- Solana Institute’s Kristin Smith is urging US lawmakers to avoid extending financial intermediary rules to blockchain developers who do not handle user funds.
- She says the CLARITY Act must preserve protections for open-source builders, validators and non-custodial wallet providers as it advances through the Senate.
- The push is supported by a coalition of more than 60 crypto leaders and reinforced by reference to the bipartisan Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act.
Kristin Smith, chief executive of the Solana Institute, is pressing US senators to preserve protections for blockchain developers as debate over the CLARITY Act moves forward in Washington. She argues that developers and infrastructure providers who do not control customer assets should not be regulated as financial intermediaries.
In a series of posts on X published on 9 June, Smith said the legislation has a realistic chance of advancing through the Senate and stressed the importance of maintaining safeguards for those building public blockchain networks. She warned that lawmakers should ensure protections remain in place for developers and infrastructure providers as the bill progresses.
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Smith pointed to an industry letter signed by more than 160 crypto executives and security personnel, including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, urging senators to retain strong protections for software developers within the legislation.
According to Smith, open-source developers, validators and providers of non-custodial wallets neither hold customer assets nor carry out transactions on behalf of users. As a result, she argued they should not be classified as brokers, custodians or other financial intermediaries.
She also highlighted the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), a bipartisan proposal introduced in January by Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden. Smith said the measure would provide legal certainty for software developers and blockchain infrastructure providers that do not control customer funds or transactions.
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