The ETH Foundation pledged $1 million for Tornado Cash Roman Storm following guilty verdict

Donations build on previous contributions Over the last few years. The Ethereum Foundation was one of the most vocal supporters of Tornado Cash, its founders and the DOJ throughout this long-running DOJ case. They have repeatedly said that developers should not be charged for malicious acts using their code.

Tornado Cash’s legal troubles

Tornado Cash uses Ethereum smart contracts to create a private transaction without depending on any central parties. This project was launched in 2019. It is entirely open-source, and there are no intermediaries or admin controls.

The U.S. dropped charges in 2022 against the project. Authorities claimed it was involved in millions of illegal transactions, and that money laundering took place.

Tornado Cash does not stand alone in the crypto-privacy space. Projects like Monero (XMRZcashZECThey also employ similar tools that are geared towards anonymizing transactions. Monero hides senders and recipients by default using stealth addresses, ring signatures and zero-knowledge certificates. Zcash also offers privacy options.

The protocol is unique in that it runs completely independently, according to prosecutors. This has led it to be the preferred method for sanctioned organizations like North Korea’s Lazarus Group. According to the DOJ more than $7 billion worth of illegal funds were laundered by North Korean hackers via Tornado Cash.

Storm’s year-long battle ended in a court trial where he was found guilty of one charge.

Roman Storm’s trial concludes with a partial verdict

Storm recently found guilty After a lengthy trial with the U.S. Department of Justice, he was found guilty by a Manhattan Jury of running an unlicensed Money Transmitter.

Although the verdict is damning, it represents a partial success for the founder. He was not convicted of the harsher charges, such as money laundering or sanctions violations. Prosecutors had pushed for this because they claimed that Storm had knowingly assisted North Korea’s Lazarus Group to launder its funds using Tornado Cash.

The jury was not convinced that writing open-source software and using it in a commercial setting constituted criminal conspiracy. This dealt a major blow to DOJ’s efforts to obtain a maximum sentence of 45 years.

Storm will appeal his conviction, but for now he is out on bail. Although the DOJ is open to the idea of re-trials on unresolved charges, it’s still unclear whether or not Storm will be able to avoid prison.

Alexey Ptsev was Storm’s developer and he too, has been convicted on similar charges. sentenced In the Netherlands, he was sentenced to 64-months in prison. Pertsev, who was freed earlier in the year but is being closely monitored, remains on probation. Roman Semenov – the third Tornado Cash Co-founder – is also accused but still at large.

Storm, his co-developers and he have worked together on many projects. reiterated They claim to be innocent, stating that the protocol is designed to protect privacy and, once deployed, operates independently and without their direct control.

Many prominent voices, including Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin have supported this stance. Buterin is a staunch advocate of digital privacy and has always defended his team’s rights to create open-source tools.

“Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime,” The Ethereum cofounder has frequently saidIn order to achieve this, the first thing you need to do is accept it. “sending a clear signal to developers that this important work is welcome.”