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). The decision follows the recent OFAC update, that lists the Ronin exploiter’s ethereum address, and further notes that the ether wallet is allegedly associated with the infamous North Korean hackers, Lazarus Group.
Ethereum Mixer Tornado cash Blocks of AC Sanctioned Addresses
Tornado Cash revealed on April 15, 2022 that its project is using Chainalysis to remove OFAC sanctioned accounts. “Tornado Cash uses [a] Chainalysis oracle contract to block OFAC sanctioned addresses from accessing the dapp,” the official Twitter account saidFriday. “Maintaining financial privacy is essential to preserving our freedom, however, it should not come at the cost of non-compliance,” the Tornado Cash Twitter account added.
The decision comes after the U.S. Treasury and OFAC published an update concerning the Ronin bridge hacker’s ethereum wallet. This ethereum address, which was used by Ronin bridge hacker, has been sanctioned. U.S. citizens and companies are now prohibited from transacting using the address. The OFAC update indicates that the address was associated with Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking group. Tornado Cash was able to acquire a significant amount of cash following this decision. criticismFor 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.”
This news follows controversy over claims that Chainalysis, a blockchain intelligence and surveillance company, had deanonymized Coinjoin-based transactions. Wasabi stated to the public that a blacklist was in place to prevent certain UTXOs, or unspent transaction outputs from registering for Coinjoin transfers. Adam Ficsor was the founder and chief creator of Wasabi wallet. told the public: “Blacklisting arrived to Coinjoins. IMO it is a major setback to Bitcoin’s fungibility.”
Meanwhile, the changes Tornado Cash added may be bypassed by not only simply switching to other ether addresses, but also by leveraging the contract without using the Tornado Cash protocol’s 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 repliedAccording to Tornado Cash’s Twitter Statement. “This just affects the website frontend, contract is permissionless.”
Let us know your thoughts on the Tornado Cash team’s Friday statements about the blocking OFAC sanctioned addresses for ethereum. Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
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