The EFF Calls Out OFAC, Ratifies Code Is Speech, Asks For Developers Protection
Does the OFAC not know that code is speech? Yesterday, we covered the EFF’s demands for clarity around the Tornado Cash situation and the case they’re defending. Today, we’ll dig into a simple idea, the reason code is protected under free speech laws. As it has for decades in the US. As a bonus, we’ll […]
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It’s time for the EFF to speak out on the Tornado Cash situation. The OFAC sanctioning a smart contract might’ve been going too far, they stepped into the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s turf. We could summarize the EFF’s case with this sentence: “for decades, U.S. courts have recognized that code is speech.” It’s as simple as […]
The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has added three ethereum addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN). OFAC alleges the ether addresses are controlled by the Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group that is associated with North Korea. Lazarus Group Behind Axie Infinity Heist The U.S. Treasury Department’s OFAC has added three ethereum addresses that are allegedly associated linked with the Lazarus Group cybercrime syndicate to its SDN list. The addition of the addresses comes a few weeks after U.S. authorities accused the Lazarus Group and....
Ethereum developer Preston Van Loon encouraged GitHub to fully restore Tornado Cash’s repositories after partial unbanning. Crypto mixer Tornado Cash has returned to the software development platform GitHub after several weeks of being banned on the website.Ethereum developer Preston Van Loon took to Twitter on Thursday to report that GitHub has partly unbanned the Tornado Cash organization and contributors on their platform. The developer suggested that Tornado Cash’s code repositories are now in read-only mode, which means that GitHub is yet to restore full functionality.“But that is....
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department’s watchdog the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) banned the ethereum mixing application Tornado Cash. OFAC has cited that the mixer has helped North Korean hackers such as the hacking syndicate known as Lazarus Group.
OFAC Sanctions Tornado Cash Mixing App
OFAC has officially banned the Tornado Cash and Tornado Cash Classic websites alongside all of the digital currency addresses allegedly associated with the site.
“The following entity has been added to OFAC’s SDN list: Tornado Cash,”....
“By treating autonomous code as a ‘person’ OFAC exceeds its statutory authority,” said Coin Center's Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh. United States-based crypto policy advocacy group Coin Center said it intended to “pursue administrative relief” for individuals affected by Tornado Cash sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC.In a Monday blog post, Coin Center executive director Jerry Brito and director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh alleged OFAC “overstepped its legal authority” when it named cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash and 44....