Privacy | March 27, 2026

Privacy Developers Still Face Legal Fog

Coin Center says a Texas ruling and the Justice Department's mixed record leave crypto software authors with friendly rhetoric but no dependable legal shelter.

The legal position around crypto privacy software looks friendlier in speeches than it does in court. Decrypt reports that a federal judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit by developer Michael Lewellen, who had asked for clarity before releasing a privacy tool. The court said he lacked standing because the Trump Justice Department has said it does not plan to prosecute crypto developers.

That reasoning lands awkwardly against the government's own record. Federal prosecutors have already sent two Bitcoin privacy developers to prison and kept pressing the case against Ethereum developer Roman Storm. The contradiction is now part of the policy environment itself. Builders are being told one thing in public while still having to read the enforcement trail for the real boundary.