Topic: Tornado Cash Developer Was Convicted and jailed (Read 210 times)

To be fair, same happened with Robert as well, when you do something that enhances the possibility of someone doing something illegal, and that is your clear purpose, they do catch you and send you to prison eventually. That doesn't mean that you are going to be able to not come out, if you have a good lawyer then you can argue that it wasn't your intention and you were just using it for something more naive, which would all depend if you could convince the judge to rule in your favour.

But, it was clear from the first day that tornado cash was there to make sure that all the drug trade and money laundering keep going without an issue, do not think that anyone for a single second believed that it was for anything else than that.

Tornado cash was a tool which could be misused by criminals, but had also legitimate privacy usage.
With the same logic, you could say: "There are so many deaths due to car accidents! And cars were even used for terrorist attacks! Car manufacturers should all go jailed!"
Think again.

I don't know the absolute details from the case, but from what media reported, evidence of actual collaboration between the Tornado Cash developers and criminal groups is very thin. There were some mentions in internal communication that could be interpreted as to tolerate criminal use. But yeah ... you can "criminally use" a lot of things. For example, you can use computers and the Internet to distribute child abuse imagery. Should computer manufacturers and Internet providers also go jailed?

The only misbehaviour that could be attributed to the Tornado cash devs is that they ran the mixer as a service taking fees, and depending on the jurisdiction they were operating, they could have had to register a license for their business. But first that would never justify such a long sentence, and second Pertsev was actually not in control anymore of the service when they arrested him, as it was run by a DAO.

More on that topic is here: https://cointelegraph.com/news/tornado-cash-verdict-crypto-industry

Only hope I have is that the court where he was sentenced seemed to have been a minor provincial court, and Pertsev is appealing the sentence. A better informed judge could perhaps rule in a different way, as basic human rights are touched here.

No, it's in the Netherlands. There is another case about other developers in the US though, so you probably confused both cases. FWIW, the US protects software development as a basic right (freedom of speech). US authorities also have clarified that at least their case isn't about developing open source tools.

I'm afraid so. What was he thinking, anyways? Developers like Alex know that making a privacy tool would bring unwanted attention. Why do you think Satoshi never revealed his identity? Because he knew that creating a decentralized currency outside the reach of mainstream governments would bring terrible consequences in the long run. Satoshi would've been jailed if everyone knew who he/she was.

I sure hope crypto developers learn a valuable lesson with the recent incarceration of Alex. To help protect decentralization, privacy, and freedom, developers must never reveal their IDs to the public. Unfortunately, the majority only wants to attract investors than "sticking" with crypto's ideals. We'll be left with a small number of truly-decentralized projects in crypto land. At least, not all hope is lost. 

Very expected considering we are talking about the United Stated and tools which were developed specifically to enhance privacy, and being abused by criminals to launder their money. The only surprise to me is how this guy managed to get sentenced only 5 years in prison, instead more time, usually when comes to these sort of crimes, prosecution would like to make an example out of a criminal and establish and very strong precedent to deter other from doing exactly the same this guy did.
Anyways, considering most of protocols which are used to enhance privacy, including the Blockchain or Monero, are free to use and free software, for anyone to download and run, it would seem this is a lost battle for a single jurisdiction like the USA. They cannot prosecute someone just by trying to protect their digital foot print.

Let us see if this is going to stop further development of mixers and tools aimed to protect privacy, I highly doubt it, though.

It's not the first time we are seeing attacks on anything that has to do with decentralisation. The governments especially US government does not like anything that is beyond there control.

They get nervous any time they hear about a decentralised crypto project, it usually seems some one is about to drag power with them and I believe that Satoshi would have been jailed if he was know just as they are failing the few people who didn't hide their identity while creating a decentralised protocol.

I think Alex made a huge mistake for showing his identity, he should have learn from Satoshi who knew how the government will react when they find something like bitcoin and disappeared till date, if Alex was hide to an extent I guess he would have escaped all these sentences.

Not decentralized crypto projects but privacy-oriented services. Remember the mixing service as well? they've taken down the majority of them.

I don't think so, they're against to the service of increasing privacy and that's why they're taking down each that they can.

And even now people wonder why Satoshi disappeared and we have known nothing about him since then, it is obvious that if he comebacks then governments all over the world will try to blame him for everything that has happened since the creation of bitcoin.

