Big Tech Gets AI. BlackRock Gets Bitcoin. You Get Prosecuted | Zack Shapiro

— AI existential risk versus ordinary risks: recursive self-improvement, orthogonality thesis, and instrumental convergence are real concerns, but distinct from job displacement or regulatory capture fears.

— Open source AI does not pose existential threat; policy should target frontier labs, not open source developers or users.

— The "two clocks" problem: AI capability advances exponentially while enterprise adoption moves slowly; the gap will define the next decade of economic disruption.

— The Clarity Act failed on the Senate floor; the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) criminal protections for non-custodial developers now depend entirely on court precedent.

— Samurai Wallet and Tornado Cash prosecutions treat non-custodial software developers as unlicensed money transmitters, a novel and dangerous legal theory with no limiting principle.

— White hat recovery of hacked Bitcoin can be protected under Wyoming law if pursued through counsel and negotiated bounties, not unilateral asset seizures.

— If your Bitcoin was exposed in the Cold Card hack, retain the physical device; it may prove ownership if white hats or law enforcement recover funds.

— Support affirmative litigation (Coin Center's Llewellyn case, Roman Storm case) to establish court precedent that non-custodial developers are not money transmitters; this is now the only path to legal certainty.

— Understand that failing to pass BRCA means judges—most unfamiliar with cryptocurrency—will decide if publishing Bitcoin code is a criminal offense; the outcome will effectively determine whether sovereign self-custody remains legal.