
Web3 dev || @EthMiami Core Contributor || @Engineation founder || 2x @IRONMANtri
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Joined June 2008
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Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
JUST IN: πΊπΈ SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce calls to end mass KYC data collection, warning it puts crypto holders at risk of phishing and physical attacks.
Pierce says the current KYC/AML system creates massive databases of sensitive information that can be hacked, leaked, or exploited.
She's pushing for zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs) that could verify users meet regulatory requirements without exposing their personal information.
Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
π¨ LATEST: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce says zero-knowledge proofs could verify compliance without collecting usersβ personal data.
She warns current KYC/AML practices create βdata haystacks.β
Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
Had an "interview" for a blockchain project last week.
Camera was on, we're chatting, and the guy tells me to clone a GitHub repo and run it locally before we go further into the technical round.
I said sure, but first can you do me a favor
hold up 3 fingers in front of your face for me real quick.
He froze.
Didn't move.
Just sat there for a few seconds before the call cut off and he blocked me.
That's when I knew. A real interviewer doesn't glitch out over a random ask like that. A deepfake/AI overlay does.
These "run this repo" scams are getting scary common in crypto and dev hiring right now.
The setup is always the same:
- flattering DM
- real-sounding project
- rushed timeline
- a "quick step" before the call
that's really just remote access or a credential stealer in disguise.
If someone wants you to run code or install something before you've even had a real conversation, that's the whole scam.
Trust the instinct. Stay safe out there.
I just checked on my phone General -> Background App Refresh.
Itβs shocking how many apps get this access by default.
If you like being followed when ur not using an app, make sure to keep this enabled π€£
Has the #AIparanoia surpassed the Y2K paranoia in β99?
Wow, big move
Today we are announcing that S&P Global has entered an agreement to acquire OpenZeppelin.
Onchain finance is growing from an emerging market into core financial infrastructure, and the standards and rails our team and community built are becoming the rails of global finance. OpenZeppelin smart contracts facilitated over $37 trillion in value transferred, with the vast majority of the largest DeFi protocols, blockchain networks, stablecoins and tokenized funds relying on them.
With S&P Global, we expect to accelerate the impact of onchain finance, backed by more than a century of trust in global markets, benchmarks, and risk frameworks.
To our clients and to all the users of OpenZeppelin open source tools:
β’ OpenZeppelin Contracts and all our open source applications and tools remain open source, free, and publicly maintained on GitHub. Building open source standards stays a core priority.
β’ Audits, engineering work, and ecosystem programs continue with the same team, brand, quality, and customer experience, with what will be the added benefit of S&P Global's research capacity, market data, and institutional reach.
For the last decade, OpenZeppelin has set the security standard for onchain finance. Today begins a new chapter for that mission, together with one of the most trusted names in global markets.
Read the full announcement: openzeppelin.com/news/spglobβ¦
Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
π Quick update on what Iβve been working on.
Iβm building a crypto safety course called CryptoHealthAI.
This isnβt another trading course. No price predictions, no βnext 100x,β no hype.
Itβs designed for everyday people and teams who want to use crypto confidently without losing funds to preventable mistakes, scams, or poor security practices.
π‘οΈ The course focuses on:
β π Keys & seed phrases: What they actually do and why protecting them matters
β π Wallets: Hot vs. cold, and choosing what fits your needs
β π Multisig: When one key isnβt enough and how 2-of-3 setups can reduce risk
β πΈ Sending & receiving: Avoiding costly transaction mistakes
β βοΈ Signing safely: Understanding what youβre approving before you sign
β π Swaps & bridges: How they work and where users commonly lose money
β π¨ Real-world theft cases: How crypto actually gets stolen
β π§― Recovery planning: Building a plan before something goes wrong
β π Counterparty checks: Evaluating strangers before sending funds or doing business
All exercises are completed on paper using simulated data, so participants can learn and make mistakes without putting real funds at risk.
The course is getting close to completion, and Iβm currently looking for two things:
1οΈβ£ Private training for companies and teams
If your organization has people working with crypto, I offer private training ranging from fundamentals for newcomers to deeper sessions on security, custody, operational practices, and risk.
Training can be tailored around your team, workflows, and existing setup.
π’ DM me if youβd like to discuss private training.
2οΈβ£ Early feedback
Iβm also looking for people willing to review the course and share thoughtful feedback before launch. Fresh eyes are especially valuable at this stage.
π¬ DMs are open.
Storing ur cc with stripe/link is like giving your cc to the hot dog vendor at an arena sports game
except not as safe
I like it when unknown people email with the subject line, "Greg - quick question", because it saves time for me not having to read the email and I can immediately hit Spam and block sender π
Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
πͺοΈβοΈπ‘οΈ βββββββββββββββ π‘οΈβοΈπͺοΈ
π I'm Roman Storm. To @ethereum, and to everyone who has stood with me through this - thank you. Truly.
When you're a developer facing decades in prison for writing open-source code, the nights get very long. And then this community shows up. Again and again. And I remember I'm not alone. That's everything. π
Let me be clear about what this case actually is. I didn't rob anyone. I didn't steal, didn't touch a single user's funds, never took custody of a single coin. I wrote software. Privacy software - the kind of thing that, in any sane world, belongs on a rΓ©sumΓ©. Not in an indictment. π§βπ»
So I want to tell you why, even now, I have every reason to keep fighting. Because this isn't blind hope. The courts have already started to speak - and what they said has a name. Van Loon. π
In November 2024, a federal appeals court - the Fifth Circuit - looked at what the government did to Tornado Cash and said it plainly: government broke the law. OFAC overstepped its authority when it sanctioned the protocol. Those immutable smart contracts aren't "property" that belongs to anyone. βοΈ
Sit with the court's own words, because they're extraordinary. The judges described Tornado Cash's contracts as "unownable, uncontrollable, and unchangeable β even by [their] creators." π€―
Uncontrollable. Even by their creators. A federal court, after studying the actual technology, found that I literally cannot control the code I helped write. It runs on its own. It always will. No one can stop it - not me, not OFAC, not anyone. That's not a loophole. That's just how it works.
