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From the article: > One plaintiff in the lawsuit is a crypto investor who used Tornado Cash to send funds to support the Ukrainian war effort, hoping to preser

From the article: > One plaintiff in the lawsuit is a crypto investor who used Tornado Cash to send funds to support the Ukrainian war effort, hoping to preserve his anonymity and avoid retaliation from the Russian government.

tmpz22 4y ago
Ok so a user who already has crypto and doesn't want to convert it first (fees) may be encouraged to mix it (privacy) and that is a legitimate usecase. That makes sense to me, though it seems like a very rare event that should not be the sole basis for the underlying platform. Also I should've read the full article first.
- bornfreddy 4y ago
  Not sure how rare it is. There is lots of people who got crypto-rich. It is easier to donate money that came easily... I would assume making a nontrivial donation in fiat privately is also very difficult.
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  > though it seems like a very rare event that should not be the sole basis for the underlying platform. not rare, 12,000+ unique users on just the ethereum network alone only a handful would be from large scale hacks, a bigger handful from phishing even the treasury's estimates were that less than 20% of use was illicit, it is a totally new standard to vilify it based on whatever it is vilified for https://dune.com/poma/tornado-cash_1 https://dune.com/poma/tornado-cash_1
null0pointer 4y ago
Although I agree that this is a morally good usage of TC, I think that given the intent of using TC is to avoid retaliation from the Russian government it would probably be considered illegal in the users jurisdiction. A better example might be to pay for a legal service without revealing your entire wallet balance to that service.
- bpodgursky 4y ago
  The Russian government sent FSB agents to kill dissidents in the UK. They kill people wherever they want to kill people, and it's entirely reasonable to be afraid even if you don't live in Russia.
aeturnum 4y ago
Though I personally support breaking Russian law in this case - I also think this is almost certainly in the "clearly illegal" category for Russian law.

tmpz22 4y ago

Ok so a user who already has crypto and doesn't want to convert it first (fees) may be encouraged to mix it (privacy) and that is a legitimate usecase. That makes sense to me, though it seems like a very rare event that should not be the sole basis for the underlying platform. Also I should've read the full article first.

bornfreddy 4y ago
Not sure how rare it is. There is lots of people who got crypto-rich. It is easier to donate money that came easily... I would assume making a nontrivial donation in fiat privately is also very difficult.
yieldcrv 4y ago
> though it seems like a very rare event that should not be the sole basis for the underlying platform. not rare, 12,000+ unique users on just the ethereum network alone only a handful would be from large scale hacks, a bigger handful from phishing even the treasury's estimates were that less than 20% of use was illicit, it is a totally new standard to vilify it based on whatever it is vilified for https://dune.com/poma/tornado-cash_1 https://dune.com/poma/tornado-cash_1

null0pointer 4y ago

Although I agree that this is a morally good usage of TC, I think that given the intent of using TC is to avoid retaliation from the Russian government it would probably be considered illegal in the users jurisdiction. A better example might be to pay for a legal service without revealing your entire wallet balance to that service.

bpodgursky 4y ago
The Russian government sent FSB agents to kill dissidents in the UK. They kill people wherever they want to kill people, and it's entirely reasonable to be afraid even if you don't live in Russia.

aeturnum 4y ago

Though I personally support breaking Russian law in this case - I also think this is almost certainly in the "clearly illegal" category for Russian law.