Dutch court convicts engineer to 5 years for maintaining crypto mixer Tornado Cash

2 years ago by grandma to c/privacy

On Tuesday a Dutch court sentenced the programmer Alexey Pertsev to five years in prison. The court found him guilty of money laundering because the "Tornado Cash" software he developed enables criminals to carry out completely anonymous and untraceable crypto transactions (so-called "crypto mixer")
Metz 133 points 2 years ago

the court accused him of an “ideology of maximum privacy.”

In what twisted fucked up crazy world is that a bad thing?

I hate this timeline..

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Akasazh 4 points 2 years ago

If you read the verdict it says: maximum privacy combined with optimal obfuscation techniques. This implies that the sole role of the software is money laundering. The striving for privacy itself is not in question.

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possiblylinux127 18 points 2 years ago

Free software can be used for what every you want to use it for.

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XTL 6 points 2 years ago path: 0 10094800 10102871 10107808 10110602, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 6
uis 2 points 2 years ago

That dot became part of url

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Akasazh 2 points 2 years ago

I do not disturb that in any way, just clarified the verdict from Dutch

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Gigasser 3 points 2 years ago

If you guys do want to get into crypto to buy certain....things, though if ill advise it, I'd recommend Monero not stuff like Bitcoin.

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ced225be4a26 107 points 2 years ago

The same logic should apply to manufacturers whose products are used in committing a crime...

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SupraMario 4 points 2 years ago

Uhh really hope that's sarcasm...

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SpaceNoodle 15 points 2 years ago

I dunno. If you manufacture tools designed specifically for killing, for example, you've definitely played a part in somebody's use of your tools for killing.

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delirious_owl -1 points 2 years ago

I can't think of many examples. Maybe electric chairs and guillotines.

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Lemongrab 9 points 2 years ago

Military weapons, which should be banned lol.

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SpaceNoodle 8 points 2 years ago

You've never heard of guns?

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ced225be4a26 0 points 2 years ago

You hoped right.

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SupraMario -1 points 2 years ago

Well apparently the rest of the people here didn't get the memo

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JayDee 3 points 2 years ago

That logic they're using should be burned with fire.

With that logic, cars being highjacked for a crime should make the company liable for the crime (Revolutionary actions would also count as crimes). That gives car manufacturers alot more legal reason for adding kill switches to their vehicles' engines, which would most likely be used by cops for whatever the fuck they want.

How about DJI's drones being used to kill individuals in Ukraine? Steam decks are currently also being used by Ukraine to control machine gun turrets remotely, and they're able to be used that way explicitly because they use regular OS's (a major boon to its users.)

This type of regulation would only further lead to anti-consumer products, and a stronger police state.

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Vendetta9076 85 points 2 years ago

By this logic DARPA should be put on trial for creating TOR

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golden_zealot 45 points 2 years ago

By this logic every locksmith should be put on trial for making locks, every manufacturer of vaults and safes, every lumber company for making wood used in fences, every costume designer for making halloween masks, every post office for renting PO boxes... etc.

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interdimensionalmeme 7 points 2 years ago

Evil privacy maximalists !

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delirious_owl 6 points 2 years ago

Dont give them any ideas.

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uis 1 point 2 years ago

Too late

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possiblylinux127 6 points 2 years ago

That would be the story if a lifetime

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myself 4 points 2 years ago

please don't jinx it :(

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uis 2 points 2 years ago

Oh... We are in THAT timeline.

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refalo 3 points 2 years ago

what about computers and the internet? those were created and used for bad too. also gps and weather satellites.

fun fact: the first digital computer was invented for the explicit purpose of calculating artillery firing tables for the army during the war. what it actually ended up getting used for on its first program, was studying global thermonuclear war.

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onlinepersona 80 points 2 years ago

Looks like development of such things will have to start happening on the dark web. What a ridiculous conviction.

In its judgement, the court accused him of an “ideology of maximum privacy.”

What the fuck is this kind of reasoning? Is privacy illegal now?

Anti Commercial-AI license

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interdimensionalmeme 27 points 2 years ago

Oops I'm a privacy maximalist now, I didn't even know. Time to privacymaxx this removed up !!

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jonne 6 points 2 years ago

Damn, even your slurs get maximum privacy.

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interdimensionalmeme 6 points 2 years ago

I can't say removed ?? That's removed removed !!!

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refalo 2 points 2 years ago

Just wait until th

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Crack0n7uesday 4 points 2 years ago

Some famous ex felon and computer hacker named Kevin Mitnick wrote some books about privacy maxing, you might want to read a few of them. I guess he's still a felon, he just served his sentence and is no longer in prison. He did legit steal some people's identity and commit wire fraud.

