Protests against the arrest of Tornado Cash developer

More than 50 people gathered at Dam Square in Amsterdam to protest the arrest of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev.

Community rebels against Tornado Cash developer’s arrest

On Saturday at least 50 people gathered in one of Amsterdam’s iconic squares, Dam Square, to protest the arrest ten days ago by Dutch authorities of Alexey Pertsev, developer of Tornado cash.

The company has long been in the crosshairs of the U.S. Treasury Department, which has also blacklisted the cryptocurrency mixer for allegedly laundering $7 billion since 2019, and is also alleged to have facilitated money transfers from countries such as North Korea, which have been sanctioned by the international community for years.

Pertsev was reportedly arrested by Dutch police, at the explicit request of U.S. authorities, precisely because he was accused of participating in this type of crime within Tornado cash. Dutch authorities have said that the people behind Tornado Cash have been profiting on a large scale from these transactions made in a shady manner with countries whose transactions are not allowed.

But the people who protested in Amsterdam on Saturday, among whom was the developer’s wife, argued that he could not be accused of misusing his open source programs and, therefore, demanded Pertsev’s immediate release. Not least because the Dutch authorities have reportedly not yet clarified what charges the developer, who has been locked up in a prison since August 12, is facing.

Roman Buzko, of the law firm Buzko Krasnov, said during the demonstration: 

“It’s a case where the fundamental principle of crypto is being questioned. The case concerns whether code is an expression of free speech. In my view, it is.”

The attack on the ideals of open source codes

On the other hand, the protesters distributed some leaflets to explain the reason for their protest:

“The accusations against Alex threaten to kill the entire open-source software segment. No one will dare to write and publish open-source code, no one will invest in the segment if they could be made responsible for the use of the tool they created by other parties.”

Petr Korolev, Co-founder of Oxorio, a blockchain consulting firm, said on Twitter that Pertsev has not been officially charged, but has been questioned about his role in developing the protocol.

@alex_pertsev was arrested at the beginning of August.
1/ A thread explaining the case and what it could do to the open source software development space ⬇
#freealex #OpeSourceNotACrime pic.twitter.com/fMJel86QdK

— Petr Korolev ?? (@skywinder) August 19, 2022

Korolev said during an interview: 

“This is a major case, and I am afraid that if Alex is found guilty, that will create a precedent that could hit open-source code developers.”

Meanwhile, a petition was opened three days ago on behalf of Pertsev, but also on behalf of all open source code developers, which has already gathered 1,500 signatures.