So it is entirely possible he could get a conviction that put him in jail for the rest of his life, so if any developer is out there thinking about creating a tool to enhance the privacy of others, they should make sure to do what they can to remain as anonymous as possible.

Yes. I'm afraid so. Many developers are only looking for fame and fortune these days. They don't actually care about crypto's true principles. If they did, they would've followed Satoshi's footsteps by remaining anonymous. Some of them come up with the excuse that they reveal their identities to make their project look legit under eyes of investors and VCs. Anything that's made by unknown developers/founders would be flagged as a scam.

We will continue to see governments fighting against privacy in crypto for as long as it lives. At least, not all governments will oppose privacy. As long as decentralization is preserved, there should be nothing to worry about.

Decentralization in the cryptocurrency is the best and when developers reveal their  identity then they put themselves into trouble. And yes it is only Cryptocurrencies are mixed and not Fiat but it is the Fiat that was converted exchange to the cryptocurrency so they believe that the person used his fiat and buy the coin and mixed it to different accounts so they can't locate the destination of the coins.
So with that people can use mixers to launder money and that the fear of the US government. Satoshi Nakamoto knew all these and that was why he didn't reveal himself to the world. And I don't know why the developers of Tornado Cash revealed themselves. Were they looking for fame or what? He was not wise enough.

It's a sad day in the history of crypto. Who would've thought developing a decentralized mixing protocol would bring the attention of mainstream governments (particularly, the US government)? After all, only crypto funds are mixed. Not Fiat. Governments shouldn't have jurisdiction on this.

Unfortunately, Tornado.Cash developers made a mistake by revealing their identities. Now they're paying the price of what they did. Satoshi was smart by staying anonymous during Bitcoin's early days. He knew what was coming beforehand. If all other developers followed Satoshi's footsteps, crypto land would be a better place. Luckily for us, Tornado.Cash and similar mixing protocols are decentralized. If one goes down, another one will take its place. Expect government opposition to keep up for as long as crypto lives.

Even though Alexey Pertsev is arrested, his contribution would keep on helping create a free financial system. The decentralized, non-custodial and open source nature of Tornado cash means it would keep on working and hundred of its clones can be made. It was a bad idea for him to reveal his true identity. He might have thought Netherlands is a better place but it's just a puppet of the US. The judiciary is neither free nor independent and there's no hope for him to get justice unless he provides the US with loopholes in the system.

It's incomplete, it should be "decentralized privacy tool project".

If creating decentralized project is a crime, the government wouldn't accept Bitcoin and put Satoshi Nakamoto on the wanted list.

Bitcoin was created to not challenge against fiat, Bitcoin has exist for 15 years and still counting, but as we can see Bitcoin didn't taking fiat's place as the most preferred currency to use for daily needs.

Oh i just noticed it is open source. Well yeah that is bad decision.
Seems like people who develop things for privacy will always need to be anonymous, as there are criminals who want to use the product (at least this is what the govt believe) and then they suddenly in court even if they are not the criminal themselves

So satoshi proved he was right for being anonymous, otherwise he would also had been arrested for creating crypto named digital currency challenging traditional physical currency. But for sure US government is going after every thing promoting anonymizing privacy part.

I think the public should not be confused anymore by conditions like this and the government comes when everything is running. It seems that more and more will be highlighted by the government regarding transactions that are privacy and considered to deviate from the regulations they apply. I think the tug-of-war about this policy will lead to a slowdown in price movements as well as BTC adoption in general.

Governments these days attempt to get all projects that promote privacy and decentralization shut down. Not because they do not comply to their rules and regulations but because they are threatened of what these projects could do. I think it is a little unfair to shut down a project with no clear disobedient intentions.

We could accept a ruling if they truly did something illegal however I feel like if this was just a precautionary measure then we should be concerned.

This precedent that happened is nothing more than a warning on the part of U.S. government to all potential developers and creators of services for anonymizing transactions of crypto currencies. Anyone who creates a similar service like Tornado Cash will suffer persecution and the fate of Alex Pertsev. U.S. government will be able to get them even outside their jurisdiction and even citizens of other countries. This is an attempt on the part of the government to intimidate the crypto community not to create privacy tools for cryptocurrencies.

There is only one conclusion: the creators of any similar tools will be forced to remain anonymous. It was not in vain that Satoshi took care of hiding his person, right.

The US is after privacy cryptocurrency or anything that hides crypto transaction. They are not after crypto in general otherwise they wouldn't had allowed an ETF. They are concerned that they won't be able to control or track privacy centric projects. That is the reason why they went after Bitcoin mixers and now they are doing the same to mixers that were created for Ethereum.

