Solana Institute advocates for developer protection: U.S. legislation clarifies non-custodial developer exemptions

【Chain Wen】It seems that open-source developers have recently found some hope. The Solana Policy Institute recently addressed a very practical issue — does the US judicial system still support open-source innovation? This question didn’t come out of nowhere; the trigger was the guilty verdict against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm last August. Although the jury did not reach a consensus on money laundering and sanctions charges, the conviction for illegal money transmission has been finalized, which has somewhat dampened the spirits of the entire developer community.

However, good news is that action is really happening at the congressional level. A new bill in the Senate Banking Committee now explicitly includes protections for software developers. What is the core of this “Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act”? Simply put — if you are a non-custodial open-source developer and do not control user funds, you should not be prosecuted as a money transmission institution. This effectively provides developers with a legal safe harbor.

The institute’s head called this a major victory for the bill. From a technically neutral perspective, this is indeed a step in the right direction. However, there is still a road ahead before the bill can become law. But at least now, someone is speaking up for developers at the legislative level.