Law of Code

Nabil Manji is the Senior VP, Head of Crypto & Emerging Business at Worldpay from FIS Global. Worldpay is the world’s largest payment processing company (and largest company you've never heard of). The company provides payment and technology services to merchants and financial institutions and processes approximately $2 trillion in volume annually.  In June 2019, Worldpay was acquired for...

Olta Andoni (@ AndoniOlta ) is the Deputy General Counsel at Ava Labs, a company that helps launch decentralized finance applications on Avalanche. She was previously the Chief Legal Officer at Nifty’s, has lectured for Chicago-Kent, College of Law, and is a writer for Coindesk.  In this conversation, Olta and I discussion the new CryptoPunks license, the Yuga Labs v. Ryder Ripps case, and th...

Larry Florio (@LarryFlorio) is General Counsel at Delphia Technologies Inc., one of the most innovative data-drive investment DAO projects in the world. Larry previously held senior counsel roles with several prominent blockchain-focused software developers. In this conversation, we cover business goals vs legal goals, the 80/20 principal, and how crypto law is developing. Show highlights: [1:20]...

Miller Whitehouse-Levine (@ millercwl ) is the Policy Director at the DeFi Education Fund (@ fund_defi ). With oversight from the DeFi Education Fund’s grants committee, Miller has overall strategic and operational responsibility for the execution of the Education Fund’s mission and goals. Prior to joining the fund, Miller led the Blockchain Association’s policy operation and worked at Goldstein P...

Patrick Hansen (@ paddi_hansen ) serves as crypto venture advisor at Presight Capital, a global venture fund with +$600m AUM and 50+ startups in its portfolio. Patrick previously  worked as head of strategy & business development at crypto-wallet startup Unstoppable Finance and head of blockchain at Bitkom, Europe’s largest tech association, where he led crypto-related regulatory work, re...

Marc Boiron (@ boironattorney ) is the Chief Legal Officer of the Polygon companies and a strategic advisor at Variant Fund , an early-stage fund investing in web3. He’s also a board member of the DeFi Education Fund. Marc recently published an excellent article, titled “ Sufficient Decentralization : A playbook for Web3 builders and lawyers.”  In this episode, we dive deep into Marc's articl...

Yitzy Hammer and Samuel Goldfaden are co-founders of DLT Law and two crypto-focused lawyers based in Israel. Yitzy has been working with tech companies for the past 6 years on M&A, IP, privacy (CIPP/E certified), and corporate and commercial law-related legal issues. Samuel specializes in AML compliance and financial regulation.  Both Yitzy and Samuel worked for many years at Herzog, Fox...

Bill Richards is an attorney and partner at Richards & Moskowitz PLC, a boutique Arizona firm serving the civil litigation needs of business, government and individuals. Through nearly three decades of trial practice, Bill has developed an expertise in successfully managing the most complex litigation matters. In private practice, he has represented global banking institutions, government bodi...

Kelsie Nabben (@ kelsiemvn ) is a researcher of decentralized technology communities. As an ethnographic researcher, she is interested in the human outcomes of digital infrastructure, blockchain community culture, and algorithmic governance. Kelsie is also a recipient of a PhD scholarship at the RMIT University Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society, a Fellow at the DAO R...

Mike Wawszczak (@ dotwavsz ) is General Counsel at @alliancedao and a valuable contributor to the DAO ecosystem. Mike has written extensive twitter threads and insightful articles on all things DAOs.  This conversation touches on the origins of Mt. Gox, philosophical issues with the current legal system, and the future of DAOs. Show highlights: [2:00] Magic the Gathering & Mt. Gox [7:00]...

John Deaton (@ JohnEDeaton1 ) is the Managing Partner of the Deaton Law Firm, a law practice he founded in 2006. John is also the founder of Crypto-Law.us, a Bitcoin, ETH, XRP and crypto enthusiast, and an entrepreneur. A former Marine-turned-class-action lawyer, John became interested in crypto in 2016, and eventually invested in Ripple coin, XRP. When the SEC sued Ripple over allegations that XR...

Adam Sternbach (@ adamsternbach ) is General Counsel at Fractional (@ fractional_art ), former Counsel to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (@ GovMurphy ) and a startup/VC attorney.  This wide-ranging episode covers the BAYC, owning a valuable NFT, working as general counsel, and much more. Show highlights : [1:37] Buying & owning a Bored Ape [11:20] Explaining NFTs [21:00] Counsel for Gove...

