This week I spoke at a roundtable discussion on financial regulation and privacy with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Here are some key points: ⏰ Privacy technology is now extremely important and timely for several reasons: 1) Traditional finance (TradFi) is fully embracing tokenization, stablecoins, and payments. As everything moves on-chain, privacy will become an economic necessity (for free market competition and reduced market manipulation). 2) Traditional finance users are tired of data breaches and are looking for better solutions and selective disclosure. 3) A growing number of Americans feel that the U.S. government is “lost its way,” and they agree with @HesterPeirce that regulators should use a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, when it comes to data collection. ‼️ Privacy technology is exciting, and its potential is enough to transform people's lives, both inside and outside the cryptocurrency space. Cryptographic magic like zero-knowledge proofs (zk)—pioneered by veterans of @StarkWareLtd—and let's not forget @EliBenSasson is a co-founder of Zcash, while the co-founders of StarkWare co-invented zk-STARKs and zk-SNARKs—regulators know very little about these technologies, but they're eager to learn more (which is great!). 🙏 We're all cautiously optimistic that U.S. regulators are making progress, preventing individuals using privacy tools (and the developers of those tools) from immediately raising suspicion. Chairman Atkins and Commissioner Peirce agreed in their opening remarks that this status quo is wrong—the first step towards progress is acknowledging the problem. 🌟Finally, a special thank you to a member of the @Starknet community for taking this funny picture of me at the SEC, haha.