With Proton's plans to build a Whirlpool client, it seems obvious that their decision on whether or not to follow through will hinge on the outcome of the Samourai Wallet trial – But the Tornado Cash trial is arguably much more important to Proton's potential coinjoin plans.
Samourai Wallet stands accused of conspiracy to money laundering – in part thanks to their rather entertaining Twitter posts – and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money service business – mainly pertaining to the operation of the Whirlpool coinjoin coordinator.
This should effectively only minimally influence Proton's decision on whether or not to build a Whirlpool client, as a client and a coordinator are technically different things, and obviously you can't just be arrested for writing a user interface... or can you?
One of the main arguments made in the Tornado Cash trial is that TC maintained a User Interface that enabled people to access the Tornado Cash protocol. In the Tornado Cash trial, the prosecution is deliberately attempting to equate control over a UI to control over the software itself, trying to paint the development of UIs for privacy software as a conspiracy to commit multiple alleged felonies.
These allegations stem directly from FATF recommendations, which attempt to classify anyone as a money transmitter who is "a central party with some measure of involvement of control," such as "developing user interfaces for accounts holding an administrative "key".
If Roman Storm and Roman Semenov are found guilty of conspiracy to money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed MSB, and conspiracy to commit sanctions violations in the US on the basis of the prosecution's claims, then *anyone* building user interfaces for self-custodial privacy software could be next – including Proton if a Whirlpool client is built.
Learn more about how your rights are at risk in the Tornado Cash trial, see both cases from a FATF perspective, and consider donating to Roman Storm's defense (in ETH) (dumb comments on shitcoins will be ignored as this is not the time for your retarded tribalism):
https://juicebox.money/@defend-roman-storm
https://www.therage.co/why-your-rights-are-at-stake-in-the-tornado-cash-trial/
https://www.therage.co/meet-fatf-the-financial-bullies-memberclub/
L0la L33tz /
npub1mz…q6mak
2024-07-24 18:33:43
Author Public Key
npub1mznweuxrjm423au6gjtlaxmhmjthvv69ru72t335ugyxtygkv3as8q6makPublished at
2024-07-24 18:33:43Event JSON
{
"id": "1751c911e462760f54bce91ae32d4a1483e784b1f0f217726c63de3ba0b84390",
"pubkey": "d8a6ecf0c396eaa8f79a4497fe9b77dc977633451f3ca5c634e208659116647b",
"created_at": 1721838823,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [],
"content": "With Proton's plans to build a Whirlpool client, it seems obvious that their decision on whether or not to follow through will hinge on the outcome of the Samourai Wallet trial – But the Tornado Cash trial is arguably much more important to Proton's potential coinjoin plans. \n\nSamourai Wallet stands accused of conspiracy to money laundering – in part thanks to their rather entertaining Twitter posts – and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money service business – mainly pertaining to the operation of the Whirlpool coinjoin coordinator. \n\nThis should effectively only minimally influence Proton's decision on whether or not to build a Whirlpool client, as a client and a coordinator are technically different things, and obviously you can't just be arrested for writing a user interface... or can you? \n\nOne of the main arguments made in the Tornado Cash trial is that TC maintained a User Interface that enabled people to access the Tornado Cash protocol. In the Tornado Cash trial, the prosecution is deliberately attempting to equate control over a UI to control over the software itself, trying to paint the development of UIs for privacy software as a conspiracy to commit multiple alleged felonies. \n\nThese allegations stem directly from FATF recommendations, which attempt to classify anyone as a money transmitter who is \"a central party with some measure of involvement of control,\" such as \"developing user interfaces for accounts holding an administrative \"key\". \n \nIf Roman Storm and Roman Semenov are found guilty of conspiracy to money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed MSB, and conspiracy to commit sanctions violations in the US on the basis of the prosecution's claims, then *anyone* building user interfaces for self-custodial privacy software could be next – including Proton if a Whirlpool client is built. \n\nLearn more about how your rights are at risk in the Tornado Cash trial, see both cases from a FATF perspective, and consider donating to Roman Storm's defense (in ETH) (dumb comments on shitcoins will be ignored as this is not the time for your retarded tribalism): \n\nhttps://juicebox.money/@defend-roman-storm\nhttps://www.therage.co/why-your-rights-are-at-stake-in-the-tornado-cash-trial/\nhttps://www.therage.co/meet-fatf-the-financial-bullies-memberclub/",
"sig": "c09e1885a2df16bd389e7ed54f2443feb96677e90b4b62a8473c33ce81f5ede85cf3ca6f946f0bac2e56261584fac66dc4152744f5ab6ee5170a2b94279ae478"
}