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<p><strong>Digital privacy advocates are dismayed. Alexey Pertsev, the developer behind the Tornado Cash protocol, has just been sentenced to a very heavy prison term in the Netherlands. His crime? Creating a tool theoretically aimed at improving the privacy of crypto transactions, but accused of facilitating a massive laundering of dirty money.</strong></p>
<h2 id="h-a-conviction-for-money-laundering">A conviction for money laundering!</h2>
<p>The pill is anything but easy to swallow for the crypto community. A panel of three Dutch judges has <a href="https://www.cointribune.com/en/crypto-former-binance-ceo-sentenced-to-4-months-in-prison/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">sentenced</a> Alexey Pertsev to the astronomical sentence of 5 years and 4 months in prison. The reason? Allowing the laundering of $1.2 billion in illicit assets according to the accusation, via the Tornado Cash transaction mixing protocol.</p>
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<p>A sanction of rare severity when you consider that this application is non-custodial, meaning it has no control over the funds that transit through it. The judges held Pertsev responsible for the malicious uses by third parties of his open-source code, an approach to say the least controversial.</p>
<p>The verdict hits the Russian developer hard, who was arrested in <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0916" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">August 2022</a> following the blacklist of Tornado Cash by the United States. His team has 14 days to appeal.</p>
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<h2 id="h-controversy-over-the-responsibility-of-crypto-developers">Controversy over the responsibility of crypto developers</h2>
<p>Beyond Pertsev’s fate, it is the entire community of decentralized application creators who find themselves threatened. This decision could create a dangerous precedent by criminalizing any code deemed vulnerable to illicit activities in advance.</p>
<p>Thus, the judges considered that the crypto developer should have foreseen anti-laundering safeguards on Tornado Cash. But can we really demand that a developer restrict in advance the freedom of their own open-source code?</p>
<p>Prosecutors also cited the proven use of the protocol by cybercriminals such as Lazarus. A justification that is contested: should we then censor all privacy tools on the grounds that they might be misused?</p>
<p>The heavy conviction of Alexey Pertsev for allegedly laundering through Tornado Cash risks opening a real Pandora’s box. By setting such a controversial precedent, <a href="https://www.cointribune.com/en/the-end-of-bitcoin-in-the-united-states-the-senate-takes-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">the judiciary</a> seems keen to erect strict safeguards against crypto anonymization tools. A paradoxical stance considering the democratic virtues of cryptography for preserving fundamental freedoms.</p>

Crypto: 5 years in prison for developing an application!

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