Thread by @skywinder

@alex_pertsev was arrested at the beginning of August.
1/ A thread explaining the case and what it could do to the open source software development space ⬇
#freealex #OpeSourceNotACrime

There are no official charges, but the gist of the interrogation was:
"You wrote the code, made the most commits, so you're the organizer of the entire Tornado, so you laundered money."

2/ Developer Alex Pertsev lives and works in the Netherlands in the blockchain and info sec area.
He helped write the open-source code for @TornadoCash. He did that alongside other developers.

3/ Open-source code means its creators have no control over how it will be used.
It was the case with Tornado Cash, as well, with one notable nuance: that code was deployed by an unknown community (DAO), through which money was laundered.

Alex wasn't an organizer of this DAO and had NOTHING to do with Tornado Cash operations.

4/ That triggered investigations in the USA and Europe. And it appears that the investigators had no idea how to deal with the situation, no idea how open-source software development works, and just hit a developer with numerous commits and a real name on GitHub.

5/ Alex was detained in early August. No charges have been brought, @FIOD accuses Alex of money laundering and assistance with that. The idea allegedly is: "You wrote the code, made the most commits, so you're the organizer of the entire Tornado, so you laundered money."

6/ A few words about the @TornadoCash project.
On Ethereum, all transactions are public. Sometimes, it is dangerous and insecure. For example, merchants can see what goods are bought by a customer and check the amount of money in their wallet.

Tornado Cash is a service for hiding these traces, it’s essential for people who care about SECURITY.

7/ Tornado Cash is a service for PRIVACY (not laundering) money. But if "dirty" money is deposited to Tornado, and a user intentionally conceals its origins, such transactions could qualify as money laundering.

To PREVENT money laundering charges, Tornado offers an option of proving the origin of money. It was done specifically to facilitate defending AGAINST money laundering accusations.

That is, you can ask the recipient to show the origin of the money.
But Alex is neither the recipient of the laundered money, nor the sender, nor the owner of Tornado. Who sent and received the money is unknown.

Now, moving from the case to why I am scared of a possible precedent.

In this story, personal and public are interwoven. On the one hand, Alex is my friend, I am worried about him, his wife has been unable to visit him for two weeks, and we don't understand what is going on. ↓

On the other hand, this is a major case, and I am afraid that if Alex is found guilty, that will create a precedent that could hit open-source code developers.

I understand that Europe may not have case law (that is based on precedent), but I still think that we shouldn't keep silent about this affair. In any case, investigations are in progress in Europe and in the USA, which does have case law.

Alex' friends and family obtained permission for a protest rally. I will be there, as well as Alex' wife, his friends and a few people from the developers' club.
Some people will come to call for Alex' release, some to protest against persecuting open-source code developers.

How can you support?
- Sign the petition: chng.it/KwGy2w86pd
- Come to Amsterdam on August 20 at 4:00 p.m. at Dam Square.
meetup.com/cryptocanal/ev…
- Telegram group for coordination t.me/+0tKJW0Xoolo3M…

- Website from Alex's support team: setalexfree.nl
- Gitcoin grant to support the movement gitcoin.co/grants/7113/st…

#OpenSourceNotACrime #PrivacyNotACrime #freepertsev
#FreeAlekseyPertsev #FreeAlex