Don’t Forget the Importance of Censorship Resistance

Since people are once again talking about self-custody as one of crypto’s unique strengths, I would like to remind everyone about an equally important fundamental value proposition of crypto that, in the early days, was touted as the killer feature. I’m…

Coin Center Sues US Treasury Over Tornado Cash Ban — Lawsuit Says Government’s Action ‘Was Unlawful’

The non-profit that focuses on policy issues facing cryptocurrencies, Coin Center, has filed a lawsuit against the Treasury department, the secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) director Andrea Gacki. Coin Center’s court filing…

Stablecoin Issuer Tether Won’t Freeze Tornado Cash Addresses, Says Premature Freezing Could Jeopardize Investigations

While the crypto community is still talking about the U.S. government banning the ethereum mixing platform Tornado Cash, the stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited revealed on Wednesday that the company would not “freeze Tornado Cash addresses.” Tether’s recently published blog post…

Ethereum’s Pivot to Proof-of-Stake Consensus Worries Users About the Possibility of Protocol Level Censorship

The upcoming consensus change that Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is planning to execute in September has worried many users about the possibility of censorship happening at a protocol level. This means that, even by interacting directly with…

Uniswap Censors 253 Crypto Addresses Blacklisted for Crime, Sanction Associations

According to a recently published report, the decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap has blocked roughly 253 cryptocurrency addresses allegedly tied to crimes or government sanctions. The information was discovered by the software developer Banteg who analyzed and saved the shared logs from…

Coin Center Says OFAC’s Tornado Cash Ban ‘Exceeds Statutory Authority,’ Plans to ‘Engage’ With US Watchdog

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…

OFAC’s Tornado Cash Ban Causes Github Suspensions and the Blacklisting of Crypto Addresses Holding $437M

On August 8, the ethereum mixing service Tornado Cash, and all the crypto addresses associated with the platform, were officially banned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). Following the ban, the internet hosting service for software…

US Treasury’s OFAC Adds 3 ETH Addresses Linked to North Korean Cybercrime Group to SDN List

The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has added three ethereum addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN). OFAC alleges the ether addresses are controlled by the Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group that is associated with North…

ETH Mixer Tornado Cash Reveals Blocking OFAC Sanctioned Ethereum Addresses via Chainalysis Oracle Contract

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)….

De-Mixing Wasabi Coinjoin Transactions: A Deep Dive Into Chainalysis’ Deanonymizing Claims

On Tuesday, journalist Laura Shin published a story that claims to identify the 2016 Genesis DAO hacker who siphoned 3.6 million ethereum from the decentralized autonomous organization. While the story surprised the crypto community, one of the biggest eye-openers was the…