Tornado.Cash Sanctioned by the US

[zasad@]

https://decrypt.co/122522/tornado-cash-fork-privacy-pools
Tornado Cash Contributor Builds New Privacy Tool—And Hopes It Won’t Trigger the Feds
"Ameen Soleimani, an early contributor to Tornado, has created a fork that aims to be a better version of the blacklisted Ethereum coin mixer.

Users can still make anonymous transactions but there is the option to make it clear that the money being moved is not from something criminal—like a hack. The new app works just like Tornado Cash, but when users click the option to withdraw funds, they can generate a zero-knowledge proof which publicly shows they are not using a criminal blockchain address, but without revealing who they are."

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[btc_angela]

https://decrypt.co/122522/tornado-cash-fork-privacy-pools
Tornado Cash Contributor Builds New Privacy Tool—And Hopes It Won’t Trigger the Feds
"Ameen Soleimani, an early contributor to Tornado, has created a fork that aims to be a better version of the blacklisted Ethereum coin mixer.

Users can still make anonymous transactions but there is the option to make it clear that the money being moved is not from something criminal—like a hack. The new app works just like Tornado Cash, but when users click the option to withdraw funds, they can generate a zero-knowledge proof which publicly shows they are not using a criminal blockchain address, but without revealing who they are."

This is a good alternative for now, but who knows, this government agencies will be at least again and will put a sanction so it's going to be very hard on whether we want to used it or not.

So it might be another ticking time bomb, just saying.

Nevertheless it's for the own good of crypto enthusiast who want's to have their own privacy.

[o48o]

https://decrypt.co/122522/tornado-cash-fork-privacy-pools
Tornado Cash Contributor Builds New Privacy Tool—And Hopes It Won’t Trigger the Feds
"Ameen Soleimani, an early contributor to Tornado, has created a fork that aims to be a better version of the blacklisted Ethereum coin mixer.

Users can still make anonymous transactions but there is the option to make it clear that the money being moved is not from something criminal—like a hack. The new app works just like Tornado Cash, but when users click the option to withdraw funds, they can generate a zero-knowledge proof which publicly shows they are not using a criminal blockchain address, but without revealing who they are."

Logical approach. So many people seem to think that everything needs to be fully private and anonymous or there's no privacy. I honestly don't even get why they weren't using the selective privacy as that is one of the coolest things you can go with zk. I am actually excited about this and i am watching closely where this leads. Especially i am looking forward in what kind info are they required to verify.

[JeromeTash]

Logical approach. So many people seem to think that everything needs to be fully private and anonymous or there's no privacy.

But it's the truth. There's no in between. It's either private/anonymous or not.

I really wonder what happens when someone transfers "dirty' coins through the tool because one time they will. Do they block the funds? Raise an alarm to the feds that. "Hey folks! Here is an address with dirty coins!"

[o48o]

Logical approach. So many people seem to think that everything needs to be fully private and anonymous or there's no privacy.

But it's the truth. There's no in between. It's either private/anonymous or not.

I really wonder what happens when someone transfers "dirty' coins through the tool because one time they will. Do they block the funds? Raise an alarm to the feds that. "Hey folks! Here is an address with dirty coins!"

Anonymous, pseudonymous, private or confidential transactions are different things. And depending how the system is build, technically yes, that's basically what they are doing. But with zk not in a same way they are currently doing it.

Using privacy to escape aml regulations isn't going to be a thing in the future you can pretty much count on that. And if you have been following AML laws and FATF regulations that are tightening, you know i am not just making this up. At the moment, only reason for lack of these regulations is lack of sources as tracking isn't efficient enough. And obviously it isn't cheap.

[Abiky]

https://decrypt.co/122522/tornado-cash-fork-privacy-pools
Tornado Cash Contributor Builds New Privacy Tool—And Hopes It Won’t Trigger the Feds
"Ameen Soleimani, an early contributor to Tornado, has created a fork that aims to be a better version of the blacklisted Ethereum coin mixer.

Users can still make anonymous transactions but there is the option to make it clear that the money being moved is not from something criminal—like a hack. The new app works just like Tornado Cash, but when users click the option to withdraw funds, they can generate a zero-knowledge proof which publicly shows they are not using a criminal blockchain address, but without revealing who they are."

There may be a new Tornado.Cash alternative, but that doesn't mean it won't get sanctioned by the US government in the long run. Developers should've hosted the front-end interface on IPFS, just to ensure the new privacy protocol remains as censorship-resistant as possible. With a centralized domain tied to it, you can expect the US government to "shut it down" the same way it did with Tornado.Cash. Forks may show us the power of open source, but what matters is what mainstream governments think about it. And I'm pretty sure they won't allow people to gain privacy just like that, even if there are legitimate intentions behind it.

