US Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden passed a stand-alone topical act that would grant protection not only to blockchain developers working with funds, but also to all service providers that do not deal with or transfer user funds from the money transmitters’ regulations.
Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) aims mainly to delineate that merely coding or supporting decentralized networks will not necessitate the acquisition of federal or state money transmission licenses.
Besides the bill, an ongoing dispute within the crypto developer community about possible criminality related to the third-party use of their software is becoming more heated. This paranoia was fueled by last year’s judgment against Tornado Cash creators Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, who were convicted of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting service associated with the privacy mixing protocol, which they defended as a non-crime.
Lummis’ assertion is that the intent of this law is to set up a solid legal system for developers so they can “be the ones who bring the digital finance of the future” without fear of prosecution, particularly if their job entails no money-laundering risks. Besides, she remarked that because of ambiguity in regulations, innovation has been shifted internationally, and developers have had to deal with varied regulations in different US states.
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Industry Backs BRCA as Senate Review Moves Forward
Similar safeguards also appear in the broader crypto market structure bill, which is scheduled for a markup at the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
However, language in draft legislation is not final. Lawmakers can revise, weaken, or remove provisions during the markup process before any bill moves to a full vote.
The bill must also clear the Senate Agriculture Committee, which has postponed its hearing until the final week of January, according to a statement from Chairman John Boozman.
Despite the uncertainty, several crypto industry groups have already welcomed the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). The crypto lobbying organization DeFi Education Fund said in a post on X on Monday that the bill “provides critical protections for software developers of non-custodial, decentralized technologies.”
