Tornado cash takedown and its repercussions
The US sanctioning Tornado Cash and the resulting repercussions is deeply concerning. Whether or not you like crypto, you should not be supporting this if you are a researcher, academic, technologist, cryptographer, or privacy advocate. The code for Tornado Cash is a series of cryptographic and mathematical functions that can be repurposed for a variety of applications unrelated to privatizing user wallets. The protocol itself is designed for one reason: to give users privacy through end to end and zero knowledge cryptography.<p>Allowing it to remain open source and accessible as a tool for blockchain privacy and codebase for cryptographic research is a net benefit for the entire world.<p>A comparison would be that US decides to sanction the open Matrix protocol along with any user, developer, source host, or sponsor that has ever contributed to it in the past - because it can facilitate end-to-end encrypted terrorist communication.