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Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

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Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#181
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helping criminals launder money is not a human right.

I would challenge you to prove that they actively advertised their service as such. Stop spreading misinformation.

Google "bitcoin financial oppression", and you'll find that cryptocurrencies are being advertised left and right as a tool to escape "financial oppression", or as someone less cynical would say, to evade financial regulations.

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rather than going after the people actually committing crimes Actually they go after the people committing the crime AND those facilitating it. > Privacy is not a crime, it’s a human right (a) Not a human right, (b) not enshrined in any country's law, (c) does not absolve illegal behaviour.

> Actually they go after the people committing the crime AND those facilitating it. But only if it is in their interest. We don't see other services and platforms sanctioned for facilitating illegal activity. Furthermore, the Data Protection Directive does give users the (human!) right to privacy, considering that crypto isn't a currency, it's merely your private data which is also protected by GDPR.

> We don't see other services and platforms sanctioned for facilitating illegal activity.

How about the various anti-money laundering regulations and agencies around the world, e.g. https://www.fincen.gov/history-anti-money-laundering-laws

How about the US Dept. of the Treasury's program against Transnational Criminal Organizations, which includes sanctions: https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/...

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#183
post #161

Ah yes, arrest developers of open source privacy code and blame them for North Korea money laundering rather than going after the people actually committing crimes. Sounds about right. Privacy is not a crime, it’s a human right! Sorry that it makes the polices job harder, but our rights are more important. And didn’t we go through all this already in the 90s? Are we now gonna start arresting all cryptographers? This…

If the international law enforcement community is really trying to go after "all cryptographers" why do you think we haven't seen more arrests? Why do you think they only arrested this guy? I get that you really want to defend crypto, but I think a simpler explanation is that they have good reasons to believe that this guy was doing more than just the stuff you're trying to defend (making privacy code). It would be l…

If that were true, it would be so easy for them to swing public opinion in their favor by saying so.

Headline: Arrest of developer with suspected ties to North Korean money laundering

Body: He has also previously contributed to Tornado Cash.

But all we know is what they decided to tell us... he's a developer of privacy tech. If the facts change, I'll change my mind.

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software doesn’t come to be through immaculate conception: the authors created it, knowing it could be used in this way. If a company releases software that is used nefariously, there are very common legal actions to hold them accountable. For example, Facebook has extensive legal obligations to meet to do with behaviour on their platform. I am not arguing that tornado cash should be illegal (or that encryption shoul…

> I am arguing that people are responsible for the software they have created. So, is your answer to the asked question yes, the developers of Metasploit should be arrested and jailed? How about the developers of Bitlocker? It's used to encrypt illegal content, impeding police discovery efforts. Every person who developed a file-sharing website should probably also be arrested. Lots of illegal/pirated/etc. content ou…

Law isn’t a binary based on responsibility, it’s reductive to suggest that by arguing for responsibility we are also arguing for prison for software developers. I can be responsible for your death and spend no time in prison.

Every other industry deals with this challenge — why should software be any different?

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#185
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rather than going after the people actually committing crimes Actually they go after the people committing the crime AND those facilitating it. > Privacy is not a crime, it’s a human right (a) Not a human right, (b) not enshrined in any country's law, (c) does not absolve illegal behaviour.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/impact-convention-human-rights/ri...

There is zero law suggesting financial transactions are subject to Article 8 protection.

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#187
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the international law enforcement community is really trying to go after "all cryptographers" why do you think we haven't seen more arrests? Why do you think they only arrested this guy? I get that you really want to defend crypto, but I think a simpler explanation is that they have good reasons to believe that this guy was doing more than just the stuff you're trying to defend (making privacy code). It would be l…

If that were true, it would be so easy for them to swing public opinion in their favor by saying so. Headline: Arrest of developer with suspected ties to North Korean money laundering Body: He has also previously contributed to Tornado Cash. But all we know is what they decided to tell us... he's a developer of privacy tech. If the facts change, I'll change my mind.

Usually when there’s an ongoing investigation the default is for police to not release too much information to avoid jeopardising the investigation, then release all the info when the investigation is complete. It’s frustrating and often a principle that’s applied too broadly, but I do understand the reasoning behind it.

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#188
post #138
post #104

How many people listed in the Panama papers have been arrested? Their assets seized? Fines? Zero. London's "the city" is pretty much one giant laundering operation for Saudi and Russian dirty money. Money laundering, monetary privacy, wealth obfuscation is perfectly fine. It only becomes an issue when it becomes accessible to us simple minded folks too. The urgency to stop this tech really tells the tale. Or in other…

Did you look it up or are you just spouting what ever you can dream up to fit your argument? Lots of people all over the world have been arrested based on the panama papers.

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Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or the purposes of funding terrorism, narcotics, human trafficking, weapons, uranium, endangered wildlife and/or biohazardous material. There's a point at which if you undermine law enforcement enough there's no point in continuing to try to enforce laws, which means there's no point in having laws at all. The hype mob either doesn't see this or doesn't care, which is incredibly naive either way.

In my capacity of unofficial spokesperson for the hype mob, I would say that if a tool can be created that has legitimate and nonlegitimate purposes, criminalizing its creation or possession is the worst possible action to take, because it ensures that all talented people who are interested in developing it for legitimate purposes become disaffected at worst or aligned with your enemies at best. Setting aside the mor…

> criminalizing its creation or possession is the worst possible action to take

Sure. That’s not what’s happening.

Tornado was used illegally. Its leadership kept developing it, kept getting paid, and made no apparent course corrections. This wasn’t simply a GitHub repo; it was a remunerated enterprise.

When I’ve brought up the legal issues around mixers, a common response involves the impossibility of governments to enforce their Will on blockchains. If these guys messaged similarly they’re justifiably boned.

Re: Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash

#190
post #2

So a software developer is held responsible for the software. If the software is largely SaaS, then I can see the sense in that. A software developer of SaaS is also a service developer, arguably even a service operator although that depends on how the service is developed and operated. I'm sure the judge will be thrilled to have to listen to arguments about the with the nuances of dev, ops, devops and a distributed…

Being arrested is not that big of a deal- it merely means they suspect that you committed a crime and want to question you. I would also wait and see what they are accused of, maybe there is more to it than simply contributing to an open source project.

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