Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum: the conviction of developer Tornado Cash is “truly unfortunate”
During a fireside chat on Thursday, Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin completely ignored a question asking if he cared about the prospect of spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs). approved in the USA. But he weighed in on a side issue about privacy, particularly regarding the recent conviction of an Ethereum protocol developer.
The crypto figurehead said that Tornado Cash the developer Alexey Pertsev being sentenced to 64 months in prison was “really unhappy” and continued to support privacy-focused crypto tools, encouraging people to develop “next-gen” solutions.
“The Alexei affair is really, really unfortunate,” Buterin told DappCon in Berlin. “I think a lot of people assume […] that simply creating software is something acceptable and a completely legal and legitimate way to fight for privacy.
But that assumption did not stand up to the rule of law in this particular case, after a Dutch court ruled that the developer was guilty of money laundering due to the use of software he had coded . And this must be particularly worrying for Roman Storm, the co-founder of Tornado Cash who awaits trial in the United States for similar money laundering charges.
Tornado Cash and other crypto coin mixers obscure where the money is being sent. Privacy advocates point out that they are important to ordinary people, but we have seen increased regulatory scrutiny of their use by criminal groups seeking to launder illicit funds, such as the US-sponsored hacker organization. North Korean state. Lazare Group.
As a result, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) bans Americans from using the platform in 2022, and the developers have been sued for their role in the development of the standalone protocol.
“It’s really very sad, and I hope that with Roman’s trial in the United States we will get some positive clarity on this.” said Buterin, before applauding ongoing efforts to preserve privacy in the industry.
“Privacy is important,” he said. “I think the willingness of the ecosystem to rally around things like Railgun and 0xbow, as well as similar next-generation approaches, show people’s sincerity about protecting the privacy of ordinary people — and not, you know, the Kremlin or anyone.
Previously, Buterin pushed for privacy options which generate a zero-knowledge proof, which verifies that a user is not using a criminal address. It’s called a Privacy Pooland both Railgun And 0xarc use this system.
“I really support people who are working on these things,” Buterin explained. “I hope things are moving in the right direction within the ecosystem. And you know, I also hope that governments see the value in this.
Edited by Andrew Hayward