Arbitrum Community Reverses Decision on Funding Tornado Cash Developer Legal Defense
The Arbitrum decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has retracted a proposal that aimed to provide financial support for the legal defense costs of Tornado Cash’s developers.
The proposal, which called for the allocation of approximately $1.3 million worth of Arbitrum (ARB) tokens from the community wallet, intended to assist Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, the developers behind the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
The allocated budget could have also been used for public relations and advocacy efforts to promote privacy-preserving technologies.
“By rallying support for their legal fund, we aim to safeguard not only the future of privacy-preserving technologies but also the broader principles of innovation, decentralization, and individual sovereignty within our industry,” the proposal read.
The pseudonymous delegate DK initiated the proposal on March 7, advocating for a strong legal defense for the developers.
However, the user has since removed the proposal without providing any reasons.
Tornado Cash and its founders face allegations of laundering over $1 billion in illicit funds, including money associated with the hacking group Lazarus Group.
The developers have been charged by the United States with offenses such as money laundering, sanctions violations, and operating an unlicensed money transfer business.
While supporters of Tornado Cash argue that it merely provides software for decentralized money transmission and does not engage directly in money transmission, the crackdown on the platform has been viewed as a potential threat to developers working on privacy-oriented applications.
In addition to the withdrawal of community funding, the developers have encountered other financial setbacks.
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