Edit: I found out that the real reason for him to go to prison was that he was caught for money laundering.

The hell are you talking about? Decentralized? Are you supporting people who facilitated so many criminals to laundering their billions of money? There are thousands of people's life savings there. It's kinda stupid to talk about decentralization when it's harmed many people.

They deserved it. It was not even attacking. Tornado cash deserved it. It shall be 100 years rather than only 5 years.



How can you believe if it was not impacting the world's economy?

https://www.wired.com/story/tornado-cash-developer-found-guilty-of-laundering-crypto/

How can't billions of money stolen by the hackers affect the world's economy. Do you forget about micro and macro economic?

As a developer of a mixing service, he publicized himself to be known to the world, which makes him a target. Even the Russian government may imprison him as well. That's the very mistake he made.

This I think is a warning to all who have plans to develop such services, he should remain as anonymous as possible.  This is not why he is jailed however but because of the money laundering.

I can't blame the US government on their stance against decentralized projects, it's a good cause for them to protect against money laundering, some of which  goes into sponsoring terrorism and illegal activities. The tornado cash developer, should have known what he was up against before going into the development of a decentralized privacy project, I guess he must be an informed person and won't claim ignorance of the law. Normally cryptocurrency promotes privacy, but due to the fact that criminals and terrorists have hyjacked it for illegal activities, then I personally don't blame any governments that will wield the big hammer on offenders.

Yeah! right, that's why people who are involved in some crimes regarding their usage of cryptocurrency especially money laundering or anything else that is illegal and they currently reside in the US should be very careful not to cause any trouble by making noises in order to expose their names in public like any of these guys does nowadays, getting interviewed and ask about your personal crypto experience, especially about your involvement in the very first stage of cryptocurrency are now becoming a taboo because the government will be after you once they find out you are one of those guys who managed to acquire lots amount of bitcoins in its early years. they do anything to take those assets from you in the name of so-called laws.

Mixing services are mostly helpful for people trying to launder money. Making the illegal money white. The mixtures allow the flagged coins to go unrecognizable.
Money laundering in crypto is mostly done by hackers who extort money in crypto or people that have illegal business like narcos. Mixing is also used to fund terrorism without being linked to. All these things are disliked by government. Business and people needs to go through the government channel if they want to launder their money and government won't allow its money laundering monopoly to be contested.

What do u expect.

Their service provider is mixing service, most of the mixing services even in bitcointalk already being restricted. US always targeting every mixing service provider, because as always the service is being using for mixing coing/asset from any kind crime activity.

It's hard things to do, for mixing service.

They are strict in implementing their laws so to speak. So if you want to avoid trouble, better select your jurisdiction as well as your customers. It is not being picky or selective but you just want your dealings outside the prying eyes of authorities. But of course, you still need to comply with the legalities of business in your area.
This is why if you noticed, a lot of crypto-related businesses such as exchanges or gambling sites are not licensed by US but by other parties, which I think, is easier to comply with. And if they do penetrate the US market, they understood the legal docs that they need to complete. Also, you will observe that some businesses have clear protocols on their terms not to include US citizens on their services.

 No longer News that privacy in the cryptocurrency space is a thing of the past, with various government taking a strong stance against privacy it will be hard for any decentralised projects most especially those that seek to protect users privacy will be taken down and term as tool for money laundering.
This is not only happening in the US alone but other countries around the world, regulations is the most important thing right now for the government and in doing that, their pick decentralised projects as the main enemy on target.

On the government with strict policies with regards restrictions against money laundering, I think they're keeping an eye on every foot steps of digital currency projects. Business like this should comply the rules and regulations to avoid future lawsuit, and I believed these crabs will pull and grab them down as scenario gets worst.

He is sentenced and jailed by the US government. Nothing new here, US govt always like this before.
If i ever have a crypto business i'll make sure to filter out US citizen. Nothing personal, it is just that US govt is like a feral animal lol

I got an email message from freedom.Tech that Alex Pertsev who was the developer of the "Ethereum based privacy tool called Tornado Cash" has been in court for sometimes and today And he was "he was sentence 5 years in imprisonment for creating a decentralized cryptocurrency project. The government is seriously attacking the decentralized cryptocurrency projects. Is it that the cryptocurrency activities are affecting the economy of the world?
Full details in quote