{"id":3671,"date":"2025-06-03T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-speaks-on-privacy-and-permissionlessness-at-pubkey\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T14:16:09","slug":"sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-speaks-on-privacy-and-permissionlessness-at-pubkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-speaks-on-privacy-and-permissionlessness-at-pubkey\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Speaks On Privacy And Permissionlessness At PubKey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Speaks On Privacy And Permissionlessness At PubKey<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Yesterday, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce sat down for a fireside chat with NYDIG<\/a> founder Ross Stevens at New York City\u2019s Bitcoin-themed bar PubKey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two traversed a number of topics during their discussion, including why it\u2019s important that the world has a permissionless network and asset like Bitcoin as well as why transactional privacy should be a right for U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

Peirce didn\u2019t mince words during the discussion, yet she also spoke with nuance and thoughtfulness as she responded to questions from not only Stevens but from members of the audience during a Q&A session, as well.<\/p>\n

On Permissionlessness<\/h2>\n

Toward the onset of the talk, Peirce highlighted the fact that Bitcoin is a tool for freedom fighters as part of a broader theme of why it\u2019s crucial that permissionless technology like Bitcoin exists.<\/p>\n

She said that she often thinks about what it would have been like if someone like Harriet Tubman had had Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

Stevens then posed a question about the risk of a situation in which a U.S. president issues an executive order that authorizes the government to confiscate U.S. citizens\u2019 bitcoin, like the way Executive Order 6102<\/a> enabled the government to seize U.S. citizens\u2019 gold in 1933.<\/p>\n

Peirce admitted that \u201cit\u2019s still possible for an Executive Order like 6102 to happen in the U.S.,\u201d and made the case that it\u2019s up to us to remain vigilant so as not to permit something like this to happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo protect ourselves from something like Executive Order 6102, we must reaffirm the founding principles of America and hold the government accountable to those principles,\u201d said the commissioner.<\/p>\n

Stevens added that some of Bitcoin\u2019s qualities, such as the ability to store one\u2019s seed phrase in one\u2019s mind, make it more resistant to seizure than gold and, therefore, a better freedom-preserving technology. (The topic of owning actual bitcoin, or holding one\u2019s own bitcoin private keys, as a means of embracing the true nature of Bitcoin as a permissionless technology versus having bitcoin exposure via spot bitcoin ETFs or through custodians arose at many points in the discussion.)<\/p>\n

Further along in the discussion, Peirce stressed the importance of the U.S. government continuing to view code as speech, a topic that Stevens brought up and has written extensively<\/a> about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important as regulators for us to treat code as speech,\u201d began Peirce.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, developers would have to check their code with the government before publishing it,\u201d she added, before also noting that developers having to do this could stifle and undermine their ability to publish open-source software.<\/p>\n

On Privacy<\/h2>\n

Halfway through the talk, Stevens asked Peirce if Americans should be free to use crypto mixers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before directly commenting on the matter, Peirce spoke more broadly to the concept of financial privacy and that it seems to be of little concern to most U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable to me how little people care about financial privacy,\u201d said Peirce. \u201cIt\u2019s very personal how you spend your money \u2014 and we\u2019ve ceded so much privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding crypto mixers more specifically, Peirce stated that she believes Americans have a right to use such technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s supposed to be a presumption of innocence in this country,\u201d she said. \u201cTechnologies that allow you to do things on chain but also allow you to preserve privacy are really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the Q&A portion of the event, Thomas Pacchia, the bar\u2019s owner, highlighted the dangers of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)<\/a> in that it mandates that users turn over significant amounts of personal data to financial institutions and asked what the odds were of one day seeing the act repealed.<\/p>\n

Peirce agreed with Pacchia that there is great risk in financial institutions holding so much of their customers\u2019 data but pointed out that the idea of repealing the BSA is a point of deep contention in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally bad things can happen if a centralized financial institution has a lot of information about you, but it\u2019s such a third rail in D.C. to talk about the Bank Secrecy Act because of the fear that bad actors will rush in,\u201d said Peirce.<\/p>\n

Listening Intently<\/h2>\n

Peirce has stated a number of times, most recently at Bitcoin 2025<\/a>, that she believes that the U.S. government works for the American people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that this isn\u2019t just hot air or a talking point, as evidenced by how carefully she listens to the questions posed to her and how thoughtful her responses to said questions are.<\/p>\n

For example, I asked Commissioner Peirce if there was any chance we might eventually see in-kind redemptions for the spot bitcoin ETFs for retail investors.<\/p>\n

While she admitted that it\u2019s \u201cunlikely,\u201d she offered me some space to make my case for why they\u2019re important and concluded the exchange with me by stating that she\u2019d \u201cgive it some more thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

She responded to Stevens and to each member of the audience who posed a question with the same type of care and consideration, which seemed to be appreciated as she broached topics as sensitive as having the legal right to hold one\u2019s Bitcoin keys and to transact with bitcoin privately.<\/p>\n

Peirce also seemed genuinely concerned about making sure that regulators don\u2019t get in the way of Bitcoin and crypto fulfilling their promise as both freedom technology and an alternative to the traditional financial and monetary systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned that we\u2019ll stunt growth if we do things the wrong way,\u201d Peirce concluded, eliciting a warm round of applause from the Bitcoin enthusiasts in attendance.<\/p>\n

This post SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Speaks On Privacy And Permissionlessness At PubKey<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Frank Corva<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Speaks On Privacy And Permissionlessness At PubKey Yesterday, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce sat down for a fireside chat with NYDIG founder Ross Stevens at New York City\u2019s Bitcoin-themed bar PubKey. The two traversed a number of topics during their discussion, including why it\u2019s important that the world has a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}