Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Defends Sanctioned Tornado Cash Crypto Mixer Developers OFAC.

According to Hoskinson, developers can’t always control open source code and how users interact with it. He emphasized that a programmer should not go to jail for crimes committed by others.

“It’s like writing a book about making cyanide or making a bomb. The authors have no control over how this information is used. […]. Therefore, the developer by creating code for the protocol should not be seen as an accomplice. “He wrote code that was technically exploited by attackers,” Hoskinson wrote. Said.

On August 8, OFAC approved the Tornado Cash website and its associated 39 Ethereum and 6 USDC addresses.

According to the department, since the mixer was created in 2019, with its help, attackers have laundered more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies. According to Elliptic, it is correct to talk about $ 1.54 billion.

On August 12, Dutch authorities arrested an unnamed man on suspicion of money laundering and concealing criminal financial flows through a cryptocurrency mixer. Later it became known that we are talking about Alexei Pertsev.

The decision of the authorities caused an echo in the society. Jess Powell, CEO of Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, called the sanctions against Tornado Cash unconstitutional, and TRM Labs analysts described it as a challenge for compliance.

Representative Tom Emmer was also critical. According to him, restrictions on the mixer threaten privacy and innovation. He asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for clarification on OFAC’s actions.

Recall that on August 22, a rally in support of Pertsev was held in Amsterdam. Participants said that open source code is not a crime and that authorities should prosecute real attackers.

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