Legal representatives for Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev have a 14-day window to appeal the court’s decision.
Alexey Pertsev, the developer of Tornado Cash, was found guilty of laundering $1.2 billion using a sanctioned crypto mixer.
Pertsev, a 31-year-old Russian national living in the Netherlands, was sentenced to 64 months in prison by a Dutch court. His lawyers can appeal the decision within 14 days.
Conviction of Tornado Cash Developer
Pertsev was initially imprisoned in the Netherlands in August 2022, when Tornado Cash was banned by the U.S. government. The U.S. Treasury Department claimed that Tornado Cash was a key money laundering tool for the notorious North Korean hacker group Lazarus. During Pertsev's trial in March, prosecutors argued that he did not do enough to prevent criminals from using Tornado Cash.
However, the defense argued that prosecutors failed to take into account that Tornado Cash operates on open-source and automated smart contracts. Pertsev noted that it would be unfair to hold him responsible for the actions of Tornado Cash users, who intentionally remained anonymous and independent.
Similar concerns have been expressed by multiple industry commentators. Raphaël Bloch, co-founder of "The Big Whale", highlighted this concern in a recent tweet, in which he said that the decision to convict Pertsev for money laundering was dangerous because he had simply developed an open source tool. Bloch stressed that condemning Pertsev was tantamount to wrongly blaming knife or car manufacturers whose products were used improperly.
Raphaël Bloch's point is to show that if the manufacturer of a knife or a car is blamed because it could be used for illegal purposes, then it is illogical to make the same accusation against Pertsev, who developed an open source tool.
Additionally, Tornado Cash is a non-custodial crypto-mixing protocol, meaning it never holds or controls the funds transferred through the protocol.
“A sad day for privacy, encryption, and open source”
The outcome of this trial could set a precedent for future trials involving other Tornado Cash developers. Two other developers of the crypto mixer, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, have also been charged with money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions.
Storm's trial is scheduled for September, but Semenov has not yet been arrested.
Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden previously publicly supported Storm's request for a legal defense.
Pablo Sabbatella, head of security research at Blockfence, called it a "sad day for privacy, encryption, and open source."
Conclusion
The conviction of Alexey Pertsev has far-reaching consequences not only for him personally, but also for the entire cryptocurrency community and open source software space. The verdict is likely to spark a wider discussion about the responsibility of technology developers for the misuse of their technology.
At the same time, this also reminds developers, users and regulators that they need to work together to ensure that the development and application of technology does not harm the public interest of society. In the future, we may see more legal frameworks and industry standards established to meet the challenges posed by technologies like Tornado Cash. #TornadoCash #法律裁决