And the government's own position has since crumbled. After Van Loon, OFAC removed Tornado Cash from the sanctions list entirely in March 2025. The protocol they once branded a national-security threat - delisted, out in the open. β
And yet they're still prosecuting me. So look closely at what they're actually holding against me - because the harder you look, the thinner it gets. π
My team integrated Chainalysis's official OFAC sanctions screening directly into the Tornado Cash interface - a real-time compliance measure to block sanctioned addresses. The government's response to that? They called it "window dressing." Compliance, dismissed as decoration. π
Then there are my own words, from my own chats, reacting to hackers getting traced: "I'm glad those fuckers are detected." That's the person they're branding a criminal conspirator. The story and the evidence don't match - because the story isn't true. π
And once you start looking, the pattern is everywhere. A court says the protocol is uncontrollable even by its creator - yet they want to jail me for "controlling" it. That's the kind of case this is. It gets worse. β¬οΈ
The indictment's most-quoted line - a dramatic "how do you go about laundering $600 million?" - was pitched as a co-founder's words. It wasn't. It was written by a CoinDesk reporter asking the team how mixers work. A forwarded message got mislabeled in the data extraction. A journalist's question became Exhibit A. π°
Then the most damning of all: on the very day I was indicted, FinCEN officials privately told these SDNY prosecutors that non-custodial tools like this are NOT money services businesses. The prosecutors walked into court and argued the opposite. My defense didn't learn about it for ~21 months. βοΈ
Even the DOJ doesn't seem to believe its own theory. Weeks before insisting I'm guilty, the same DOJ told the Supreme Court - in its amicus brief in Cox Communications v. Sony Music β that "knowledge that a buyer plans to misuse a product with substantial legitimate uses, without more, does not support an inference of culpable intent." The exact opposite of what they argue against me. Same DOJ. Weeks apart. π
storage.courtlistener.com/reβ¦
So step back. If you only hear "crypto mixer," you might assume the worst. But this is not a shadowy contraption. It's mainstream, studied, respected technology. π
Stanford teaches Tornado Cash β not as a cautionary tale, but as the textbook example of how cryptographic privacy works. It's a final-exam question in CS251, Dan Boneh's renowned cryptography course. π
cs251.stanford.edu/hw/final2β¦
cs251.stanford.edu/lectures/β¦
And Stanford's own exam notes something the prosecutors won't: Tornado Cash ships a built-in compliance tool, letting a user voluntarily prove which deposit was theirs to satisfy an exchange like Coinbase. Privacy and compliance, designed to coexist. π
This isn't fringe, either. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a primer on Tornado Cash for economists and policymakers - treating it as legitimate financial-privacy infrastructure, and describing that very same compliance tool. π¦
stlouisfed.org/publications/β¦
ers
So add it all up. Technology taught at Stanford. Analyzed by the Federal Reserve. Vindicated in a federal court of appeals. Built with real-time sanctions screening the government waved off as "window dressing." And the developer who helped build it - me, is facing prison. Tell me that sits right. π
This is why it reaches so far beyond me. If publishing neutral, open code makes you a criminal for whatever a stranger later does with it, every developer here is exposed. Every wallet team. Every protocol. Everyone who's ever pushed to a public repo. π§¨
Privacy is not a crime. Open source is not a conspiracy. Writing software is not the same as committing the acts of those who misuse it. The easiest principles in the world to defend - which is exactly why we can't afford to lose them here. π‘οΈ
Van Loon is the law catching up to the truth. Now I deserve the same justice the protocol already received. We're close. The arguments are strong. And with you behind me, we can finish this. πͺ
So please β follow my co-founder in this fight @alex_pertsev, and share our stories. And if you're able, support my legal defense at π freeromanstorm.com π Every voice, every dollar, every repost tells a court β and tells me β that I don't stand alone.
I'm Roman Storm. We started this together. Let's end it together. πͺοΈ
πͺοΈβοΈπ‘οΈ βββββββββββββββ π‘οΈβοΈπͺοΈ
Replying to @ethereum
13/ Finally, todayβs thread might have been about Alex, but Roman Stormβs legal battle in the US is also still ongoing.
Please follow @rstormsf as well as @alex_pertsev, and if you can, support Romanβs legal defense too.
freeromanstorm.com/
Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
Challenge 6: Over-Collateralized Lending.
The exercise:
β’ Users deposit ETH as collateral
β’ They can borrow up to a fraction of that value in your stablecoin
β’ If the collateral ratio drops below the threshold, anyone can liquidate them for a bonus
Whoever the first marketing person that said βletβs email the shopper bc they forgot the check outββ¦.grrrr
Makes me 1000% less likely to buy and if I do Iβll go elsewhere.
Greg Van Dell | gregvandell.eth retweeted
Replying to @brian_armstrong
"Non-technical teams are now shipping production code"
This is going to end in tears for Coinbase and the impacts will be socialised to Retail Users.
Replying to @brian_armstrong
Non technical teams are shipping production code? Lmao what















