The post SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Speaks On Privacy And Permissionlessness At PubKey appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Yesterday, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce sat down for a fireside chat with NYDIG founder Ross Stevens at New York City’s Bitcoin-themed bar PubKey. The two traversed a number of topics during their discussion, including why it’s important that the world has a permissionless network and asset like Bitcoin as well as why transactional privacy should be a right for U.S. citizens. Peirce didn’t mince words during the discussion, yet she also spoke with nuance and thoughtfulness as she responded to questions from not only Stevens but from members of the audience during a Q&A session, as well. On Permissionlessness Toward the onset of the talk, Peirce highlighted the fact that Bitcoin is a tool for freedom fighters as part of a broader theme of why it’s crucial that permissionless technology like Bitcoin exists. She said that she often thinks about what it would have been like if someone like Harriet Tubman had had Bitcoin. Stevens then posed a question about the risk of a situation in which a U.S. president issues an executive order that authorizes the government to confiscate U.S. citizens’ bitcoin, like the way Executive Order 6102 enabled the government to seize U.S. citizens’ gold in 1933. Peirce admitted that “it’s still possible for an Executive Order like 6102 to happen in the U.S.,” and made the case that it’s up to us to remain vigilant so as not to permit something like this to happen again. “To protect ourselves from something like Executive Order 6102, we must reaffirm the founding principles of America and hold the government accountable to those principles,” said the commissioner. Stevens added that some of Bitcoin’s qualities, such as the ability to store one’s seed phrase in one’s mind, make it more resistant to seizure than gold and, therefore, a better freedom-preserving technology.…

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Filed under: News - @ June 3, 2025 2:27 pm