On August 15, the non-profit that focuses on policy issues facing crypto assets, Coin Center, published a blog post that says the organization is looking at the legality of the recent Tornado Cash sanctions enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). The post, published by Coin Center’s Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh, explains that by treating autonomous code as a ‘person’ “OFAC exceeds its statutory authority.”
Coin Center Insists ‘OFAC Has Overstepped Its Legal Authority’
Coin Center’s executive director Jerry Brito and director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh had a lot to say in a blog post published Monday that talks about whether or not autonomous code, or a smart contract, can be considered a sanctioned ‘person.’ Coin Center’s Brito and Valkenburgh believe the U.S. government sent some kind of intended signal when OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash. One that makes it so U.S. citizens are aware specific tools and software “should not be used by Americans even for entirely legitimate purposes.”
“As we suspected, we believe that OFAC has overstepped its legal authority by adding certain Tornado Cash smart contract addresses to the SDN List, that this action potentially violates constitutional rights to due process and free speech, and that OFAC has not adequately acted to mitigate the foreseeable impact its action would have on innocent Americans,” the Coin Center blog post explains.
Moreover, Coin Center believes that OFAC’s designation of specific autonomous contract addresses “exceeds its statutory authority under IEEPA.” Coin Center insists that a vague and overbroad interpretation of IEEPA could be used to attack first amendment protected speech. “If the SDN List becomes an ever-expanding list of specific open source protocols and applications that are ‘blocked,’ then isn’t that a restriction on the publication of speech?” the blog post asks.
Coin Center further details that it plans to engage with the U.S. Treasury Department’s watchdog, share views and hear the views OFAC authorities have about the situation. Coin Center will keep Congress informed about the matter. Coin Center will also help Americans without funds to get the license they need to legally remove the ethereum. The non-profit organization concluded that the team is talking about litigation efforts to “counsel a court challenge to this action.”
How do you feel about Coin Center investigating the legality of Tornado Cash Sanctions and what the organisation plans to do with OFAC? Please comment below on your views.
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