The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), Fedi and Cornell University are launching a two‑year study on how Americans view financial privacy, the trade‑offs they will accept and how regulation shapes their behavior.
The initiative brings together a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet company with an academic center and a policy think tank, aiming to connect how privacy tools are built, researched and ultimately governed.
According to Fedi and BPI, the research will combine quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews to examine attitudes toward financial privacy and their evolution.
Cornell’s Brooks School Tech Policy Institute is joining as the academic partner, while Fedi brings product and user behavior insights and BPI focuses on policy and communications.
The two-year project will pay particular attention to how Americans think about privacy in everyday transactions and their trust in institutions, with four semi‑annual reports, the first released in April 2026, aimed at bringing empirical evidence into policy debates and the regulatory climate facing developers.
Rising concern over data use
Public concern about data collection is on the rise. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 71% of US adults were very or somewhat concerned about how the government used the data it collected about them, up from 64% in 2019. About two‑thirds said they understood little or nothing about what companies did with their personal data.
Related: Crypto urges SEC to see the good in blockchain privacy tools
At the same time, governments around the world are exploring initiatives such as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and digital identity frameworks that could expand official visibility into payments and online activity, feeding a broader debate over whether financial privacy should be preserved, redesigned or constrained in the digital era.
Developer climate and privacy tools
In crypto, the policy climate for open‑source and privacy‑enhancing tools has grown harsher.
US authorities brought criminal cases against developers of non‑custodial services such as Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash, alleging they operated unlicensed money‑transmitting businesses and helped move illicit funds through their software.
In both cases, developers ultimately faced criminal convictions and multi‑year prison sentences or ongoing liability risk.
The cases have raised fears that simply publishing or maintaining privacy‑focused code could be treated as a crime, even when developers do not directly control user funds.
Related: After Samourai, DOJ’s money-transmitter theory now looms over crypto mixers
Market structure bill and DeFi developers
In Washington, the ongoing crypto market structure bill has emerged as a key battleground over the future of developers and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Industry organizations, including the DeFi Education Fund, have urged lawmakers to provide “robust, nationwide protections” for software developers and non‑custodial infrastructure, warning that vague obligations could push builders offshore or force them into traditional financial‑intermediary roles.
Variant chief legal officer Jake Chervinsky framed DeFi as his “red line” in the market structure debate, arguing that the bill must protect DeFi developers and warning that, without clear safeguards, a future regulator could still try to “kill DeFi” in the United States.
Cointelegraph contacted the Bitcoin Policy Institute for additional comment, but had not received a response by publication time.
Magazine: 2026 is the year of pragmatic privacy in crypto — Canton, Zcash and more
