Tornado Cash Ban Blows Winds of Both Division and Unity Through Crypto Community

cryptonews.com:

The move from the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to effectively ban the Ethereum (ETH)-powered crypto mixing service Tornado Cash has polarized the crypto community.

Some think it is a sign that more sweeping regulatory measures could be on their way – while others have suggested that the OFAC’s decision to add Tornado Cash to its Specially Designated Nationals list may turn out to be a positive step.

Here are some of the arguments from both sides.

Many crypto users appear to have been spooked by the OFAC’s move and are fearful of the consequences. While the community appears to agree that bad actors seek to use services like Tornado Cash to launder funds, some argue that privacy-providing apps are important.

Bitcoin (BTC) entrepreneur Ragnar Lifthrasir took to Twitter to write that “many people outside of bitcoin” do “care about privacy and have built good privacy tools” – and suggested that BTC enthusiasts sit up and take note.

He wrote:

“One failure of [bitcoin] maximalism is that by attacking anyone or any project that’s not bitcoin, they’re attacking privacy developers and tools.”

“Privacy,” Lifthrasir concluded, “requires allies.”

Another bitcoiner, Muneeb Ali, the co-founder of the open-source BTC smart contract platform Stacks, concurred. Ali opined that it was time to “put our crypto tribalism aside” as “the Crypto Wars II are starting.” He claimed that the Specially Designated Nationals list was a “sanctions list” that was “meant for people, not tech tools.”

Ali wrote:

“Privacy tools are for every American.”

Indeed, the ETH advocate and software engineer Adriano Feria had a stark warning for bitcoiners, writing:

“Let me remind you [that] they are conspiring against BTC as well, and they