Tornado Cash developers are fighting unfair imprisonment as they only built the software infrastructure but never committed money laundering crimes.
An Ethereum (ETH) address associated with Vitalik Buterin has sent 30 Ether, worth around $111,810, to the legal defense fund for the Tornado Cash developers, Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm. Buterin donated the money through the Juicebox platform, a decentralized fundraising protocol on the Ethereum network. Consequently, the Tornado Cash legal defense fund, which was created earlier this year, now has a total of 592.45 ETH, worth about $2.2 million.
Why the Crypto Industry Must Support Tornado Cash Developers
The troubles of Tornado Cash developers began after the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the crypto mixer in August 2022. A year after the US issued sanctions on Tornado Cash crypto mixer, Storm, a US-based web3 developer, was arrested.
Earlier this year, Pertsev was sentenced to 64 months in prison by a Dutch court, which sparked anger among the crypto developers. Furthermore, Pertsev just developed software through open source, which is compared to road construction workers and careless accidents that regularly happen on the road. According to Juicebox, Roman and Alexey’s legal fees range between $90k and $100k per month, thus requiring the support of the crypto industry.
As Coinspeaker previously reported, Pertsev has appealed the Judge’s ruling in anticipation of a fair hearing and trial. However, the case is politically sensitive since billions of dollars have been laundered through crypto mixers, especially those stolen by the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group.
“The arrests of Roman Storm and Alex Pertsev are considered a direct attack on the open-source development space and may have devastating consequences for developers who write and publish code. This is why we need to act NOW to protect our right to code,” the Justice DAO noted.
The use of Tornado Cash for ensuring privacy has been advocated for by top Web3 executives. Furthermore, online anonymity is not a crime as businesses and individuals are keen to protect their financial data at all costs.
For instance, Buterin once used Tornado Cash to donate to Ukraine’s government amid the ongoing war with Russia.
Bigger Picture
The notable growth of the cryptocurrency industry has elevated the voice of ordinary people around the world against the government’s oppression. Already, the cryptocurrency narrative has taken center stage in the upcoming United States elections and the trend is expected to continue in other jurisdictions over the coming years.
Moreover, the adoption of Bitcoin and other digital assets has diluted global governments, which are highly centralized. Consequently, it is safe to assume more countries will eventually follow the El Salvador path to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender to tame high inflation.
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