Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently donated 100 ETH, worth around $240,000 at the time, to Roman Storm’s legal defense fund. This is the third donation Buterin has made to support Storm, a developer linked to Tornado Cash.
As of October 2024, the defense fund has raised over 327 ETH. The value of these tokens is approximately $785,000. According to the fund’s page, the support came from 148 contributors. Roman Storm thanked Buterin, saying, “I can’t describe how much it means to me. Thank you for your long lasting support.”
Storm is currently under charges in the U.S. for his complicity in Tornado Cash, a tool that helps users anonymize data in Ethereum transactions. After hearing Storm on September 26, 2024, Judge Katherine Failla rejected the motion to dismiss the charges, allowing the case to continue. Failla dismissed Storm’s assertion that he was only being prosecuted for writing code. She said that the charges against him were not frivolous.
Tornado Cash Developer Faces 45-Year Sentence Amid Crypto Community Support
Storm denies the charges and insists that Tornado Cash is a program in the public domain and cannot be regulated by its creators. However, Storm could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted. This has generated this possibility, which has raised concern in the entire crypto community. Many in the community are rallying support for him and other developers of Tornado Cash.
In June 2024, a group called JusticeDAO was created to support Storm in his defense financially. The DAO collected over 654 ETH, or over 1,500,000 USD, for legal help in the case. Nevertheless, the fund keeps rising, proving the people’s solidarity despite the legal cases.
Tornado Cash has been receiving sanctions from the U.S. government, especially from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). These sanctions have affected persons and organisations that employ or engage in the service. But Tornado Cash has been popular until now. This year alone, until the first half of 2024, deposits into Tornado Cash hit $1.91 billion, a 50% rise from 2023.
The sanctions only impact customers who try to pass their funds through a centralised exchange that implements KYC mechanisms. Due to Tornado Cash’s decentralized nature, some restrictions have been bypassed. In these transactions, users can keep their privacy and create new wallet addresses.
The case against Storm is ongoing, and the verdict is expected to be crucial. This verdict will lead to a new phase of open-source software and privacy tools in the blockchain sector.