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elltee 1 point 2 years ago

Not a felon anymore. He died.

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refalo 1 point 2 years ago

privlets don't stand a chance

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possiblylinux127 3 points 2 years ago

Privacy maximums end up in supermax

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CaptainSpaceman 56 points 2 years ago

Absolutely disgusting. Privacy is a right!

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uriel238 44 points 2 years ago

Due to its mode of operation, the court considered the software to be “specifically intended for criminals”

Crime is an action a state doesn't like, not necessarily wrong or evil, but serves interests other than the state. If the state has to authorize everything, then the state is favoring dominance over governance.

When the state has to monitor all transactions it is tyranny.

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Telodzrum 9 points 2 years ago
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jonne 16 points 2 years ago

That's really only in theory. I don't think there's any country where the government does what the polis wants in every instance.

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mukt 11 points 2 years ago

For an entity hat already has monopoly over violence, how difficult is it to claim monopoly over the collective will?

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bl_r 7 points 2 years ago

Collective will is just the myth that is used to legitimize the state

The state is also so much more than the will of the governed. To say that it is all there is to it would consider governments like those governed by the divine right of kings fo be stateless. Stalin’s Russia, or Kim Jong Un’s DPRK would then be stateless.

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Telodzrum -4 points 2 years ago
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C126 -1 points 2 years ago

What a fantasy world you live in. Must be nice. In truth, the state is a gang of thugs and parasites. Has nothing to do with the collective will of the people, a concept which doesn't exist in reality.

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MonkderDritte 36 points 2 years ago

So they throw vendors of knives in jail too?

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delirious_owl 5 points 2 years ago

How is that a privacy tool?

I think you meant vendors of safes.

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possiblylinux127 3 points 2 years ago

Same idea

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uis 1 point 2 years ago

And vendors of locks.

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uis 3 points 2 years ago

No, but they throw vendors of screwdrivers in jail too.

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possiblylinux127 0 points 2 years ago
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ricdeh 35 points 2 years ago

Hopefully, not all is lost. He has appealed and hopefully a greater authority will overturn this ruling.

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mr_satan 6 points 2 years ago

Where could I follow up on this story?

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delirious_owl 9 points 2 years ago path: 0 10095091 10095560 10096333, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
sem 33 points 2 years ago

That is absolutely crazy. I wish the strength to go through that for Alexey Pertsev!

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uis 18 points 2 years ago
  1. Dutch court convicts engieneer, not Dutch engieneer gets convicted.
  2. I wouldn't be surprised if Dutch court wants to say that he should have stayed in Russia and supported Putin's war.
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kn98 8 points 2 years ago

Dutch court convicts engieneer, not Dutch engieneer gets convicted.

Honest question, what do you mean by this? What’s the difference really?

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uis 13 points 2 years ago

Citizenship.

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kn98 5 points 2 years ago

I see, thanks.

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uis -1 points 2 years ago

Sure.

Here's your I seeal.

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grandma 4 points 2 years ago

Updated, my bad.

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rymdlord 16 points 2 years ago

Thank fuck for the PirateParty!🏴‍☠️

Anti Commercial AI thingy

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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alexdeathway 5 points 2 years ago

About the licence, how are you going to prove that your data was indeed used in training a Model ?

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Crozekiel 19 points 2 years ago

My best guess for the hopeful outcome is the ai starts tacking on the license magic words at the end of things it says... But ultimately it feels like a digital version of sovereign citizens to me.

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bilb 3 points 2 years ago

I see it as a social signifier more than anything else.

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refalo 6 points 2 years ago

It's not enforceable in any way, it's just virtue signaling. Lemmy itself is a privacy dumpsterfire. GDPR compliance is literally impossible.

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bartolomeo 3 points 2 years ago

This is a good question but I would just like to point out that 15 years ago nobody would have predicted that the questions we were asking and answering on stackoverflow would be used to train models (and that open source would have it's license violated so brazenly) and that if you tried to delete your contributions because you didn't want them to be used to train models you would get banned from the site, so even though adding a license to your comments might be meaningless, it might also be a powerful tool down the line. You never know how it'll go.

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MHLoppy 3 points 2 years ago

SO comments are already CC-BY licensed (granted not -NC licensed, but still), but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

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rymdlord 3 points 2 years ago

How would I prove it? I don't know. Do I think it will work? Probably not. But if I have the license someone might find it when a LLM accidentally reveals that it was trained with data that is under that license, and maybe the EU does something about it. Maybe the Pirate party will make the EU do something about it? Who knows? But they are the only ones I see that are actively trying to protect all of us an our right to privacy, and for that they have my vote! 🏴‍☠️🇪🇺

Anti Commercial AI thingy

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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Serinus 12 points 2 years ago

This happens with cash too. If you take in a bunch of cash, you have a duty to know what it's from so that you're not facilitating terrorism or crime or subverting sanctions. In fact, of you handle cash or finance, you generally have to take training on these laws every year.

