From an earlier professional life:
Public Policy
I started my D.C. career at the Cato Institute in 1999. After law school, I went to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where I started and directed its Technology Policy Program until 2014. After that I co-founded Coin Center where I served as executive director through 2024, and where I remain on the board of directors. Below is some of my work during that time.
Scholarly Articles
- The Case for Electronic Cash: Why Private Peer-to-Peer Payments are Essential to an Open Society
- State Digital Currency Principles and Framework
- Bitcoin: A Primer for Policymakers
- Bitcoin Financial Regulation: Securities, Derivatives, Prediction Markets & Gambling PDF
- Cryptocurrency PDF
- An Offer You Can’t Refuse: “Agency Threats” and the Rule of Law PDF
- Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive to Excess
- Regulation: A Primer
- Loving the Cyber Bomb? The Dangers of Threat Inflation in Cybersecurity Policy PDF
- Running for Cover: The BRAC Commission as a Model for Federal Spending Reform PDF
- Transparency and Performance in Government PDF
- All Your Data Are Belong to Us: Liberating Government Data PDF
- Midnight Regulations and Regulatory Review PDF
- Toward a More Perfect Union: Regulatory Analysis and Performance Management
- Hack, Mash & Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency PDF
- A Tale of Two Commissions: Net Neutrality and Regulatory Analysis PDF
- Growth in Regulation Slows: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008 PDF
- Sending out an S.O.S.: Public Safety Communications Interoperability as a Collective Action Problem PDF
- Video Killed the Franchise Star: The Consumer Cost of Cable Franchising and Policy Alternatives PDF
- The Spectrum Commons in Theory and Practice PDF
- An Orphan Works Affirmative Defense to Copyright Infringement Actions PDF
- Much Ado about Nothing: The Effects of the Post-Enactment Acquisition Rule in Palazzolo v. Rhode Island PDF
- Relax, Don’t Do It: Why RFID Privacy Concerns Are Exaggerated and Legislation Is Premature
Op-Eds
- The SAFT is a Symptom of Regulatory Uncertainty
- What Bitcoiners Are Doing to Fight Ransomware
- Why Bitcoin Needs Washington to Go Mainstream
- IRS Quest for Coinbase Data Sets Dangerous Precedent
- Let Bitcoin into the campaign
- The Price of Bitcoin Doesn’t Matter Right Now
- Regulators Need to Take It Easy on Bitcoin Startups
- Bitcoin: More than Money
- US regulations are hampering Bitcoin's growth
- Why Regulators Should Embrace Bitcoin
- Cyber-Security: Stand Down, for Now, Congress
- Free WiFi for the masses? Not so fast
- Measured Response to a Limited Threat
- Debate: This house believes that a hyperconnected world is more rather than less secure.
- A Note to Congress: The United Nations Isn’t a Serious Threat to Internet Freedom—But You Are
- A Shift Toward Digital Currency
- Cyberwar Is the New Yellowcake
- The Cybersecurity-Industrial Complex
- BRAC the federal budget: Fiscal commission needs real power to cut programs
- Cyberattacks: Washington is hyping the threat to justify regulating the Internet
- Can Congress tweet? Should bloggers care?
- Failure to Communicate
- Who’s your daddy?
Testimony
- Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?
- Virtual Currencies, Related Futures Products, and Market and Regulatory Developments and Challenges
- Virtual Currency: Financial Innovation and National Security Implications
- Digital Currency and Block Chain Technology
- Innovation and Transformation in Payment Technology
- Hearing on Digital Currency
- Digital Currency Introduction – Bitcoin
- Bitcoin: Examining the Benefits and Risks for Small Business
- Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies
- Transparency Through Technology: Evaluating Federal Open Government Efforts
- Economic Stimulus Oversight
Citations in Print & Web Publications
- Exit interview with Coin Center chief
- Founding Coin Center Chief Jerry Brito Stepping Down After Decade
- Why a Crypto Podcaster Is Suing Janet Yellen
- Crypto Advocacy Group Sues U.S. Treasury Over Tornado Cash Sanctions
- Crypto Think Tank Coin Center Sues US Treasury Over Tornado Cash Sanctions
- U.S. bars Americans from using crypto service Tornado Cash
- A legal challenge over crypto reporting could strike down decades-old anti-money laundering laws
- Crypto industry says it is complying with Russian sanctions, as some policymakers ring alarms
- Bitcoin Fans Are Suddenly a Political Force
- The Way the Senate Melted Down Over Crypto Is Very Revealing
- Owners of BitMEX, a Leading Bitcoin Exchange, Face Criminal Charges
- IRS quietly deletes guideline that Fortnite virtual currency must be reported on tax returns
- An elegy for cash: the technology we might never replace
- The Week in Tech: Some Workers Hate Robots. Retraining May Change That.
