Vitalik Buterin donates 30 ETH to Tornado Cash legal defense as he develops a ‘compliant’ version

Ethereum
co-founder
Vitalik
Buterin
has
made
a

significant
donation
of
30
Ether
(approximately
$114,000)
to
support
the
legal
defense
of
Alexey
Pertsev
and
Roman
Storm,
the
developers
behind
the
controversial
crypto
mixer
Tornado
Cash.

Simultaneously,
Buterin
is
working
on
a
new
Ethereum-based
crypto
mixer
designed
to
be
compliant
with
anti-money
laundering
laws.

Alexey
Pertsev,
one
of
the
Tornado
Cash
developers,
was
recently

sentenced
to
more
than
five
years
in
prison
by
a
Dutch
court
for
his
involvement
in
a
$2.2
billion
money
laundering
case.
Roman
Storm,
another
Tornado
Cash
developer,
is
set
to
face
trial
on
similar
charges
in
a
US
court
in
September.
Their
cases
have
garnered
significant
attention
from
privacy
advocates
and
the
blockchain
community,
who
fear
that
developers
may
be
held
liable
for
the
misuse
of
their
code
by
third
parties.

The
conviction
of
Pertsev
has
also
raised
concerns
about
the
future
of
smart
contracts
used
in
anonymizing
platforms,
as
the
Dutch
court
ruled
that
he
was
responsible
for
the
actions
of
those
using
Tornado
Cash’s
technology,
despite
the
autonomous
nature
of
smart
contracts.

Several
prominent
entities
in
the
cryptocurrency
industry
have
rallied
to
support
the
Tornado
Cash
developers.
Coinbase,
the
Blockchain
Association,
and
other
trade
associations
have
submitted
amicus
briefs
in
support
of
Roman
Storm.
Matter
Labs,
the
developer
group
behind
the
ZKSync
layer
2
network,
has
donated
$100,000
to
the
developers’
legal
defense,
while
the
Uniswap
DAO
is
considering
a
donation
of
up
to
$1.5
million
in
UNI
tokens.

Data
from
decentralized
funding
platform
Juicebox
indicates
that
the
onchain

legal
defense
fund
has
already
garnered
$2.2
million
in
donations.

In
parallel
to
his
support
for
the
Tornado
Cash
developers,
Vitalik
Buterin
is
collaborating
with
other
researchers,
including
Ameen
Soleimani,
to
develop
a
new
crypto
mixer
called
Privacy
Pools.
This

unique
mechanism,
outlined
in
a
2023
paper,
aims
to
allow
users
to
maintain
their
privacy
without
offering
criminals
a
completely
clean
source
of
crypto
funds.

Privacy
Pools
will
enable
users
to
opt
out
of
mixing
their
funds
with
potentially
ill-gotten
gains,
addressing
the
concerns
raised
by
regulators
and
law
enforcement
agencies
regarding
the
use
of
crypto
mixers
for
money
laundering
and
other
illicit
activities.

The
development
of
Privacy
Pools
and
Buterin’s
support
for
the
Tornado
Cash
developers
highlight
the
ongoing
efforts
within
the
DeFi
community
to
balance
the
cypherpunk
ethos
of
privacy
and
decentralization
with
the
need
for
compliance
with
anti-money
laundering
laws.

As
major
Wall
Street
players
like
BlackRock
and
Fidelity
show
increasing
interest
in
the
DeFi
sector,
projects
like
Privacy
Pools
and

0xbow,
which
is
implementing
the
Privacy
Pools
concept,
show
an
ongoing
commitment
to
finding
solutions
that
maintain
user
privacy
while
adhering
to
regulatory
requirements.