Cardano founder backs Tornado Cash developers amid OFAC sanctions

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has spoken out in defense of the developers of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, which was sanctioned by OFAC.

According to Hoskinson, developers cannot always control the open-source code or how users will interact with it. A programmer should not go to jail for offences committed by others, he emphasised.

“It’s like writing a book about producing cyanide or making a bomb. Authors cannot control how this information will be used […]. Therefore, by creating code for a protocol, a developer should not be considered an accomplice. He simply wrote code that was technically used by criminals,” Hoskinson noted.

On 8 August, OFAC added to the sanctions list the Tornado Cash site, as well as 39 Ethereum addresses and 6 USDC addresses linked to it.

According to the agency, since its creation in 2019, the mixer has been used to launder more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency. According to Elliptic, it is appropriate to speak of about $1.54 billion.

On 12 August, Dutch authorities arrested an unnamed man on suspicion of involvement in laundering funds and concealing illicit financial flows through a cryptocurrency mixer. It later emerged that the man was Alexey Pertsev.

The decision drew a response from the community. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell called the sanctions against Tornado Cash unconstitutional, while TRM Labs analysts — a compliance challenge.

Criticism was also voiced by US Representative Tom Emmer. In his view, the restrictions on the mixer threaten privacy and innovation. He called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to explain OFAC’s actions.

In Amsterdam on 22 August, a rally in support of Pertsev took place. The participants said that open-source code is not a crime, and authorities should pursue the real perpetrators.

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