Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson says the US government banning Tornado Cash sets a dangerous regulatory precedent.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department banned Americans from using the cryptocurrency mixing service, citing national security concerns as the agency says the protocol was used to launder crypto assets worth of $ 7 billion from 2019.
In a new video update, Hoskinson tells his 315,000 YouTube subscribers that sanctioning the code for being misused could be a violation of free speech.
“The protocol in the understanding of developers that we have as developers is that when we write code, it is an expression. As long as we’re not involved in running and using that code for purposes, we’re just writing it, it’s like writing a book.
So, for example, you could write a book that says “This is how cyanide is made” [or] “This is how a bomb is built,” these kinds of things and, for the most part, they are just words. You’re not telling people to go do it.
Now, in a free society, we generally allow people to do these kinds of things, and it’s deeply uncomfortable when they start saying no. “
Hoskinson adds that regulators are exaggerating by sanctioning Tornado Cash since its developer never participated in its use or told others how to use it.
“Basically, they are claiming that software developers are responsible for how their software is used regardless of whether they can control it or not, which is an extremely dangerous precedent.
For example, if you want to go very far, the Linux kernel developers are creating the kernel of an operating system. North Korea could take that kernel, build a proprietary operating system, and use it as an ICBM (ICBM) operating system.
So hypothetically, you could say that Linux kernel maintainers are contributing to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. You could say it if you wanted to.
So obviously that’s absurd. But the problem is the same legal framework that would allow you to infer the blame to the Tornado Cash developer if they weren’t involved in the use and operation of the system, they just wrote the code, technically it could be used that way.
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