In solidarity with the cryptocurrency industry, Coinbase is making moves to curb perceived excesses of the US Treasury.
A suit filed against the United States Treasury Department is currently receiving financial support from one of the country’s major crypto exchanges. The reason for the suit is in reaction to sanctions imposed by the former on Tornado Cash (TC).
Several disclosures were made in defense of Tornado Cash. Ethereum’s founding partner, Buterin Vitalik, revealed in August that he transferred some donations to Ukraine, using Tornado Cash which in fact, helped him to preserve the beneficiary’s identity. Although the US Treasury reasons that the Protocol is a conduit pipe for the funneling of illegally stashed wealth by North Korean cyber criminals, the view of Buterin shows that the sanctions are detrimental to people using TC for genuine purposes.
A Looming Assault on Tech Freedom
There have been cases of several tumblers that have been sanctioned by US authorities for acting as proxies for North Korean officials so it does not appear as though only TC has been singled by US authorities.
However, Coinbase disagrees with this view. Speaking through its Head of Legal, Paul Grewal, it believes the problem is a much larger one and “sets a dangerous precedent” for the use of Open-source code going forward.
A similar opinion was expressed by another crypto expert, Matthew Green. He feels that such action by the US authorities could be a signal to clamp down on free speech and also frighten tech-savvy bodies.
A young expert believed to have provided the content for developing Tornado Cash was recently arrested. He is expected to remain in prison custody for now.
