Tornado Cash to explore legal avenues to challenge US sanctions in court

Members of the decentralised autonomous organisation Tornado DAO urged the community to hire a team of lawyers to challenge the sanctions imposed on the cryptocurrency mixer by the United States. The Block reports.

Tornado DAO manages liquidity for the protocol. The organisation includes more than 9,000 members, but only 163 are active participants, according to Snapshot.

One of them advised the DAO to raise funds in the name of Tornado Cash, hire a team of lawyers and, if necessary, file a suit in the US Supreme Court.

According to the proponent of the initiative, a successful reversal of the sanctions would set a precedent for other privacy-preserving cryptocurrency services.

Another member of the community stated that any legal-defence fund should be governed on-chain by the DAO’s leadership. The law firm that would represent the community in the litigation should be chosen by voting.

A number of respondents reacted skeptically to the discussion. MakerDAO delegate Kris Black noted that, due to the absence of a legal entity named Tornado Cash, fundraising would not be considered legitimate.

For the privacy protocol to be effective, a ‘central’ implementation used by as many people as possible is required. Otherwise, it is much easier to de-anonymize individual users,

commented one member of Tornado DAO.

The community members also called for forking the Tornado Cash protocol and creating alternative mixer options based on the original code. However, experts say that, despite the apparent strengthening of decentralisation, new services will not be able to guarantee users significant liquidity. Since the sanctions were imposed, the protocol has already recorded a drop of almost 79% in deposits.

«For the privacy protocol to be effective, a ‘central’ implementation used by as many people as possible is required. Otherwise, it is much easier to de-anonymize individual users»,

commented one member of Tornado DAO.

The official Tornado Cash website is currently offline, CoinDesk reports.

«Most people will have difficulty accessing our website, as it has been shut down», — says the service’s Telegram channel.

According to numerous posts on Twitter, the crypto mixer’s Discord channel is also not operating.

OFAC sanctions list on suspicion of laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency.

Earlier in Amsterdam, arrested the alleged developer of the service. Unverified reports suggest the person is Alexey Pertsev.

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