This thing is the definition of money laundering and was known for exactly those problems.

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grandma 34 points 2 years ago

There are reasons to use this service that are completely legal. They should sentence the people laundering money, not the people providing privacy tools that happen to be misused.

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delirious_owl 8 points 2 years ago

There's no reason people using tornado wouldn't have to disclose their sources to the authorities, same as cash.

But it does protect them from malicious actors.

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Serinus -2 points 2 years ago

I don't think you understand. Banks (or anyone who accepts large amounts of money) has a duty to have some idea of where that money comes from. There are anti money laundering laws.

Go open a bank account right now and try to deposit a briefcase full of $50,000 in cash and see what happens. You might, maybe be able to do it, but there will absolutely be questions.

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mister_monster 5 points 2 years ago

We know what the rules are dude, we are saying they're wrong.

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uis 3 points 2 years ago

I think it will go to my quotes collection. "We know what the rules are, we are saying they're wrong".

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delirious_owl 4 points 2 years ago

That doesn't apply to small amounts below $10k

But, again, the same applies. I deposit btc or cash into a bank, even $50k, then I disclose its source to the authorities, with the paperwork. But by using a privacy service, I can comply with the law and protect myself from malicious actors

Go open a bank account right now and try to deposit a briefcase full of $50,000

I've done this. They ask you for the paperwork documenting the source of the funds. Just follow the process. It doesn't matter if its fiat or crypto.

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shortwavesurfer 5 points 2 years ago

But in essence, they are punishing this guy for writing code. And at least in the United States, code is considered speech. And this is a very bad precedent. I know that this is a Dutch court, but still that is not a good thing.

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Serinus 4 points 2 years ago

He can write the code. He can release the source. Nothing is illegal until he takes currency.

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shortwavesurfer 6 points 2 years ago

And see, there's where the problem comes in. He never actually took the currency from the smart contract itself. In fact, it is still online and being used as of this day. And he is getting none of the currency just like he got none of the currency before. What they are going after him for is creating a front-end user interface to access the contract. I believe they did take a fee from that user interface since it made it simpler than interacting with the contract directly. The problem is that they are saying that by taking fees from that user interface, he is money laundering, but not everybody who used that user interface was using it for money laundering. A famous example is the creator of Ethereum used it to donate to Ukraine.

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Serinus 2 points 2 years ago

a screenshot of a text message conversation. The text messages are from an encrypted app conversation between Roman Semenov, the defendant, Roman Storm, and CC-1.

He's taking a fee in order to launder your money.

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uis 4 points 2 years ago

It's continental system. Precedents don't have as much power as in English system. And Netherlands are in ECHR jurisdiction, so it's likely to be overturned found contradicting European Convention on Human Rights.

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mister_monster 3 points 2 years ago

Yes, we agree. It's still a bunch of bullshit.

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Scolding0513 7 points 2 years ago

money laundering is a big bad no-no word that THEY have stigmatized (conditional brainwashing) in order to get every day people to SUPPORT their regime of THEFT and CONTROL.

"You are trying to keep your money to yourself and stop us from seeing it so that we can't steal some of it and punish you for using it how you like??? You're a MONEY LAUNDERER. Money laundering Money laundering Money laundering"

When you control money, you control minds, livelihoods, and monopolize fear itself.

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ganymede 7 points 2 years ago

its not the actual money laundering they object to.

it's that they didn't get a cut.

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shortwavesurfer 5 points 2 years ago

I spotted the libertarian in the room, LOL. Although I completely agree, so I'm right with you, brother.

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pedroapero 1 point 2 years ago

Same as CP used against encryption.

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to55 6 points 2 years ago path: 0 10101572, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
delirious_owl 5 points 2 years ago

Wasn't the arrest over a year ago? How much time is left on the sentence?

This is terrible, but 5 years is pretty tolerable. Assange is in locked up for being a journalist and faces life in tortuous conditions.

Also, write your MEP and vote pirate party.

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Alphane_Moon -14 points 2 years ago
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Grumbles 5 points 2 years ago

Please stop with the C.I.A. talking points. Have some self awareness. All of this McCarthy red scare shit is embarrassing.

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uis 2 points 2 years ago

Horseapples. Why I suddenly see a lot of out of touch with reality statements lately?

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