Take a moment to empathise with cryptocurrency regulators. We’ve tasked them with managing a constantly morphing ecosystem that is both plagued by lawlessness and built atop blockchain technology that thwarts outside control. The effort required to identify and apprehend pseudonymous criminals makes enforcement impracticable for most blockchain crimes, and no amount of effort can stop an automated decentralised autonomous organisation like Tornado Cash. As a result, regulators are relegated primarily to know-your-customer processes via fiat on-/off-ramps to accomplish enforcement. In a decentralised, permissionless ... (full story)