Tornado Cash DAO Shuts Shop, Unable To Resist US Pressure
- After numerous blockades placed by the United States authorities on the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has shut shop.
- According to a report citing an anonymous source, the contributors are scared of being prosecuted by the government authorities as they “can’t fight the US.”
Tornado Cash, a decentralized cryptocurrency mixer utilising zero-knowledge-proof technology, has recently came under regultory crackdown and according to a report, a member of the TC DAO confirmed that the decentralized organization is being shut down.
As per CryptoSlate, who spoke with a member of TC DAO on grounds of anonymity, the situation is not looking good for the DAO. The anonymous TC member stated that “multi-sigs shut down the DAO… we’re all out. Better safe than sorry, unless it all calms down a bit.”
The member was asked about the API introduced by TRM Labs, a blockchain security firm, that is being used to sanction Tornado Cash by decentralized protocols like Aave, Uniswap, and Balancer and he described the situation as “shitty.”
They further added that “DAO funds have been returned to Governance contracts” and the multisig has been deleted which confirms that the end for the TC DAO is almost here. “Tornado Cash can’t fight the US,” said the anonymous member.
They further pointed out that nor the contributors nor the authorities are at fault. “Nobody did anything wrong… [the] world is fucked up,” they added while confiming the closure of the multisig and the DAO as well.
The TC member said that it is a crucial step to close the DAO “to keep members safe and avoid legal issues” or else trouble could brew up for them as well. They believe that the situation is very “dangerous for all devs,” even those outside the Tornado Cash ecosystem.
Aleksei Pertsev’s arrest
Aleksei Pertsev, a software developer, had been arrested for working on Tornado Cash, according to the TheBlock, according to Dutch authorities. It seems that the excessive usage of the crypto mixer by attackers and hackers including the Lazarus group, has cause authorities to crack down on the platform.
According to the report, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, was looking for attorneys in Netherlands “a few days ago,” and he revealed that it was for the release of Pertsev.
Tornado Cash is a decentralzied technology that “helps you to reclaim your privacy,” describes the project but it seems that there is a wrong side to that privacy. The protocol is capable of mixing cryptocurrencies from different sources so that the transactions cannot be traced back to their original sources which makes it very hard to prevent money laundering activities.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
