Is Tornado cash still up and usable?

[BenCodie]

AFAIK, the dev is already in the jail and the last update they made was August last year with an existing problem with their code. I think tornado cash is long gone and this new website is just made by someone trying to use the brand with their own gain.

I think this new tornado cash hype is due to the news that the dev is considered to be set free.

https://decrypt.co/137355/dutch-court-agrees-to-free-tornado-cash-dev-alex-pertsev-pending-trial

This is factually incorrect. Yes, the developer is in custody. No, TornadoCash is long gone. See mk4's accurate answer:

The Tornado Cash smart contract is immutable and hence is still live on the Ethereum blockchain. I'm not sure about that IPFS site, but you can still use Tornado Cash today as long as you know how to manually interact with the smart contract.

Take note that Ethereum and "DeFi" is pretty much useless if a takedown of its front-end website literally kills the platform. The authorities can only take down the domain and the front-end; but the back-end will always be live.

As mk4 said, all you need to do is interact with the TornadoCash front-end in order to interact with it. Similarly, the project is open-source. Anyone can deploy the front-end and connect to the Tornado smart contract and they will have an exact replica of the original TornadoCash. The service is takedown-proof.

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[bbc.reporter]

Did you use the smart contract directly? Do you have experience in this field?

I want to declare and let everyone know that I have never used Tornado Cash through the frontend and I have never used Tornado Cash directly through the smart contract. I also do not encourage anyone to use Tornado Cash.

However, it is already very known that anyone can use smart contracts directly through Etherscan. I have minted NFTs directly through smart contracts.

In any case, go to Tornado Cash's address in Etherscan, go to contract then to write contract.

https://etherscan.io/address/0xd90e2f925da726b50c4ed8d0fb90ad053324f31b#writeContract

I also want to remind everyone that Tornado Cash is sanctioned by the US government.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Well, things just keep getting worse for Tornado Cash

The Tornado Cash Governance is under attack as attack gains control

Through a carefully crafted malicious proposal, the attacker managed to accumulate an astonishing 1,200,000 votes, surpassing the legitimate votes, estimated to be around 700,000. This staggering number granted the attacker full control over the Tornado Cash governance. With this newfound power, the attacker can execute various actions that could have severe consequences for the protocol.

The attacker, now in control of the governance system, holds the authority to exploit multiple functionalities within Tornado Cash. These include Withdrawal of Locked Votes, Drainage of Tokens, Bricking the Router

Perhaps the last nail on the coffin for them?

[bbc.reporter]

@Bitcoin_Arena. It might be, however, where will the attackers mix and launder their stolen coins if they kill Tornado Cash hehehe.

In any case, it might be time to create and develop a better onchain mixer where the developers are anonymous. After the imprisonment of Tornado Cash's developer and the US sanctions, the mixer might have become like a burden to use.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

@Bitcoin_Arena. It might be, however, where will the attackers mix and launder their stolen coins if they kill Tornado Cash hehehe.

They will try to use the AMM exchanges perhaps?
I am also seeing some forks of tornado cash and on different chains though I am not sure which one is legit and which one is not.

There is also word that Tornado cash Governance control is about to be restored.

in also other news, it's said that a Wallet drainer moved funds to Tornado Cash, which translated it to still being functional

[bbc.reporter]

@Bitcoin_Arena. According to some people in social media, it is only Tornado Cash Nova's pools which was deployed in Gnosis chain are at risk. The funds in the original Tornado Cash pools in Ethereum mainchain are safe.

I am also as confused as you hehehe. I am not quite sure how many Tornado Cash mixers are deployed in different chains and why type of governance structure each one has. It appears that one deployment is independent from the other deployments.

[bbc.reporter]

News update. This news is 3 weeks old and I have noticed it only yesterday.

It appears that the question is answered. Tornado Cash is still up and usable hehe. According to their latest update, version 2 of their mixer will implement proof of innocence where the funds from illegal activities or a blacklist will be blocked from using the mixer.

In any case, the problem this would cause is in ETH's fungibilty. The funds that can pass through version 2 will be worth more than the funds that cannot pass through.



Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

New coin mixers aim to preserve privacy while revealing just enough data to stay on the right side of the law.

Read in full https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/tornado-cash-2-0-the-race-to-build-safe-and-legal-coin-mixers/

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

New coin mixers aim to preserve privacy while revealing just enough data to stay on the right side of the law.

Read in full https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/tornado-cash-2-0-the-race-to-build-safe-and-legal-coin-mixers/

One of the most amusing U-turns I have witnessed to date. 
I see where this trend is headed, First wasabi wallet and now tornado.cash?
What will we see next? A mixer that KYC's its users just to be sure they are not “laundering” money?

That's the death of the IMO. I would rather use a privacy leaning coin.

[bbc.reporter]

Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

New coin mixers aim to preserve privacy while revealing just enough data to stay on the right side of the law.

Read in full https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/tornado-cash-2-0-the-race-to-build-safe-and-legal-coin-mixers/

One of the most amusing U-turns I have witnessed to date.  
I see where this trend is headed, First wasabi wallet and now tornado.cash?
What will we see next? A mixer that KYC's its users just to be sure they are not “laundering” money?

That's the death of the IMO. I would rather use a privacy leaning coin.

I reckon they have no choice after witnessing what the government could do after the imprisonment of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev. He did not do anything wrong, however, he was charged with fake cases of moneylaudering and tax evasion. They only wanted to hold him in custody for the purpose of fear tactics because the government clearly wants to discourage developers from writing code that increases anonymity and privacy.



The trial against Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev inches closer, but it won’t be this year.

In a hearing in the Dutch city of Den Bosch today, a district court ruled Pertsev will face money-laundering charges for his role with the crypto mixer next year at the earliest.

No trial date has been scheduled, but the calendar is full for the rest of 2023, the court found.

Crypto watchers and privacy advocates are expected to pay close attention to the case, which could determine the future of developers’ culpability in the projects they help design.

“If this is a prosecution based solely on writing code that other people misuse, then it’s a really important case because many, many people write code that other people might use for good or bad purposes,” Cindy Cohn, executive director of digital rights group Electronic Frontiers Foundation, told DL News before the hearing.

She said she is frustrated over prosecutors’ failure to provide “clarity to the millions of people around the world who are worried that they might actually be at risk” because of their contribution to other open-source projects.

Source https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/tornado-cash-developer-alexey-pertsev-trial-pushed-to-2024/


This might be a case very much similar to Julian Assange but less serious.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

An Update:

So the other domain is now offline as well

https://ipfs.io/ipns/tornadocash.eth/

It seems the Tornado.cash community has moved onto another and doing things below the radar. According to their community websites (Telegram and tornadocash.social) tornado.ws is the new domain name which they claim is now being maintained by the community.

https://docs.tornado.ws/general/guides/post-censorship/

Official community git ---> https://git.tornado.ws/tornadocash

[bbc.reporter]

@Bitcoin_Arena. The government cannot takedown a much needed platform where anonymity is also very much needed by many cryptocoin users. Tornado Cash will change and take different forms appearances, however, the community of liquidity providers who want to earn from fees will always be there. If there is profit, there will be always people who will take the risk. The government should become aware that they cannot stop this anymore hehehe.

I am quite sure there will be certain people who will be annoyed by this on this forum.