Are you a journalist? Happy to have a conversation, on or off the record. Just use the handy contact form on the front page.
Quotes and mentions
The New York Times, 21 May 2023 – Liberals Are Persuading Themselves of a Debt Ceiling Plan That Won’t Work
The Economist, 7 May 2023 – Your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence
CoinTelegraph, 3 May 2023 – Will compromise on anonymous crypto appease US regulators, spur adoption?
BlockWorks, 17 March 2023: No Laws, No Policy, No Clarity: The Parlous State of Crypto Regulation
Daily Caller, 10 March 2023: “Feds Broke It:” Observers Melt Down After Bank Collapses Overnight
Decrypt, 20 October 2022 – Craig Wright Loses Lawsuit in Norway over Satoshi Nakamoto Claims
Forbes, 4 October 2022 – Kim Kardashian’s $1 Million Fine Could Impact Uniswap, Sushiswap and Other Decentralized Exchanges
Financial Times, 3 August 2022 – Further Reading
Bitcoin Magazine, 29 July 2022 – Is Bitcoin a New Kind of Property?
Blockworks, 29 July 2022 – Coinbase Defends Listing Process, Despite SEC Pressure
Decrypt, 14 July 2022 – See You In Court, Anon: UK Judge Allows Lawsuits via NFT Airdrop
Fox News, 11 July 2022 – Critics hit Georgetown law professor for calling Supreme Court ‘actively rogue’: “The rot in legal academia”
Vice Motherboard, 7 June 2022 – Meet the Vigilantes who Hack Millions in Crypto to Save It from Thieves
Decrypt, 1 June 2022 – Crypto-Skeptic Tech Pros Counter-Lobby US Lawmakers
BlockWorks, 16 February 2022 – Colorado’s Plans to Accept Tax Payments in Crypto Could Be Rocky for Investors
Vice Motherboard, 14 February 2022 – Crypto Loans Service BlockFi Pays Record $100 million SEC Penalty
Decrypt, 27 January 2022 – ‘Snow Job:’ The Plot to Hand the Crypto Industry to the Big Banks
Decrypt, 20 January 2022 – Jim Cramer Says Dogecoin is a Security. Is He Right?
Decrypt, 10 November 2021 – SEC Halts Token Registration for First Legally Recognized DAO
Billboard, 22 September 2021 – Can Social Tokens Pave A New Future for Blockchain? Bitclout’s Banking On It
Vice Motherboard, 8 September 2021 – Coinbase Goes Nuclear After SEC Threatens to Sue Over Crypto Loans
The Wall Street Journal, 24 August 2021 – Cryptocurrency’s Surge Leaves Global Watchdogs Struggling to Catch Up
Vice World News, 19 August 2021 – How Social Media Helped ‘Taliban 2.0’ Take Control of Afghanistan
Vice Motherboard, 16 August 2021 – WhatsApp Says It’s Not Banning the Taliban Because It Can’t Read Their Texts
Fortune, 29 July 2021 – Why Ripple’s SEC Lawsuit Could Have a Lasting Effect on Crypto
Vice, 23 July 2021 – “A Warning Shot:” Regulators Are Coming for the Massive Crypto Loan Industry
Law360, 8 July 2021 – Trump Needs Damning Evidence To Keep Big Tech Suits Alive
Slate, 13 May 2021 – Bitcoin and Dogecoin Are at Elon Musk’s Mercy
Coindesk, 24 February 2021 – Mt Gox Victim Issues Legal Notice to Craig Wright Over Stolen Funds in 1Feex Address
FT Alphaville, 24 February 2021 – Coinbase’s offering docs have just dropped
Decrypt, 10 February 2021 – Bitcoin Retreats But Markets Continue Upward Surge
Coindesk, 4 February 2021 – Crypto is the Libertarian Cheat Code in the Final Battle over State Coercion
FT Alphaville, 23 December 2020 – Ripple: Davos man no longer
Reclaim the Net, 23 November 2020 – Think Tank Proposes UK Free Speech Act
Decrypt, 22 August 2020 – Is Dave Portnoy in hot water for pumping Bitcoin? Unlikely, lawyers say
CoinDesk, 28 July 2020 – One Billion, Two Billion, Three Billion, Four? DeFi’s Knocking on TradFi’s Door
Slate, 17 July 2020 – Why cryptocurrency advocates think the Twitter hack could help Bitcoin
Decrypt, 3 June 2020 – Twitter is going easy on Donald Trump
Reclaim the Net, 26 May 2020 – Twitter starts editorializing Trump’s tweets and adding fact-checks from CNN
Decrypt, 13 May 2020 – The SEC killed Telegram’s $1.7 billion crypto project. What’s next?
