Buterin Donates 100 ETH to Tornado Developer’s Defense Fund

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated another 100 ETH [worth  $240,000] to Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s legal aid on Juicebox.  

Background

• Roman Storm has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to violate the International Economic Emergency Powers Act
• Parallelly, he also has charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business pressed against him

Why should you pay attention?

• The developer had filed a motion to dismiss the case against him
• However, towards the end of last month, a US federal court judge ruled that Storm’s case would go to trial
• The judge underlined that she doesn’t think that Tornado Cash was “meaningfully different” from other money-transmitting businesses or financial institutions
• The developer’s trial is slated to begin in New York in December, and is expected to last for a fortnight
• If he is convicted on all three counts, he will face a sentence of up to 45 years in prison

Who said what?

• This is the third time Buterin has donated to the campaign
• Towards the end of May_, Buterin donated 30 ETH, worth roughly around $111k
• The Tornado Cash developers have been expanding their legal teams, and in turn, have been seeking funding
• So far, over 148 different payments have been received for Storm’s defense fund — summing up to 327 ETH [worth $785,000]
• Acknowledging Buterin's donation, Storm said:

Zooming out

• There is no precedent per se for the developers’ cases
• Their outcome would prove to be game-changing for the blockchain industry, and thus, every dollar donated matters