Roman Sturm, developer of the privacy-preserving Tornado Cash protocol, asked the open source software community if they would be interested in retroactive prosecution by the US Department of Justice for the development of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.
storm he asked DeFi Developers: “How can you ensure that you will not be charged by the Department of Justice as a financial services company for creating a non-custodial protocol?”
Storm added that the Justice Department could prosecute the case, arguing that any decentralized, non-custodial service should have been developed as a detention service, as it did in the case against him, citing his recent statements. Acquittal requestwhich was foot On September 30th.
“Our company has no ability to influence any change, or take any action, with respect to the Tornado Cash Protocol – it is a decentralized software protocol that cannot be controlled by any entity or actor,” Storm was quoted as saying in the acquittal. Documents.
storm He was convicted in August On one of three counts; The jury convicted him of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer company. It sets a dangerous legal precedent For open source software developers and sending shockwaves through the crypto community.
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The fight for privacy continues
After the ruling, legal experts debated whether US prosecutors would do so Follow up on money laundering charges and penalties Against Storm in another trial.
It was the jury Stalemate during deliberations He failed to reach a consensus on those charges, finding Storm guilty only of one count of unlicensed money transfer.
“If the Trump administration wants the United States to become the cryptocurrency capital of the world, the Department of Justice should not be allowed to retry the two deadlocked charges,” said Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at venture capital firm Variant Fund. books On X at that time.

Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, indicated in August that the Justice Department would not begin reprosecuting Storm and would not prosecute similar cases.
“Our view is that simply writing code, without bad faith, is not a crime,” Galeotti said He said Audience at the American Innovation Project Summit, an event for regulatory advocacy and pro-encryption legislation in the United States.
He added: “The Ministry will not use indictments as a law-making tool. The Ministry must not leave creators guessing about what could lead to criminal prosecution.”
magazine: Can privacy remain in US crypto politics after Roman Storm conviction?