- Facebook Questioned on Cryptocurrency, But Battle Looms With Global Regulators
- Pay Taxes With Bitcoin? Ohio Says Sure
- Get ready for Big Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency industry opens a D.C. lobbying arm
- Crypto Industry Frustrated by Haphazard Regulation
- Bitcoin and ether shouldn’t be regulated like stocks and bonds, a top SEC official says
- Crypto Market Rallies on SEC’s Official’s Ether Stance
- Silicon Valley Is Into Bitcoin. It Wants to Keep Washington Out.
- Cyberattackers’ Apparent Take: Just $51,000 So Far
- IRS Crackdown on Bitcoin Exchange Fuels Privacy Worries
- S.E.C. Rejects Winklevoss Brothers’ Bid to Create Bitcoin E.T.F.
- For Fintech Start-Ups, Efforts to Rethink Rules That Cramp Innovation
- Regulator Moves to Create New Fintech Framework
- A Bitcoin charm offensive on law enforcement
- Bitcoin Rules Completed by New York Regulator
- NY Financial Regulator Lawsky Releases Final BitLicense Rules for Bitcoin Firms
- New York regulator issues final virtual currency rules
- London stakes its claim as global bitcoin hub
- Bitcoin: will 2015 be a make-or-break year?
- Introducing the Bitcoin Lobby
- Bitcoin gets an industry-backed advocacy group
- Academics Call for Revisions to New York’s BitLicense Proposal
- Bitcoin ATM builder takes aim at traditional financial services
- Bitcoin Evangelist Is Bound but Not Out
- Who created Bitcoin? Regulators don’t care
- Newly Revealed, Could Satoshi Nakamoto, Worth $400M In Bitcoin, Be In Danger?
- Bitcoin backers unfazed by more setbacks
- Bitcoin Forever!
- Legal Troubles Barely Subdue a Bitcoin Evangelist’s Sermons
- Bitcoin — boom or bubble?
- The mystery of Bitcoin is how it keeps users’ trust
- Five years of Bitcoin in one post
- Here’s how Bitcoin charmed Washington
- Bitcoin Gaining Validity Fuels Rally in Virtual Currency
- U.S. Agencies to Say Bitcoins Offer Legitimate Benefits
- Bitcoin hits $700 high as Senate stages hearing on virtual currency
- Arrests a breakthrough in global battle against secretive ‘hacktivist’ movement
- How FBI brought down cyber-underworld site Silk Road
- Study Suggests Studios Aren’t Offering Enough Online Legal Options to Counter Movie Piracy
- Many of the most-pirated movies aren’t available for legitimate online purchase
- Can digital rentals block piracy? New site gathers the data
- Who Should Be Blamed for Facilitating Online Piracy?
- The Magic of Bitcoin Turns FBI’s Seized Booty Into Government Protest
- Bitcoin value drops after FBI shuts Silk Road drugs site
- The End of the Internet’s Biggest Black Market Is Good for Bitcoin
- Cyber security: The new arms race for a new front line
- Inside the Bitcoin advocates’ closed-door meeting with federal regulators
- Bitcoin: Tax haven of the future
- The Bitcoin drug business is getting more competitive
- Digital currency firms rush to adopt anti-money laundering rules amid global crackdown
- Seven men charged in Liberty Reserve global money-laundering operation
- The coming political battle over Bitcoin
- Is the Drone’s Potential Being Shot Down Too Fast?
- In Bitcoin we cannot trust
- Yes, Bitcoin is volatile. But it’s still got defenders.
- A Six-Strike Rule for Internet Piracy
- Internet Turns UN Telecoms Talks Into Reality Show
- Editorial: Global Internet Diplomacy
- GOP sides with Mickey Mouse on copyright reform
- A Free-Market Fix for the Copyright Racket
- The U.N.’s Internet Power Grab
- Shedding Light on the UN’s Internet Plans, WikiLeaks-Style
- Porn, gambling, and malware: Bitcoin as the ‘Net’s Wild West
- Curtain of mystery partially pulled back on computer hacker groups
- Why the cyber security bill in Congress is getting big push from Pentagon
- ‘Mega’-Indictment Shows U.S. Already Has International Piracy Chops
- Google Speaks Truth to Power
- Taming and Reining in Cyberspace.
- Speed Bumps on the Road to Virtual Cash
- Stealing "entertainment services" now a crime in Tennessee
- USA erklären das Netz zum Kriegsschauplatz
- The rise of the cybersecurity-industrial complex
- Two Fascinating Exhibits on Data Security
- Take $787 Billion. Now Show Where It’s Going.
