Vitalik Buterin donates 100 ETH to the Roman Storm Defense Fund
Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin recently donated another 100 Ether, worth roughly $240,000, to Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's legal defense fund — the third time the popular crypto developer has donated to the cause.
According to Defend Roman Storm's media page, 148 different payments have been received to the developer's defense fund — a total of over 327 ETH, worth around $785,000, as of this writing.
“I can't express how much it means to me,” the Tornado Cash developer told Buterin following the contribution.Thank you for your long-term support.
Source: Free Pertsev and Storm.
The court ordered the Roman Storm case to continue.
On September 26, 2024, U.S. District Judge Catherine Failla denied Storm's motion to dismiss and allowed the case to proceed. Fayla said the charges against Storm were baseless and that she “cannot simply accept Mr. Storm's narrative that he is being accused of writing code.”
Tornado is not guilty of the charges and has confirmed that Tornado Cash is open source software that anyone can use and is not controlled by the developers of Tornado Cash.
If convicted on all three counts, Storm faces up to 45 years in prison.
In June 2024, JusticeDAO was reportedly established to raise defense funds for Tornado Cash developers. The group has collected more than 654 ETH worth more than $1.5 million at the current market price.
Related: Samurai Wallet Forks To ‘Ashigaru' Open Source Project
Sanctions cannot stop the tornado.
Despite Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions and legal pressure from U.S. officials, deposits into Tornado's cash mix reached nearly $1.9 billion in the first half of 2024. year.
The sanctions are only effective if users of Tornado Cash plan to route OFAC-compliant central exchanges with customer-to-customer controls and targeted wallet addresses — which are anonymous and can be created at will.
Magazine: Tornado Cash 2.0: The Race to Build Safe and Legal Coin Mixers
