What do y’all think of this? Seems pretty terrible on its face

  • NXL@lemmy.mlOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 years ago

    getting your work used by criminals shouldnt make you a criminal though.

    except sometimes its not used for purchasing and sometimes used for donations i.e. donations for Ukraine were done through eth and people (including vitalik buterin) used Tornado Cash to donate to people\organizations without it get traced to vitalik and the user\org

    • poVoq@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      I find the argument that a donation to Ukraine needs to be anonymous to be very weak. You can donate without problem using normal crypto coins or regular money.

      And yes, the guy is only being charged with “aiding” criminal activity, not the activity itself. Which is what he clearly did by developing this software.

      Software is not a neutral tool. If you develop for example software for drones you share part of the responsibility for the deaths of the people killed with these drones.

      • NXL@lemmy.mlOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        So if someone works on software for cars and they’re used to run people over the responsibility is on them? Seems like a terrible way to go about it.

        With that perspective tim berners lee has aided so much terrorism, money laundering, and blackmail by coding the world wide web. Or Protonmail coders or apple cosers for making end to end encryption simple to use

        • poVoq@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 years ago

          If the software is specifically designed to make it easier to run people over and get away with it, then yes. And that is what we are talking about here… this isn’t the Linux kernel or some general purpose software, but a software specifically designed to obfuscate money flows.

          • NXL@lemmy.mlOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            ok then does that apply to software that makes it easier to obfuscate communication? people can use it to plot terror attacks, or send grandmas secret recipe. people can use tornado cash for money laundering, or for hiding how much money you have and where your spending it from an abusive ex or authoritarian government who might target you for paying for an abortion

            • poVoq@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 years ago

              As usual it depends :)

              The vital difference here is that with near 100% certainty the vast majority of the users of Tornado Cash used it for illegal purposes, while most encrypted messengers are used for 99% legal use.

              And as I said elsewhere, nearly all the good uses of a anonymous digital money can be achieved with a system that protects the anonymity of the individual buyer only. Making the seller anonymous as well is counter productive.

                • poVoq@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  To be honest I am not a big fan of Tor either, but I can give it the benefit of doubt that it does have legitimate use-cases. For this tornado cash I have a really hard time imagining there to be real non-criminal use-cases that could not be done differently better.

      • NXL@lemmy.mlOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        So if someone works on software for cars and they’re used to run people over the responsibility is on them? Seems like a terrible way to go about it.

        With that perspective tim berners lee has aided so much terrorism, money laundering, and blackmail by coding the world wide web. Or Protonmail coders or apple cosers for making end to end encryption simple to use

      • jorgesumle@lemmy.pt
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 years ago

        You can donate without problem using normal crypto coins or regular money.

        A no ser que uses una criptomoneda como Monero todo el mundo puede saber a quién has donado. ¿Pero y si no quieres que nadie sepa que a quien has donado? Por ejemplo, me puede dar vergüenda donar dinero para ayudar a comprar armas a un país muy corrupto, como Ucrania. Si el otro país toma el poder pueden usar esa información en el futuro para acusarme de financiar el terrorismo o financiar a neonazis.

        • poVoq@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 years ago

          Maybe if you feel embarrassed about donating you should reconsider who you are donating too? And yes donating to buy weapons should not be hidden… there is no difference to you doing it, to say when the CIA does it. In both cases it should be transparent and people should be held accountable for what is later done with these weapons they financed.