- Eye Opener: What to watch with the stimulus
- Contract to Upgrade Recovery.gov Stimulates Criticism
- Web Users Offer Their Two Cents On How to Spend Stimulus Billions
- Could Crowdsourcing Help Control the Stimulus?
- A Zealous Watchman to Follow the Money
- Some Agencies Are Slow in Handing Out Stimulus Grants
- See-Through Stimulus
- Tracking Stimulus Funds Presents Daunting Task
- Everything You Need to Know About the Stimulus Is Online
- Dems eye midnight regulations reversal
- Dear Mr. President
- Outdated Radios Fail Capitol Police
- Flying Blind in a Red-Tape Blizzard
Radio & Podcast Interviews
- The Current US Regulatory Landscape for Crypto
- FinCEN’s Discriminatory Rulemaking
- Financial Privacy, Digital Currency and Stablecoin Payments
- How is Bitcoin Legal
- The Case for Electronic Cash in an Open and Free Society
- Backed by Silicon Valley Cash, Bitcoin Begins to Mature
- How cash is like Bitcoin. And how Bitcoin is like Kim Kardashian.
- Bitcoin Rides High on the Hill
- FBI Shuts Down Silk Road, but the ‘Deep Web’ Lives On
- Regulation and Bitcoin
- Lawmakers, Banking Regulators Take On Bitcoin
- Bitcoin blow: U.S. government freezes funds to trade the digital currency
- Bitcoin 101
- World Conference on International Telecommunication
- Is international cyber warfare a real threat?
- Skeptics Question AT&T’s Logic In T-Mobile Deal
- Podcast: Jerry Brito on a Career in Ideas
- Watching the Stimulus
- A look at where stimulus spending is going
- New Features on Stimulus Watch 2.0
- $9.5 million contract to redesign Recovery.gov
- Making Stimulus Spending Transparent
- Online transparency and future of local news
- A More Transparent Federal Government
- Sunshine Week and Government Data
Television Interviews
- Coin Center’s Brito skeptical about Bitcoin creator claims
- Do digital currencies make it easier for terrorists to move money?
- Professor Bitcoin
- Grieving father sees some relief in Silk Road closure
- The Bitcoin Revolution
- Why Bitcoin is Here to Stay: Q&A with Jerry Brito
- Bitcoin Goes Big
- Fears About A New Copyright Alert
- Why Copyright Law is so Mickey Mouse - And How to Fix It
- Who Rules The Internet?
- Should the UN regulate the internet?
- Why Bitcoin Could Change the Shape of Currency
- Bitcoin virtual currency
- Bitcoin & the End of State-Controlled Money: Q&A with Jerry Brito
- Tumbleroo for the iPad
- Online earmark transparency
- Stimulus spending transparency
- Inside OpenRegs.com
- Redesigning Recovery.gov
- House Testimony: Preventing Stimulus Waste and Fraud
- Bush’s Midnight Regulations
- Lame Duck on the Clock
Lectures & Panel Discussions
- Tech Innovations Building a Brighter Future
- Crypto and National Security: How to Validate American Innovation and Verify U.S. National Security
- Cryptocurrencies: Money, Trust and Regulation
- Blockchain in the Beltway, crypto at the Capitol
- Censorship Resistant Bitcoin as a Sponsor of Social Change
- Trans-Atlantic Panel on Government and Privacy
- Legislating Certainty for Cryptocurrencies: Congressional Industry Convening
- Main Stage Regulatory Update
- President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
- What Coin Center Believes In and What We Do
- Where things Stand with Cryptocurrency & Public Policy
- Beyond Bitcoin
- How the Blockchain Could Change Everything
- Debate: Is Bitcoin Here to Stay?
- Bitcoin Regulation: An Evolving Landscape
- Foreign Affairs Cryptocurrency Policy Forum
- The Bitcoin Policy Prescription: Will Policymakers Get It Right (Again) Or Will Fear Stifle Innovation?
- Bitcoin: Beyond the Currency
- NYU Law Digital Currency Conference: Legal and Policy Issues
- Let’s Get Real: Will You Ever Use Bitcoin at Walmart?
- Bitcoin: The Third Era of Currency
- Cell Phone Unlocking and Copyright
- Laws of Creation: Property Rights in the World of Ideas
- Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive to Excess
- The Search for Solutions: Looking Beyond Prescriptive Regulation
- Hackers, Terrorists, and Rogue States: What Do They Mean for American Cybersecurity?
- Cybersecurity: Will Federal Regulation Help?
- Panel on the Future of Government Transparency
- Stimulating Accountability
- The Dangers of Network Neutrality Regulation
- Just Give Us the Data! Prospects for Putting Government Information to Revolutionary New Uses