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Railgun researcher and advocate Alan Scott Jr believes that US senators and the FBI may not be as opposed to privacy-focused cryptocurrency protocols as some think. Scott thinks that intelligence agencies like the FBI are primarily concerned with combating bad actors.
“No Anti-Crypto Privacy Crusade on the Agenda”
Contributing to and advocating for the privacy-focused protocol Railgun, Scott told Cointelegraph at ETH Global in Sydney on May 2nd that based on his meetings with senators and the FBI in Washington D.C., he saw no hints of an anti-crypto privacy crusade on Capitol Hill and stated, “There are many smart people in the upper echelons of government who generally want to do the right thing and protect people.”
Scott emphasized that crypto users should remember that the FBI is a multifaceted large organization, and the people he spoke to in the bureau were less concerned with privacy protocols and more focused on preventing financial crimes by bad actors. Scott mentioned, “Their concerns are about potential issues in hindering their ability to catch bad actors.”
Scott said his discussions with US politicians and regulators were largely positive, and many are genuinely doing their best to understand new developments in crypto more broadly. He noted, “On April 24th, the founders of the crypto mixer and Bitcoin wallet Samourai Wallet were arrested on money laundering charges, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed the platform facilitated $2 billion in illegal transactions and $100 million in money laundering.”
Despite actions against crypto mixers like Samourai Wallet and the arrest of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, Scott added that he did not see a broader crusade against the concept of privacy in crypto. He said, “What Railgun is building is the removal of intermediaries in finance, and DeFi is really beautiful and very important. Privacy is one of its fundamental building blocks. So, while we defend this, raise our voices, and talk about the importance of privacy, it is completely normal and actually quite mundane. It is already a part of traditional finance today.”
Scott also mentioned that it would be extremely unfortunate if the concept and practice of privacy in crypto were to become illegal, stating, “This would just mean we have created a really hyper-accurate surveillance machine that can be monitored in real time.”
Railgun Faced Serious Allegations in April
As known, Railgun is a privacy-focused protocol that utilizes smart contracts to provide private transactions for DeFi users on the Ethereum network, including various Layer 2 networks like Polygon and Arbitrum. Railgun has often been scrutinized legally in recent years, similar to other crypto privacy protocols like Tornado Cash.
On April 17th, an account claiming to be the official Railgun account denied allegations that the protocol was used to launder illegally obtained cryptocurrencies, such as those from North Korean hacks and other US-sanctioned entities, especially during the 2022 Harmony bridge hack when over $60 million in Ether (ETH) was allegedly laundered. Railgun stated that zk-proof technology and “Private Proofs of Innocence” systems prevented bad actors from exploiting the protocol.