Fortune, 15 May 2020 – Reddit offers cryptocurrency: Is this a game changer?
Coindesk, 13 May 2020 – Generation Crypto: Preston Byrne – the Libertarian
Reclaim the Net, 6 May 2020 – Facebook Oversight Board members’ past statements raise censorship and bias concerns
Law.com, 28 April 2020 – Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Faces Sovereignty, Regulatory Hurdles
CoinDesk, 14 April 2020 – MakerDAO Users Sue Stablecoin Issuer Following ‘Black Thursday’ Losses
Decrypt, 13 April 2020 – Apple and Google’s Coronavirus App is a “Global Mass Surveillance Tool”
Bloomberg Law, 12 March 2020 – SEC CryptoMom’s Safe Harbor Makes Sense, In a Way
Law.com, 5 March 2020 – Anderson Kill’s New Partner: Blockchain Regulators Have Already Provided Plenty of Clarity
Slate, 18 December 2019 – How Weird Is It That a Company Lost Hundreds of Millions in Cryptocurrency Because Its CEO Died?
Fortune, 27 November 2019 – Crypto Needs Journalists More Than It Wants to Admit
Financial Times, 16 October 2019 – Where it all went wrong for Facebook’s Libra
Fortune, 9 October 2019 – IRS’ new cryptocurrency rules create “messy” problem for industry
Decrypt, 1 October 2019 – Block.one’s SEC settlement over EOS ICO is “shockingly weak” say critics
Breitbart Tech, 15 July 2019 – Trump Faces Backlash from Base Over Bitcoin
FT Alphaville, 15 July 2019 – Trump vs. Crypto: Rage Against the Obscene
Financial Times, 30 June 2019 – Blockchain is no silver bullet against the black market
Coindesk, 19 June 2019 – Will Facebook’s Libra be an onramp or dead end for crypto?
Fortune, 17 June 2019 – Facebook’s cryptocurrency ambitions provoke heated debate
Breitbart, 14 June 2019 – Facebook to debut cryptocurrency next week, backed by Visa, Mastercard, Uber
Coindesk, 16 May 2019 – Amazon’s Arrival and 4 Other Enterprise Blockchain Trends from Consensus 2019
FT Alphaville, 13 May 2019 – Bitcoin is the 10-year Treasury of our time
Coindesk, 16 April 2019 – Craig Wright’s Fight with a Cartoon Bitcoin Astronaut Cat, Explained
Coindesk, 16 April 2019 – Auditor Ernst & Young Unveils Nightfall, An Ambitious Bid to Bring Business to Ethereum
The Spectator, 13 April 2019 – Sajid Javid’s new internet rules will have a chilling effect on free speech
The Next Web, 4 April 2019 – A Cryptocurrency Debunker’s Quixotic Quest to Save Endangered Marmots with an Emoji
Coindesk, 3 April 2019 – The Securities and Exchange Commission Issues First “No-Action” Letter Clearing ICO to Sell Tokens in the US
Breitbart, 5 March 2019 – Facebook “Massive Security Hole” Lets Anyone Find You From Your Phone Number
Security Boulevard, 4 March 2019 – Uproar Over Facebook 2FA Privacy Violation
The Next Web, 22 February 2019 – A brief history of cryptocurrency and blockchain white papers
Wired, 1 January 2019 – #wiredbackpage
Financial Times, 19 December 2018 – Crypto miners fight for survival as market turmoil continues
Coindesk, 26 November 2018 – Employees Say Startup Civil Hyped Crypto Returns, but Failed to Pay
Coindesk, 8 November 2018 – Expect the SEC to target more token exchanges after EtherDelta
Washington Post, 1 November 2018 – One of the hottest things in cryptocurrency: stablecoins
The Block, 29 October 2018 – eToro’s recent listing looks like a security, but the firm isn’t worried about regulators
Nouriel Roubini, 11 October 2018 – written testimony for hearing “Exploring the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Ecosystem” before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Community Affairs
Financial Times, 14 September 2018 – Canary Wharf departures show strains in wider crypto market
Forbes, 5 September 2018 – A major push to use blockchain to link autonomous vehicle development on an open-source network
The Economist, 1 September 2018 – Initial Coin Offerings have become big business
Forbes, 1 August 2018 – Nobel Prize winner joins blockchain startup to fix smart contracts
FT Alphaville, 25 June 2018 – The John Taylor-backed “stablecoin” that’s backed by, um, stability
Fortune, 22 June 2018 – Ex-GoDaddy Execs Raise $6.5 Million for Cheap, Android Phone-Friendly Blockchain
Financial Times, 8 June 2018 – Who really owns Bitcoin now?
