The SEC is preparing a December roundtable conference focused on privacy and financial oversight.

The Cryptocurrency Task Force of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold a roundtable discussion in December, focusing on privacy and financial oversight — issues that are returning to the spotlight amid an increasingly sensitive regulatory environment in the cryptocurrency industry.

The event is scheduled for December 15th. Similar to previous SEC roundtables, industry leaders and regulatory officials will discuss common challenges and potential solutions, but will not make any official policy recommendations.

The wave of debates about privacy intensified after notable developments: the partial conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm in June, the sentencing of co-founder Samourai Wallet in November, along with a strong surge in privacy tokens over the past two months.

CPrivacy tokens like Zcash have surged in value since early November | Source: CoinMarketCap“Totalitarianism develops when people lose their privacy. When those in power show hostility towards privacy protections, it is a very concerning sign,” warned Naomi Brockwell, founder of the Ludlow Institute — an organization promoting freedom through technology.

The renewed interest in privacy also rekindles memories of the crypto field’s cypherpunk origins, closely linked to the core goal of cryptography technology: creating secure communication channels between individuals in risky and controlled environments.

The crypto community raises alarms after legal cases set privacy-related legal precedents

The ruling in the Storm case and many similar cases — where open-source software developers are convicted or imprisoned for building protocols that emphasize privacy and are non-custodial — are creating dangerous precedents for security technology in the U.S., according to multiple legal experts.

Industry leaders and advocates warn that these prosecutions are spreading fear, causing programmers to hesitate in developing privacy-enhancing tools.

Journalist and crypto advocate Lola Leetz likened the verdict in the Samourai Wallet case to the U.S. government accusing Toyota just because criminals or terrorists use Toyota vehicles for illegal activities.

“It’s impossible to hold an individual responsible for how others use the tools they create,” Leetz emphasized.

In August, Matthew Galeotti — acting assistant attorney general in the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — stated that the agency would stop prosecuting open-source developers solely for writing code.

“From our perspective, writing code — unless associated with malicious intent — does not constitute a crime,” Galeotti said. “The Department will not use charges as a tool to create laws. We do not want innovators to have to guess what could lead to criminal prosecution.”