Peter Van Valkenburgh (@valkenburgh) is the director of research for Coin Center , the leading non-profit focused on the policy issues facing cryptocurrencies. He was previously the Google Policy Fellow for TechFreedom and is a graduate of NYU School of Law, as well as a self-taught designer and coder. In this episode, we discuss Peter's role at Coin Center, the U.S. Constitution & Crypto, and...

Hester Peirce (@ HesterPeirce ) is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She previously served as the director of the Financial Markets Working Group at George Mason University's Mercatus Center.  This episode covers almost every pressing issue in crypto law, as Commissioner Peirce shares her thoughts on stablecoin regulation, the future of the SEC, the fourth pr...

This conversation covers the latest Gitcoin funding round, along with the work of three prominent public goods orgs: The Blockchain Association, The DAO Research Collective, and the EU Crypto Initiative.   Kristin Smith (@KMSmithDC) is the Executive Director at the Blockchain Association, where she leads the crypto industry’s development of a strategic roadmap for public policy.  Co...

Jordan Teague ( @jordanteague ) is an attorney and smart contract developer. In her crypto-native law practice, The Antifirm , she focuses on governance, regulatory, and other legal issues facing web3 organizations. Jordan is one of the core developers behind KaliDAO and a legal engineer with LexDAO. In this episode, we discuss all things DAOs - legislation, potential, and legal structuring, as we...

Michael Mosier (@ M_Mosier ) is the General Counsel at ESPRESSO Systems , a scaling & privacy solution for Web3 applications. Michael was formerly the first in-house Counsel at cryptocurrency analytics and investigations firm Chainalysis. Michael was previously Acting Director, as well as permanent Deputy Director & Digital Innovation Officer of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fi...

This episode reviews the IP ownership rights associated with Board Ape #8398, after actor and producer Seth Green (who licensed it for his series, White Horse Tavern) was scammed in a phishing attack. The stolen NFT was then sold to "DarkWing84" for $200,000. This episode is largely based on an enlightening thread by James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm), who dove deep into the issue, with additional note...

Professor J.W. Verret (@ JWVerret ), teaches accounting and finance, securities law, M&A, corporate law and banking law at the George Mason University Law School. A Senior Advisor @messaricrypto, J.W. is a licensed CPA in the state of Virginia, is licensed in financial forensics by the AICPA, is a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Certified Valuation Analyst.  He has been a Visiting Professo...

Marco Santori (@ msantoriESQ ) is the Chief Legal Officer of Kraken Digital Asset Exchange. Known as the "Dean of Digital Currency Lawyers," Marco is a recognized authority in the law and policy of blockchain technologies. Prior to his move to Kraken, Marco was the Chief Legal Officer of Blockchain.com, as well as a Partner at both Cooley LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop, where he counseled banks,...

The Collapse of UST and LUNA - This was the most eventful week in many months, but, unfortunately, the end result was that $500 billion was wiped off the total cryptocurrency market cap. A calculated attack on UST triggered Terra's LUNA to crash more than 99% over the past few days. This caused a corresponding fall and de-pegging in the price of UST, Terra's algorithmic, decentralized stablecoin....

Jesse Pollak (@ jessepollak ) currently works on protocols, public goods, cities, and currencies at Coinbase & beyond (more coming soon). He previously led all Retail engineering at Coinbase, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet. Way back when, Jesse started Clef and was an engineer at BuzzFeed. He also writes open source software and takes incredible photos . You can...

Laura Shin (@ laurashin ) is a crypto journalist, host of the Unchained podcast, and author of “The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze” (PublicAffairs, 2022). During the course of writing her book, she and her sources uncovered who they believe was behind the biggest whodunnit in crypto — the 2016 DAO attack on Ethereum. Formerly a senior edito...

Ben Samaroo (@ BenSamaroo ) is CEO/Co-Founder at WonderFi Technologies Inc, one of the largest players in the Canadian crypto space. Ben began building WonderFi with the mission of lowering barriers to entry to crypto and decentralized finance in support of a more equitable financial system.  Previously, Ben was an executive and regulatory consultant with broad experience in managing corporat...

(April 28) This episode is an overview of the legal landscape for digital assets, outlining the implications, pertinent news, and updates in the crypto law space from the past week. It is a collaboration between the Law of Code Podcast and the CryptoLaw Newsletter, by Ann Sofie Cloots. This will be a weekly installment to ensure you're up to date on the regulations impacting digital assets. This "...