MIT Technology Review, 7 June 2018 – “Stablecoins” are trending, but they may ignore basic economics
VentureBeat, 27 May 2018 – Stablecoins: Brilliant idea or disaster waiting to happen?
Vice/Motherboard, 1 May 2018 – The ‘Holy Grail’ of cryptocurrency looks like the banks we already know and hate
Fast Company, 10 April 2018 – The brazen fraud case that may help determine the future of ICOs
Financial Times, 26 March 2018 – Law firms look to capitalize on Initial Coin Offering boom
FT Alphaville, 23 March 2018 – The “academic’s cryptocurrency” is an elegant waste of time
Digiday, 13 Feburary 2018 – Salon to adblock users: “let us use your computers to mine cryptocurrency.” Really.
Quartz, 6 February 2018 – The US Senate just learned what Bitcoiners mean by “HODL”
Forbes, 24 January 2018 – Another “stablecoin” debuts – can asset-backed cryptocurrencies ward off crypto volatility?
Fortune, 27 December 2017 – 19 Bitcoin accounts you should really follow on Twitter.
Financial Times, 29 November 2017 – Drivers and risks of the cryptocurrency boom
Forbes (Senior Contributor Frances Coppola), 29 November 2017 – Bitcoin’s enormous price rise exposes the irrational beliefs of investors
Forbes, 2 October 2017 – Are ICOs for “Utility Tokens” selling securities? Prominent crypto players say “yes”
FT Alphaville, 23 August 2017 – Of crypto apples and other fantastical fruit
Forbes, 17 July 2017 – How to speculate in ICOs: 10 practical tips
The New York Times, 23 June 2017 – Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering
Coindesk, 23 May 2017 – The legality of ICOs – past, present and future
Coindesk, 11 April 2017 – Monax adds blockchain code to Hyperledger Github repository
Reuters, 19 December 2016 – Digital currency sales take off, but with no regulation, questions abound
Coindesk, 30 November 2016 – Blockchain pros debate ‘looming challenges’ for smart contracts
TechCrunch, 30 October 2016 – Zcash, Blockstack, and appcoins, Oh My!
Money Stuff (Bloomberg), 22 August 2016 – Stock buybacks and securities fraud
Coindesk, 18 August 2016 – The dream of the DAO stubbornly lives on
American Banker, 19 May 2016 – The DAO might be groundbreaking, but is it legal?
Coindesk, 2 March 2016 – 40 banks trial commercial paper trading in latest R3 blockchain test
American Banker, 24 February 2016 – Can blockchain technology really unclog the capital markets?
