Many projects have been created on top of Ethereum. Fans of the project will talk up the fruits of that blockchain if you let them, but having seen the project’s growth firsthand since its inception in Toronto in 2014, I can’t see anything that’s aged well or had a more profound impact on the world than Tornado Cash.
While stablecoins and decentralized exchanges have passed through Ethereum and migrated to chains like Solana and Tron, and the store of value use case has been firmly cornered by bitcoin. Tornado Cash remains a stand-alone wonder of the (otherwise arguably overhyped) smart contracting platform.
Unlike many of the projects imagined in the early days of Ethereum — smart home lock systems, self-driving cars that pay their own bills via ETH and governed via a smart contract — Tornado Cash has actually been implemented and found product-market fit. It serves as a practically immutable monetary VPN, a tool that still functions today even after its developers were arrested: Roman Storm stands trial in the U.S. right now.
In fact, of all the applications that have been launched on Ethereum, Tornado Cash is the one that’s drawn the most hostility from governments throughout the world, while also gathering significant support from its users, fans and even Ethereum critics like myself. Proving not only that Ethereum may indeed be decentralized enough to merit the title, but can actually create disruptive and anti-establishment tools that can defend the fundamental rights of individuals regardless of who or where they are.
You will, no doubt, hear condemnation of the project from establishment mouthpieces; they will say that Tornado Cash is a tool for laundering criminal proceeds and that scammers use it to protect their ill-gotten gains. What you won’t hear from the people taking the stand in the Roman Storm trial is that Tornado Cash is a rare defense of the universal right to privacy for people throughout the world. An ‘institution’ by merit of its immutability, Tornado Cash has the power to safeguard the financial privacy of innocent and law-abiding users who face active harassment by organized cyber crime, rogue authoritarian governments and a rising surveillance-state hydra that ignores constitutional protections to civilian privacy, without punishment.
While Roman Storm might not have an easy future ahead of him as he fends off prosecutors who represent the waning U.S. empire’s overused tariff regime and obsolete financial regulation, the most ironic justice that might be available in the meantime is for the world to learn how to use the Tornado Cash contract.
If you are curious about the Roman Storm case and want to support his defense, follow Frank Corva, who is attending the trial this week and reporting on it live.
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