Decentralization and Regulatory Challenges - Scott Lewis, Josh Ephraim, Tuongvy Le, and Jolie Yang

Decentralized protocols and application are the beating heart of crypto, yet are facing regulatory headwinds around the world. From decentralized exchanges to mixers, regulatory issues include combatting illicit finance, financial surveillance regimes, and the potential application of the securities and commodities laws. How do we preserve what makes decentralization special: permissionlessness, pseudonymity, access, privacy, inclusion, immutability, transparency, interoperability, efficiency, and more, while addressing regulators' concerns about consumer protection, national security, and other risks? When and where does censorship make sense? What responsibilities do different actors have at different layers of the stack - validators, front end operators, and others? How will new technologies like ZK impact this analysis? These are challenging but important questions to consider as policies evolve and we work to educate lawmakers and regulators around the world.