New York Business Journal, 29 January 2016 – PwC becomes first ‘Big Four’ accounting firm to publicly partner with blockchain startups
Coindesk, 16 December 2015 – Microsoft Azure announces new offerings for its Blockchain-as-a-Service platform
Wired, 9 December 2015 – The Radical Politics of the Blockchain
The Guardian, 9 November 2015 – Tech firms warn Snooper’s Charter could end strong encryption in Britain
Washington Post, 4 November 2015 – Britain seeks to overhaul web surveillance after Snowden leaks
Coindesk, 2 August 2015 – Eris COO: Private and public blockchains need to coexist
Coindesk, 28 July 2015 – The American Banker conference: lines drawn in blockchain debate
Financial Times, 2 June 2015 – Tech sector figures warn of hit from planned UK data law
American Banker, 19 May 2015 – NASDAQ signals confidence in Bitcoin, not just the blockchain
The Wall Street Journal, 14 April 2015 – “Blockchains without coins” stir tensions in Bitcoin community
FT Alphaville, 20 March 2015 – Blockchains as a public and private resource
The New Republic, 24 February 2015 – After the Bitcoin Gold Rush
FT Alphaville, 4 February 2015 – Bitcoin continues to evolve into a worse version of the current system
The Guardian, 13 January 2015 – David Cameron in ‘cloud cuckoo land’ over encrypted messaging apps ban
The Telegraph, 05 August 2014 – Bitcoin trades slump as cryptocurrency’s rise stalls
City AM, 18 March 2014 – Why an independent Venice should adopt Dogecoin
City AM, 17 March 2014 – Dogecoin just sent $11,000 over Twitter – instantly
New Statesman, 2 September 2013 – Think tank slams Help to Buy: “Government is the housing crisis”
Podcasts
Law of Code, February 14th 2022: Preston Byrne: The Legal Differences Between Ethereum’s ICO & Bitcoin, DAO trends, and building a crypto-law practice
Crypto Critics’ Corner, 26 July 2021: From Skeptic to Believer: Preston Byrne on the cryptocurrency ecosystem
The Pin Factory with the Adam Smith Institute, 2 December 2020 – Special Edition: Free Speech and Artificial Intelligence
Teach Me One Thing with Seyi Taylor, 19 November 2020 – Section 230
Coindesk / Breakdown with Nathaniel Whittemore, 2 October 2020 – Bitmex Indictments and Defi
Tales from the Crypt with Marty Bent, 1 July 2020 – Tales from the Crypt #175
Ruby Media Group podcast with Kris Ruby, 29 May 2020 – What is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act?
Coindesk Podcast Network with Leigh Cuen, 9 May 2020 – Scams, Schemes and Crypto Privacy
Pomp Podcast #265 with Anthony Pompliano, 12 April 2020 – Preston Byrne on Constitutional Rights During the Quarantine
Guns n’ Bitcoin with Ragnar Lifthrasir, 19 December 2019 – on the Financial Censorship Trinity
What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack, 6 September 2019 – on Regulating Libra
The Bitcoin Law Review with Tone Vays, 20 August 2019 – Bitcoin Law Review
Late Confirmation with Marc Hochstein, September 2018 – Concordia 1 and Concordia 2
Unchained with Laura Shin, March 2018 – The Skeptics’ Episode
Investor’s Field Guide with Patrick O’Shaughnessy, January 2018 – The Cryptopocalypse
Selected Op-eds
Coindesk, 22 December 2022 – Economic Unreality: What SEC Precedents Mean for Ripple Labs
Adam Smith Institute, 25 November 2020 – Draft Text of the United Kingdom Free Speech Act
The Telegraph, 23 November 2020 – Britain needs to take a lesson from the US in protecting free speech
Adam Smith Institute, 23 November 2020 (briefing paper) – Sense and Sensitivity: Restoring Free Speech in the United Kingdom
Coindesk, throughout 2020 – periodic op-ed column
Coindesk, 10 June 2020 – Bitcoin doesn’t take sides: why apolitical solutions are the Internet’s future
The Block, 8 October 2019 – Fear and Loathing on the Blockchain: Leibowitz et al. v. iFinex et al.
The Block’s Crypto Caselaw Weekly, 15 August 2019 – In re Ripple Labs Inc. Litigation – XRP: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Adam Smith Institute, 8 April 2019 – Freedom-Loving People Everywhere Should Oppose the Online Harms White Paper
The Block’s Crypto Caselaw Weekly, 17 March 2019 – U.S. v. Ignatov et al. : OneCoin indictment includes securities fraud charge
The Guardian (with Nouriel Roubini), 5 March 2018. Bitcoin is based on the blockchain pipe dream
Coindesk, 1 December 2017 – Bitcoin is an emerging systemic risk.
New Statesman, 2013 – Various articles on housing policy and legal aid reform.
Adam Smith Institute, September 2013 – Burning down the house: Why Help to Buy will ruin Britain’s housing market (Update, 29 October 2018: Help to Buy did, in fact, ruin Britain’s housing market and is being cancelled by the government as a result.)
Television
CNBC Africa, 22 November 2018 – Crypto Trader
Euronews, 28 January 2015 – On the Frontline – Shining a Light on the Dark Net
Radio
BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, 5 November 2015
BBC Radio 5 Live, 16 January 2015