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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

#301

Post by JumpCrisscross »

toolz wrote: post #288
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what money laundering even is Hiding illegal gains. > crime happened before the laundering and that's what we should be preventing Covering up a murder is a crime because we don’t want people helping murderers cover up. > like this where innocent people are going to get screwed over because they utilized a tool that criminals utilized People who used Tornado Cash aren’t getting screwed. Even the developers aren’t.…

> People who used Tornado Cash aren’t getting screwed. Incorrect, as per sanctions putting the onus on private entities to get things right, circle has blacklisted any USDC address that has been owned by the tornado cash protocol, which means anyone using tornado cash for legit purposes will lose every dollar they had in USDC. I'm really not sure how you came to the conclusion innocent people weren't getting screwed…

> circle has blacklisted any USDC address that has been owned by the tornado cash protocol, which means anyone using tornado cash for legit purposes will lose every dollar they had in USDC

Wasn’t aware of that. Fair enough. Innocent people will get harmed.

That said, innocent users whose USDC was frozen haven’t lost their money. They’ll have to show they weren’t laundering money. When they do, they should be able get it unfrozen. If that doesn’t work they can pursue legal remedies, though the law in all of this is obviously undeveloped. We are in dire need of stablecoin legislation; something to add might be controlled redemption for users the issuer no longer wishes to associate with.

Their situation is analogous to getting money stuck at PayPal. If you don’t want to take that risk, don’t use PayPal. If you don’t want to run the risk of your stablecoin getting stuck, don’t use mixers. Particularly after they’ve been publicly identified for laundering money.

People have been talking about all of this for years. It was continuously shouted down, or claimed to be impossible because blockchains are above the law or something. I get that there was a lot of noise above that signal. But like, it’s North Korea. On the balance of harms, of course this is what happens. There was never another endgame. The wheels of justice just turn slower than bullshitters spin yarn.

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

#302

Post by shkkmo »

dingleberry420 wrote: post #157
salawat wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, pretty much. This is why I'm surprised more people aren't way more terrified about OFAC than there are. It's probably one of the nastiest diplomatic tools the U.S. has in its arsenal.

Nice, what's next? Jailing everyone who ever had an abortion? Why aren't y'all americans doing that yet, if it's apparently acceptable to punish people for things they did before the supposed crime was made illegal?

> before the supposed crime was made illegal

The laws against money laundering aren't new.

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

#303

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

plq wrote: post #242
PeterisP wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

As an example, it seems plausible to me that a person who wants to enter the cryptocurrency sector could send a pull request and actually work with them to get merged to put it in their resume. This person can be totally oblivious to the illegal stuff that's happening behind the scenes. After all they were just trying to prove that they actually have experience with cryptocurrency code to potential future employers.…

The unfortunate reality is that there are no guarantees. I once inadvertently helped someone commit suicide. I had no idea until after he did the deed and there's no realistic way I could have known beforehand.

Sometimes you just have to assume that everyone's operating in good faith.

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

#304

Post by acdha »

peterbraden wrote: post #298
jakelazaroff wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As an individual or a small business, ones does not have an alternative to - Microsoft Word — Google Docs? Apple Pages? Zoho Docs? OpenOffice? - GitHub — GitLab? sourcehut? Bitbucket? Gitea? - Facebook — Twitter? Instagram? TikTok? SnapChat? The thing about Git is that it's free software. Anyone can run their own server for very little money. If you get banned from the railroad, you can't just get your own train.

So what if the company you work for requires github?

That’s between you and your boss, and likely your GitHub account rep. It’s still not a monopoly just because someone voluntarily chooses not to use alternatives.

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

#305

Post by whatisweb3 »

root_axis wrote: post #289
whatisweb3 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

What if it's a virus that targets politicians?

Then it would be malicious?

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

#306

Post by boredumb »

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…

> People on Twitter are either wilfully dumb or simply ignorant.

The nicest way i'd choose to describe the people of twitter.

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

#307

Post by [deleted] »

peterbraden wrote: post #298
jakelazaroff wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As an individual or a small business, ones does not have an alternative to - Microsoft Word — Google Docs? Apple Pages? Zoho Docs? OpenOffice? - GitHub — GitLab? sourcehut? Bitbucket? Gitea? - Facebook — Twitter? Instagram? TikTok? SnapChat? The thing about Git is that it's free software. Anyone can run their own server for very little money. If you get banned from the railroad, you can't just get your own train.

So what if the company you work for requires github?

[deleted]

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

#309

Post by twobitshifter »

phatfish wrote: post #146
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Everyone is free to use cash if they want to make a transaction that isn't "permanently" recorded in a distributed digital database. I hear the US government actually supports this method.

What’s the largest cash transaction you think you could make that isn’t recorded?

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

#310

Post by JackFr »

blagie wrote: post #209
oliwary wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree - GitHub can block whoever they want. But doing so despite not being required to by law is a valid reason to criticize them.

No. I disagree. Github should not be able to block anyone they want. We went through this about a century ago with railways, antitrust, and Standard Oil. I won't step through the details, but can provide more background if anyone cares. We landed with the concept of a "common carrier." Railways, as well as telecommunications companies, ISPs, public airlines, bus lines, taxicab companies, phone companies, cruise ships…

> Once you provide a sufficiently central service, you should not be allowed to discriminate.

- git by design completely decentralized.

- crypto by design and inherent in its philosophy decentralized

"GOVERNMENT SHOULD MAKE GITHUB GIVE ME AN ACCOUNT!"

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