According to the project’s official Twitter account, Tornado Cash, the ethereum mixing service that allows participants to shuffle ether, is blocking flagged ethereum addresses listed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons list (SDN). This decision comes in the wake of the OFAC update that lists the Ronin exploiter’s ethereum address and also notes that the ether wallet may be associated with the notorious North Korean hackers, Lazarus Group.
Ethereum Mixer Tornado Cash Blocks OFAC Sanctioned Addresses
Tornado Cash announced on April 15, 2022, that the project is leveraging a Chainalysis oracle to block OFAC sanctioned wallets. “Tornado Cash uses [a] Chainalysis oracle contract to block OFAC sanctioned addresses from accessing the dapp,” the official Twitter account said on Friday. The Tornado Cash Twitter account said that “Maintaining our financial privacy is essential for preserving freedom, but it shouldn’t come at the price of non-compliance.”
The decision comes after the U.S. Treasury and OFAC published an update concerning the Ronin bridge hacker’s ethereum wallet. The Ronin bridge hacker used the ethereum address to transact. U.S. citizens and companies are now banned from using the address. According to an OFAC update, this address is linked to Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking group. Following the decision, Tornado Cash got a lot of criticism for the move.
“So let me get this straight,” one individual tweeted, “if my address is on the OFAC sanctioned addresses list, I just need to transfer it to another address and then I can begin my money laundering.”
The news also follows the controversy surrounding the claims that the blockchain surveillance and intelligence company, Chainalysis, deanonymized Wasabi-based Coinjoin transactions. Wasabi stated to the public that a blacklist would be used to prevent certain UTXOs (unspent transactions outputs) from registering for Coinjoin transfers. The founder and creator of Wasabi wallet, Adam Ficsor, told the public: “Blacklisting arrived to Coinjoins. IMO it is a major setback to Bitcoin’s fungibility.”
The changes Tornado Cash made to the Tornado Cash protocol may be bypassed by switching to other ether addresses or leveraging the contract without the Tornado Cash protocol frontend. “Don’t worry guys, your favorite hackers will still be able to wash the money they have stolen from you using the smart contract directly,” one individual replied to the Tornado Cash Twitter statement. “This just affects the website frontend, contract is permissionless.”
This story contains tags
Adam Ficsor, Chainalysis, Chainalysis oracle contract, Compliance, dApps, ethereum addresses, Lazarus Group, NK Hackers, north korean hackers, North Korean hacking organization, OFAC sanctioned, permissionless, Ronin Bridge, Ronin Hack, sdn list, Tornado cash, Tornado Cash team, Wasabi Wallet, Web3 Dapps
What do you think about the statements the Tornado Cash team made on Friday about blocking OFAC sanctioned ethereum addresses? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News, is a Florida-based financial journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not intended to be a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any products or services. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The author and the company are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection to the content, goods, or services discussed in this article.
Read More