Governments often use the excuse that crypto mixers are used for money laundering and tax evasion, so expect further scrutiny down the road. Who knows if privacy within the crypto/Blockchain space will be eliminated for good? Just my thoughts

[FP91G]

A few months ago, Coinbase backed a legal challenge to sanctions imposed by the US govt against Tornado Cash. Today the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to reopen TC for all. Their arguments are simple but powerful.

https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1643704641493020672

[zasad@]

https://beincrypto.com/tornado-cash-2-0-privacy-pools-money-launders-at-bay/
Tornado Cash 2.0: Privacy Pools Claim to Keep the Money Launders at Bay
In Brief
"Privacy Pools uses Zero-Knowledge Proof, through which users can explain that their withdrawals are not part of the illicit transactions.
The demo is at an experimental stage and has not been audited.
Privacy Pools may face regulatory challenges."
https://www.privacypools.com/

[so98nn]

I have been saying this all the time about crypto space, it is one damn thing which was very excellent creation by Mr Satoshi. Today, it is suffering from hundreds of artificial problems that were created “later”. What I mean is simple, bitcoin was doing just great before centralised exchanges started growing in billion dollars industry overnight.

Slowly, they started inventing more projects, more ways to invest money such as ICO to fund alts.

Then came in so called mixers to get more privacy to the transaction and so called anonymous nature to their coins. First of all, bitcoin is already pseudonymous and there was no need of such system.

I believe this gave rise to devil minds who happens to start using these services for money laundering.
So this was supposed to happen.

[RussianEnglishTranslation]

Off-chain solutions like Phonon and 0xMonero are the best privacy solutions. One day encryption will be cracked by AI and quantum computing and the only safe transactions are the ones that occurred outside the blockchain.

[Abiky]

A few months ago, Coinbase backed a legal challenge to sanctions imposed by the US govt against Tornado Cash. Today the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to reopen TC for all. Their arguments are simple but powerful.

https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1643704641493020672

A strong argument indeed. Let's see how this will unfold in the long run. I just hope crypto proponents win in their efforts of bringing privacy to all. It's not fair to "sanction" something that it's just code living on thousands of computers spread around the world. The US government can't seem to understand the difference between a decentralized protocol (eg: Tornado.Cash) and the person using the protocol itself. Just because North Korean hackers used the mixer to "launder money", doesn't mean everyone should be prohibited from using it.

At least, developers "forked" the Tornado.Cash project for the preservation of privacy and freedom. We now have Privacy Pools and several other alternatives to choose from. It's still possible to use Tornado.Cash by interacting with smart contracts directly, though. That's because it lives on a decentralized and censorship-resistant Blockchain (Ethereum) no one can take down easily (although the switch to PoS makes this subject to debate). Who knows if the US government ultimately gives up in its quest to bring down crypto/Blockchain tech for good? Just my thoughts

[mich]

Well some more bad news for crypto mixer Tornado cash. It was hacked and hacker has made a proposal to undo his attack. The hacker wants the governance and decisions to be made by token holders. But there is some mixed views about this.

https://bitcoinist.com/hackers-exploit-sanctioned-mixer-tornado-cash/

[Abiky]

Well some more bad news for crypto mixer Tornado cash. It was hacked and hacker has made a proposal to undo his attack. The hacker wants the governance and decisions to be made by token holders. But there is some mixed views about this.

https://bitcoinist.com/hackers-exploit-sanctioned-mixer-tornado-cash/

Smart contracts are often hacked, so this is no surprise to me. But it's a good thing the hacker wants to undo the attack and make token holders whole again. This attack will only make the protocol stronger in the long run. That is if developers are willing to continue working on the project. They must be very cautious now that Tornado.Cash has been sanctioned by the US. Any interaction with the mixer would raise a red flag immediately.

It's a wild and crazy world out there, so we should expect the worst for crypto mixers in the long run. At least, we've got plenty of options to choose from. Who knows how long will Tornado.Cash last? Just my opinion

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Well some more bad news for crypto mixer Tornado cash. It was hacked and hacker has made a proposal to undo his attack. The hacker wants the governance and decisions to be made by token holders. But there is some mixed views about this.

https://bitcoinist.com/hackers-exploit-sanctioned-mixer-tornado-cash/

But he already dumped some of the tokens on the market... right?

So where does he get the authority to make a proposal?