Based on Twitter user @0xdev0, on Monday, Web3 development platform Alchemy and Infura.io blocked remote procedure call (RPC) demands to cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, stopping users from being able to access the applications. Your day prior, the U.S. Treasury placed 44 smart contract addresses associated with Tornado Money in the Specifically Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list. U.S. persons and entities are prohibited from blockchain or business interactions with Tornado Cash under t sanctions, with the potential of criminal liabilities for violations.
The move came following the U.S. Treasury alleged individuals and groups had used the privacy protocol to launder greater than $7 billion price of crypto since 2019, such as the $455 million stolen through the North Korea-affiliated Lazarus Group. Quickly following the announcement, stablecoin issuer Circle froze USD Gold coin funds held within Tornado Cash’s smart contracts. Meanwhile, programming repository GitHub required lower the project’s primary page and blocked developer access.
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founding father of Ethereum, claimed he used Tornado Cash to give to Ukraine. The intent, as relayed through Buterin, ended up being to safeguard the financial privacy from the recipients to ensure that their enemy, the Russian government, will not have detailed information from the transaction.
I’ll out myself as somebody who has utilized TC to give for this exact cause.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 9, 2022
Others also have pointed the mixer’s privacy applications, for example for a person getting compensated in crypto who does not want a company to determine their financial details, or having to pay for any service in crypto who does not want the company to determine yesteryear transactions using their wallet. However, the tool has, partly, acted like a hotspot for enabling anonymous online hackers to launder stolen funds from protocol exploits particularly mix-chain bridges. Greater than $2 billion price of funds continues to be stolen from such applications year up to now.
