Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz has published a tweet, commenting on the major legal win scored by Tornado Cash against the U.S. Treasury in court. Schwartz particularly commented on the U.S. Treasury’s claim that smart contracts are a service in this case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with the plaintiffs-appellants, ruling that smart contract protocols are not subject to sanctions.
U.S. Treasury sanctions to be lifted from Tornado Cash
The case against the crypto mixing protocol Tornado Cash was initiated by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) back in 2022, when it was sanctioned by OFAC over Tornado Cash’s frequent use case as a venue for money laundering by such vicious players as North Korea.
Announcing the outcome of the lawsuit, Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of the Coinbase exchange, tweeted about “privacy winning”: “This is a historic win for crypto and all who cares about defending liberty,” underscoring that the sanctions laid on Tornado Cash by the U.S. Treasury are “unlawful.”
Grewal stated he was proud that Coinbase has contributed to this historic win. According to the threat he published, Tornado Cash’s smart contracts must now be excluded from the sanctions list, and U.S. citizens will again be able to use this crypto mixing and “privacy-protecting” protocol.
These smart contracts must now be removed from the sanctions list and US persons will once again be allowed to use this privacy-protecting protocol. Put another way, the government’s overreach will not stand. 2/6
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) November 26, 2024
“The government’s overreach will not stand,” he added emotionally. The Coinbase CLO stated that while nobody wants criminal entities to use cryptocurrency protocols, “blocking open source technology entirely because a small portion of users are bad actors is not what Congress authorized.”
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Ripple's top executive comments on court decision
David Schwartz took to his X account to express support for the court’s decision over this legal case against the crypto mixing platform. In his sarcastic manner, the Ripple CTO tweeted: “If a smart contract is a service, a screwdriver is a service. If a smart contract is a service, a book is a service.”
If a smart contract is a service, a screwdriver is a service. If a smart contract is a service, a book is a service. https://t.co/pxopH6fPVi
— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) November 27, 2024
He likened this case to an imaginary situation when a repair team comes to a house to measure the square footage and that, he says, is a “service.” However, Schwartz rushed to add, “the tool he uses to measure your square footage is not a service.”
The XRP community supported Schwartz in the comments.
