Tech

Tornado Cash community fund multisignature wallet disbands amid sanctions

08/15/2022
Bitcoin Ethereum News

Following the United States sanctioning USD Coin (USDC) and Ethereum addresses associated with the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, the signatories of the projects’ multisignature community fund havedisbanded. 

In 2021, the Tornado Cash community created a fund to provide incentives to key contributors to the project. The fund was held in a community-managed multisignature wallet with five peer-elected members validating transactions who were selected because of their contributions to the project.

However, given that interacting with Tornado Cash now comes with more risks — including penalties for U.S. citizens ranging from fines of up to $10 million to prison time of up to 30 years — the community members in charge of the fund have vacated their posts and handed control to the project’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

On Aug. 12, the signatories started to relinquish their ability to manage the fund. And on Aug. 14, all five members of the multisignature wallet completely removed their access, leaving only the governance wallet as the fund’s sole owner.

Community members were surprised to see the development and weighed in on the issue of the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioning code. One Twitter user stated that unless something changes, everything and everyone tied to the project could be considered a collaborator. On the other hand, another community member opined that this might be a way to actualize the DAO fully and argued that it’s time for tokenholders to assume responsibility.

Related: Kevin O’Leary says sacrificing Tornado Cash worth it for institutional adoption

Meanwhile, as worries surrounding Tornado Cash pile on, an anonymous user decided to use the opportunity to send Tornado Cash-derived Ether (ETH) to prominent personalities like Jimmy Fallon, Shaquille O’Neal, Dave Chappelle and others. The sender is likely trying to prank law enforcement, directing their attention to the recipients. However, the simple act of receiving the cryptocurrency may not be grounds for criminal proceedings, as a valid case requires “wilful” engagement with Tornado Cash.