Today’s news of the Netherlands Crime Agency (FIOD) arresting
a “suspected” Tornado Cash developer is making waves on social media,
with the crypto community and privacy advocates decrying the move as a
declaration of war on those who simply write code.
“I’m
short of words. I’m short of breath. They detained him for writing
code. Writing code. These terrorist organizations called traditional
nations must be dismantled,” wrote Luis Cuende, the co-founder of
Aragon, an open-source software project that helps projects manage
decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO).
Daniel
Buchner, who works on decentralized identity solutions, added that
arresting a developer for being part of a project that was allegedly
used by bad actors “transcends Ethereum and applies to any decentralized system.”
“It's
an overt attack on human rights and casts a chilling effect over
developers of open source software. Authoritarians who perpetrate human
rights violations should be repelled by any and all means necessary,” wrote Buchner.
Some long-time Bitcoin
maximalists joined the debate as well, with Stephan Livera, the host of
a popular podcast, calling the developments around Tornado “concerning
news.”
“Imagine
if road builders were being arrested 'because criminals use them?' Or
home curtain installers? Wanting privacy should not be considered a
crime,” wrote Livera.
Legal implications of Tornado Cash sanctions
Tornado
Cash, which obfuscates the origin of Ethereum transactions by pooling
together large numbers of transactions and mixing them to prevent them
from being tracked on the public blockchain, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday—along with a slew of addresses associated with the service.
Jake Chervinsky, a lawyer and head of policy at Blockchain Association, weighed in
on the government’s move, saying that he spent the whole week looking
into the sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash and “haven't heard a
satisfying justification yet.”
“The
main argument is 'criminals used it a lot.' Okay, but they use
everything law-abiding citizens do. Where's the line? How slippery is
this slope? The uncertainty is a step back,” replied crypto researcher
Noah Ruderman, adding that the whole thing is likely to be about
surveillance issues.
“If
you ever get 'too good' at disrupting surveillance, internal pressure
will come from foreign policy and national security interests to shut it
down,” said Ruderman.
“Arresting cryptographers for writing software is the end of credibility for the west. Bad move. Worse timing. Naive,” wrote Simon Taylor, head of strategy at fraud prevention and compliance infrastructure provider Sardine.
Comments
Post a Comment