jonathan(love)wu Profile picture
Sep 13, 2022 14 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Are you going to jail for interacting with Tornado Cash?

Well, today we find out!

I read US Treasury's OFAC office Tornado Cash FAQ's so you don't have to:

(Note: I'm not a lawyer 🤠)
On getting money out of Tornado Cash:

You can do it!

...if you apply for an individual withdrawal license which includes furnishing provenance for your funds:

home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/… Image
On getting "dusted" by Tornado Cash-tarnished funds:

Technically you are still liable! And you still have to report all blocked funds to OFAC.

...but they won't delay processing your report of blocked property. Image
On using Tornado Cash at all:

No, absolutely not, nein, nyet, non. Image
On the mere mention of (whispers) *Tornado Cash* being a punishable thought crime:

It's not a thought crime!

You can:
- copy the code
- discuss it
- show it to others
- include it in written text Image
And...that's it.

What of course OFAC fails to address here is the sanctity of deployed Ethereum code as speech.
In other words, if I deploy credibly neutral technology that ends up being used by adversaries of the United States, OFAC is saying by omission that they can still levy sanctions.
Before you get mega upset, it's worth noting that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has a very specific purpose and mission:

To serve America's national security and foreign policy interests.

It's an intelligence agency, not a regulator.
In other words, OFAC doesn't know or need to know about Ethereum, consumer privacy, immutable contracts.

That's not its mandate.

It knows:

North Korea bad.

Tornado Cash seem help North Korea.

Tornado Cash bad.

Me do sanction.
It's sort of like the CIA seeing that North Korea used Tornado Cash, except instead of sending SEAL Team 6 to execute an extralegal assassination of the devs, it used its mandate to freeze assets in place.
So don't get it twisted:

OFAC is only here a regulator in the Warren G sense of the word--by depriving foreign adversaries of access to U.S. (and U.S. citizens') assets.

The history of OFAC as an intelligence agency is actually fascinating, but that's for another thread.
For the full list of Tornado Cash FAQ's see here:

home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/…
Follow me for more news to help relax your pucker and take you from 😖 to 😌

@jonwu_
this thread is for sure getting suppressed, he said to no one in particular

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More from @jonwu_

Aug 5
It seems unintuitive that a small 25 basis point interest rate hike in Japan would spike all risk assets, including tonight's -20% $ETH candle.

But you need to understand the way the carry trade works:

It's a leveraged unwinding.
The quick explanation of the carry trade is borrow at 0 rate and invest in something with higher than 0 expected returns:

1. borrow Yen for nothing
2. buy an asset outside Japan that yields more than nothing
3. ???
4. profit
The same behavior happened during the ZIRP era.

Take a margin loan out against your equities at a 2% variable rate and buy an AirBnB with it that yields 7%.

7% - 2% = 5% of free money, right?! ...right? Image
Read 18 tweets
May 9
Making an announcement soon? Don't hire a PR agency.

Definitely not through Series A, and maybe not ever.

You can execute PR internally with a junior resource without having to pay a $50K / month retainer.

Here are the basics in <5 minutes (bookmark this):
First, I take it when we're talking about public relations, we mean just the part that means "relationships with journalists" and not marketing or social media or "comms."

So to understand PR, you have to understand journalism and what makes something newsworthy.
Journalists are typically underpaid and overworked.

They enter the business for noble reasons (truth seeking, justice, accountability) but are constantly pushed to act against those ideals in order to drive ratings and views.
Read 19 tweets
Apr 9
Switching into crypto is one of the most asymmetric things you can do for your career.

Why? There's a low-status moat around it.

Cross the moat and you'll experience less competition, more career acceleration, and highly asymmetric opportunities:
I'll start with a story about low-status moats:

When I was in business school I attended an annual real estate conference.

Investors and developers would come and give advice on breaking into real estate development or real estate private equity.
Every year they'd answer the same two questions:

1) "Where do you think we are in the real estate cycle?"
2) "What advice would you give students trying to break into the industry?"
Read 19 tweets
Mar 22
Hearing from a few teams who are scrambling to get a marketing strategy in place before we go parabolic.

You're fine. If you're struggling with narrative and positioning here's what to do in the next 30 days.

Plus 1 thing you absolutely should NOT do:
1) Founders: start tweeting every single weekday.

Four single posts, one long post.

No excuses. Drop whatever it is you're doing, stare at the screen, get it done. Marketing leaders: literally sit next to your CEO and encourage them.

Pat them on the head. Give them treats.
An A++ personal feed should look varied, with some mix of:
- explainers
- insights / "takes"
- shilling your project
- media (video, pictures)
- retweets of your partners & ecosystem

If you are just doing 1 content vertical, challenge yourself to vary it up. Do one type a day.
Read 15 tweets
Mar 13
I've talked to 50+ crypto projects in the last 10 days looking to hire a CMO or Head of Marketing.

They're not going to have an easy time.

Here's why hiring an all-star marketing leader won't fix your problems:
Before we even get to what a CMO does, let's talk about how hard they are to find.

The head of talent for a leading crypto VC estimates the total # of "true" CMO candidates in crypto at 10-15.

Already, your odds are not good:

Hundreds of projects looking to hire 10-15 people.
And if you're lucky enough to find a "true" CMO, their comp can easily be in the 7-figure range.

- $250K++ cash
- 50-100bps of equity at Series A/B

Read 16 tweets
Feb 16
I saw a headline that went unnoticed yesterday:

"White House confirms US has intelligence on Russian anti-satellite capability"

Here's what would happen if an adversary took out America's global positioning system:

(+ why you should have 30 days of supplies)
People are sleeping on the threat of anti-satellite weapons.

Even the White House downplayed the threat.

Spokesman John Kirby said it was "troubling," but claimed no immediate threat and that anti-satellite weapons couldn't cause physical destruction on Earth's surface.
So why then are anti-satellite weapons so "troubling?"

Because destroying GPS--a constellation of 31 satellites owned and operated by the US government--would send us back to the stone ages.
Read 25 tweets

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