#201 - The CLARITY Act

Jacob Robinson (0:05)

Now, if you've clicked on, if you're listening to this podcast, there's a good chance you've heard about the Clarity Act. But how many people have actually read the 309-page bill? And how many people understand the implications of it? My goal with this podcast, even if you don't have any background in law, even if you've never read a bill before, even if you don't know much about crypto, you'll understand the Clarity Act better than 99.9% of the population. You'll also have background on where the gaps exist in the current status quo, which is why we need the Clarity Act to pass, what this law changes, and what the next steps are as the battlegrounds change from conversations around things like yield to ethics provisions. Most importantly, you'll be in a position to best operate in a world where clarity is passed, because you'll understand the new rules and how they apply. Before we begin, I want to start with a take because I really do believe this to be true. It might sound like an exaggeration and it's certainly not true in every case, but when people fight for their country, when they immigrate to a new country, when a country like the United States becomes a world leader, it's not because of the people. It's not because of the president or the flag or even to an extent the army. It's because of the laws, because of what the laws are and how they are upheld, because of what they incentivize.

Objective laws provide the freedom and equality that attract the best people in the world, that incentivize the best people in the world to build things that make the world a better place.

So, as long as these laws are upheld fairly, they shape the country just as the country shapes them.

Law is what I talk about in this podcast, Law of Code. For those of you who are new, welcome. My name is Jacob Robinson, and in this podcast, I covered the legal layer of emerging technologies alongside leading experts. My goal is to help people understand the rules that shape our society. So think of it like the Huberman Lab, but for law. It should be the best legal podcast that you've ever heard, and if it's not, you let me know why, and I'll improve and I'll make it better next time.

So far, this podcast has been approved for substantive continuing professional development hours for lawyers in Ontario, Canada. For any American lawyers that are listening, my goal is to get the same thing approved state by state, so you can get continuing legal education credits. And for anyone who's not a lawyer, I promise you don't need to be a lawyer to listen to this at all. Now, this episode is specifically about the Clarity Act. And so to prepare for this, I spent about 40 non-billable hours just understanding the rules and clarity, rereading the case law around things like the Howey analysis and investment contract tests and read online commentary on Clarity. And then I spoke to the world's leading experts on this subject. And that's who you're going to hear from in this podcast. So joining me throughout are Lewis Cohen. He's a partner and co-chair of CahillNXT. And he is the foremost expert on investment contract analysis and digital assets in the US. You'll also hear from Miles Jennings. He's the head of policy and general counsel for A16Z Crypto, who like Lewis has been involved in thought leadership in this space for years at a deep level. And I'd give Miles a lot of credit for the token classifications we see in this bill. Same thing to Lewis. Similar credit is owed to others who joined this episode. That includes Sarah Brennan, general counsel at Delphi Ventures, Kyle Bligen, head of policy and public affairs at the Decentralization Research Center. Sarah and Kyle have worked deeply on clarity and understand its implications in the process to get it passed, as well as anyone. And if that's not enough for you, we also get commentary from the CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, Miller Whitehouse-Levine, who joined me from Washington just minutes after being in the room during the Senate Banking Committee markup. We also hear from Dugan Bliss, a former SEC, Social Security and Exchange Commission, trial lawyer, who is currently Binance's head of litigation, as well as Bill Hughes from ConsenSys and Gerald Gallagher from Crypto in America. Jason Schwartz from CahillNXT, a tax lawyer, also joins for one last important segment, honestly, that you really need to stick around to the end for. And I'm not just saying that because it works out really conveniently for the podcast. Like, I really do recommend sticking around for that. So I work my ass off to make this the best explainer on the Clarity Act on the Internet. I didn't get paid for this. And as you can tell, there aren't any sponsors. All I ask from you, if you learn something from this, if you like it, if you want to support this type of work, please just like it. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps. So we're going to get into Clarity now after a brief 22nd legal disclaimer.