Matthew GreenProfessor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, re-upload He has published the source code of Tornado Cash (TORN) and Tornado Nova on Github, he uses this code for educational purposes and says his students have built excellent protocols so far.
Professor Green, who specializes in cryptography, said he has used the code extensively to teach privacy regarding cryptocurrencies and zero-knowledge techniques. He was offended by his GitHub’s decision to remove the code, adding:
“My students have built amazing projects out of their code. The loss or reduced availability of this source code is detrimental to the scientific and technical community.”
Impact on free speech
Green expressed his outrage over GitHub’s removal of the source code. He said it was hard to believe that GitHub’s decision was unrelated to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) ban on Tornado Cash.
OFAC said the sanctions against Tornado Cash were made to prevent cybercrime. However, the cryptocurrency community has criticized the ban’s impact on free speech.
Professor Green criticized GitHub, saying the Tornado Cash source code was valuable and that removing it under OFAC sanctions would harm scientific free speech. He said:
“The purpose of this repository is to make it clear to the U.S. Treasury Department and Github that: This code has value, and its removal has consequences for US scientific researchers and students. “
He continued:
“Furthermore, it exists to test the proposition that code removal is an appropriate future response to a sanctions order, no matter how justified the order itself is.
Sanctions against Tornado Cash have had ripple effects in the cryptosphere. Many major cryptocurrency companies such as Circle, Aave, Uniswap and Balancer have also complied with the sanctions.
Tornado cache ban
US Department of the Treasury OFAC announced Ban of Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based mixer protocol, on August 8, 2022. This decision makes Tornado Cash the first smart contract licensed by the US government. The Treasury Department pointed to massive criminal transactions laundered through Tornado Cash as the reason for the ban.
A recent investigation into Chainalysis’s criminal activity showed that the use of crypto mixers reached an all-time high of $51.8 million in July 2022. The Treasury Department believes most of this volume is due to cybercriminal activity. One day after his Tornado Cash ban, the Treasury Department publicly vowed to “aggressively pursue” all cryptomixers.
Tornado Cash has been proven to be involved in laundering stolen funds from major attacks and cybercriminals, including the Ronin Bridge attack and North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Regardless, critics of the ban argue that sanctions do nothing to prevent criminal activity, as there will always be more mixers laundering money.
Instead, the ban only deprived innocent users of privacy solutions. After all, Tornado Cash is a neutral technology that can be used for good or evil, and banning neutral protocols will not prevent criminals from pursuing criminal activities.
Professor Green describes the impact of the ban as a “chilling effect” on scientific freedom of speech. he says:
“The result is a ‘chilling effect’ on speech that allows the U.S. government to determine which citizens and organizations do and do not enjoy the right to publish source code and scientific work.” You will be able to “
