’s proposal to build privacy-preserving zero knowledge smart contracts on ZEthereumWhether the judges’ opinion will have an impact on existing privacy projectsWhat types of sanctions and regulations the government can impose to prevent money launderingVisit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.comThank you to our sponsors!PolkadotRobinhood & ArbitrumGuests:Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officerPrevious appearances on Unchained:Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’ - UnchainedJust a Coincidence? Coinbase and Polygon Lawyers See Bad Omens in SEC CrackdownLeah Bressack, VP of legal at CoinbaseLinksPrevious coverage of Unchained on Tornado Cash:Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?Tornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?Unchained: Treasury Overstepped With Tornado Cash Sanctions, Rules U.S. Appeals CourtBalaji’s tweet on Zatoshi and ZethereumBankless: Roman Storm Speaks - Tornado Cash Developer on What’s at StakeTimestamps: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices