Treasury Says Sanctions on Tornado Cash Don't Stop People From Sharing Code

The U.S. Treasury is clarifying some of the details of its sanctions on decentralized crypto mixer Tornado Cash, including the right to disseminate the code involved. From a report: "U.S. persons would not be prohibited by U.S. sanctions regulations from copying the open-source code and making it available online for others to view, as well as discussing, teaching about, or including open-source code in written publications, such as textbooks, absent additional facts," FAQs posted on September 13 say. The new guidance further outlines a process for applications from users with crypto stranded in Tornado Cash's mixing pools. "OFAC would have a favorable licensing policy towards such applications, provided that the transaction did not involve other sanctionable conduct," the FAQs say of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control. The clarification from the Treasury follows six individuals suing it over the sanctions last week. Coinbase is bankrolling the lawsuit.

Re:

[Arethan]

Thing is, are there other uses for that code?

It can be used as an instrument for instruction/learning. We shouldn't hide the source code for things that are illegal to perform, just because putting them into practice results in an illegal action. People need an opportunity to learn from the past mistakes of others. The same goes for virus and worm code.

Re:

[DewDude]

There are plenty of things one could say they want to learn about but are forbidden to. The question is how much academic activity vs. illegal activity do you need in order to justify keeping it up for educational purposes?

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. Basically an application of Kerkhoff's principle to program code. If you need to hide the code, you have already lost. So it is better to give the defenders also access to the code, because for sure the attackers will have it.

Re: Code "about" money laundering != money launder

[dhrabarchuk]

Attackers and defenders? What does that mean? They took this down because it was a mixer. Which does have legitimate purposes. Like a change drawer at a store does.

Re:

[nonBORG]

Really? You might have to explain the legitimate purpose (and I don't mean of the change drawer.)

Re:

[Arethan]

Good question, but I can give you two just off the top of my head.

Right to be forgotten. This allows people to learn from mistakes without being perpetually haunted by their past. People are dynamic and can change drastically over time. We shouldn't penalize people ad infimum, regardless of their mistake - that artificially limits personal growth and encourages repeat deviant behavior for simple survival reasons.

Right to privacy. Sometimes you want to buy something that you may find embarrassing if confront

Re:

[nonBORG]

I am all for privacy myself.
The right to be forgotten I cannot see how that applies as it is kind of too late if you are doing this retrospectively you need to do this ahead of putting it in your wallet and then turning it into USD through an exchange.
The other example I think is a bit far out there specifically but the general idea I can agree with. However it seems like a lot of trouble to go to unless you are going to be doing something illegal. I assume the mixer costs a lot in transaction fees howeve

Re:

[Arethan]

Both of my previous examples will fall short in this light, primarily because of how the landscape exists in its current form today, so I cannot discredit you for your challenges. However, the points remain very valid in perpetuity if we assume that crypto is intended to behave as other modern currencies already do.

If crypto is framed into the window of scammers and criminals, then of course this all falls very flat.

It's really just a question of where we'd like to see crypto ultimately go, and how we'd lik

Re:

[Opportunist]

Even if there are no other uses for that code, ponder the implications of outlawing knowing something.

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. Only totalitarian states do that...

Put sanctions on the developers, not the code

[cardoba1454]

I somehow agree with this. sanctions on the developers are good, but the code should be kept alive

Re: There is No Such Thing as "Money Laundering"

[Pinky's Brain]

Could be, could be. Could als be hiding money streams from criminal transactions and tax evasion, my guess it's mostly the latter here.

Re:

[bws111]

Instead of just writing all that, you could have actually looked up the applicable law [cornell.edu]. Oddly enough, in the 'specified unlawful activities' section, neither 'speeding on the way to work', 'long lunch break', nor 'overcharging customers' is listed as things to which money laundering applies.

That about the github takedown?

[diffract]

Microsoft axed the code on github, and disabled the accounts of contributors by government order, or so the story went

That should be Open Source code

[takionya]

Crypto currencies are pure snake-oil. The only way of making money is to run your own exchange and dupe other people to "invest" in it /s

Re:

[nonBORG]

You have not been paying attention, there are hundreds of scams you can run to make money from crypto currencies. How about a service that turns 1 bit coin into 0.9 bitcoin but mixed. I will not bore you with the next 199 examples.