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GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

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Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#131

Post by moron4hire »

whatisweb3 wrote: post #65
root_axis wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all speech is legal. If I write a virus and unleash it on the internet it's not unconstitutional to arrest me.

It could be argued the sole intent of unleashing a virus on the internet is malicious. The sole intent of publishing a privacy protocol on GitHub is not. Look at Tor for comparison. GitHub has a section on this[1]. There should be no problem with allowing this software online for research and educational purposes. [1] https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/acceptable-use-polici...

Does anyone want to dispute that Tornado Cash is a money laundering tool? When at least 20% of the money that has moved through it is already known to be ill-gotten gains, with the rest being indeterminant, it's kind of hard to say it's a anything but a money laundering tool. I've only seen childish arguments that "money laundering is a fake crime", not that Tornado Cash isn't a money laundering tool.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#132

Post by kube-system »

whitepaint wrote: post #122
whatisweb3 wrote: post #77

GitHub has the right to do whatever it wants, and it makes sense they would take this action to avoid getting into legal concerns. But it is deeply concerning. Whether or not you like crypto, you should not be supporting this if you are a researcher, academic, technologist, cryptographer, or privacy advocate. The code for Tornado Cash is a series of cryptographic and mathematical functions that can be repurposed for…

Absolutely. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that it is not absolutely morally deplorable. Which in this case - it obviously is.

It’s morally deplorable to demand office workers risk jail time just because you want a free service.

If you want to run git for free, run it on your own computer.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#133

Post by PeterisP »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #114
baobob wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What did they do wrong? They wilfully contributed to the upkeep of a money laundering service. They should be thankful losing their GitHub account is the extent of the fallout, take it as a lesson that code can cause real harm, and act more judiciously in future when it comes to contributing labour to suspect projects.

There are so many other applications for Tornado Cash than “money laundering.” What if I don’t want my employer or friends to see what I do with my known wallet on a fully traceable public blockchain? Privacy is not illegal.

Well, no matter what other applications for Tornado Cash may exist, since yesterday it is illegal to interact with Tornado Cash or assist them in any way for anyone within reach of USA jurisdiction. That's it.

Privacy as such is not illegal, but that does not mean that government may not prohibit certain specific ways of achieving privacy.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#134

Post by whitepaint »

kube-system wrote: post #132
whitepaint wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that it is not absolutely morally deplorable. Which in this case - it obviously is.

It’s morally deplorable to demand office workers risk jail time just because you want a free service. If you want to run git for free, run it on your own computer.

I am not demanding anything. I am just saying they have clearly done the wrong thing.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#135

Post by [deleted] »

yosito wrote: post #55

Honest question: was GitHub legally obligated to delete the accounts of anyone who had contributed to the repos? I get that contributing to the repos would be a violation of the sanctions, but it's not clear to me when the project was sanctioned and whether all the contributors were aware that they were contributing to a sanctioned project. Would it have been enough for GitHub just to remove the projects? I ask as so…

[deleted]

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#136

Post by dingleberry420 »

junon wrote: post #7

People on Twitter are either wilfully dumb or simply ignorant. GitHub had to do this. It was required of them by law. Tornado was sanctioned . > These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. This is, unambiguously, di…

So making a PR to some project the US government might decide to sanction means github is going to delete my account?

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#138

Post by bad416f1f5a2 »

personjerry wrote: post #32
nurettin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no sympathy for crypto whatever and I really don't care about who sanctioned whom and for what reason, but... Sanctioned project's contributors must be deleted from the server - where is that written in the list of things Microsoft has to do since you went out of your way calling everyone on the reply train ignorant?

It's written in the definition of the sanction given by the Department of the Treasury [0], i.e. at the level of US federal law, of which Microsoft must follow as a US company. > Sanctions Implications > These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, o…

> US federal law, of which Microsoft must follow as a US company.

One interesting and under-appreciated fact about OFAC: they take an, ahem, expansive view of where US law applies.

CSE TransTel was a company based in Singapore who was sanctioned in 2017[0]. They had a bank account with a Singapore bank. TransTel did business with Iran, in violation of US sanctions. But neither the company nor the bank were in the US; how did OFAC make that fly?

Because TransTel did transactions with a US dollar account, OFAC argued the settlements of that account caused banks inside the US to incidentally violate sanctions. Essentially the presence of US dollars created a nexus and allowed OFAC to enforce US sanctions against what would appear to be an entirely foreign entity.

Any wonder MS is treading lightly?

[0]: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/20170727_transtel...

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#139

Post by salawat »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #114
baobob wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What did they do wrong? They wilfully contributed to the upkeep of a money laundering service. They should be thankful losing their GitHub account is the extent of the fallout, take it as a lesson that code can cause real harm, and act more judiciously in future when it comes to contributing labour to suspect projects.

There are so many other applications for Tornado Cash than “money laundering.” What if I don’t want my employer or friends to see what I do with my known wallet on a fully traceable public blockchain? Privacy is not illegal.

Privacy is not illegal.

Operating an illegal money transmitter that demonstrates no capability/intent to actively filter OFAC specified sanction targets, however, is.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#140

Post by dingleberry420 »

PeterisP wrote: post #115
plq wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be that as it may, isn't this still an unacceptable collateral damage? So when you contribute code to an open source project, you generally do so under an open source license. All of them generally contain something akin to the following: IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (this particular excerpt is from the BSD li…

> What did they do wrong? The argument probably is that they assisted a sanctioned entity by providing a contribution i.e. service to it. Quoting US Treasury "These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person." However, th…

> The argument probably is that they assisted a sanctioned entity by providing a contribution i.e. service to it.

And what if they did so before the sanctions? Is the US so happy to retroactively punish people who literally did nothing wrong?

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