The U.S. OFAC Backtracks on Unlawful Action Against Tornado Cash But Sanctions Already Set a Terrifying Precedent

As of Sept. 13, the Treasury Department clarified the Tornado Cash sanctions after a huge uproar from around the world, including lawsuits over the illegal actions perpetrated by the U.S. government. According to the "OFAC" FAQs, "interacting with opensource code itself" is not illegal. This interaction is only legal if it does not include prohibited transactions. According to the statement, copying, publishing, and browsing an archived version of the Tornado Cash website are all permitted. "Likewise, U.S. persons would not be prohibited by U.S. sanctions regulations from visiting the Tornado Cash historical website archive on the Internet, nor would they be prohibited from visiting the Tornado Cash website if it becomes active again on the Internet," said the agency.

Maybe there is some hope there for what was one of the most prominent Ethereum mixers. Coinbase filed a lawsuit in response to the sanctions just days ago and the OFAC was obviously reacting to that lawsuit. The OFAC knows it had no legal basis for the sanctions it had imposed.

There is a violation of the First Amendment by the Treasury

According to Coinbase's lawsuit, the sanctions themselves violate the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech. Computer code is speech, according to Bernstein v. the Department of Justice (DOJ), and free speech is protected under the U.S.

Constitution. Therefore, the Treasury Department is effectively restricting speech by sanctioning open-source code.

By sanctioning Ethereumbased smart contracts in August, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was the first government department to blacklist a technology not explicitly associated with a person or company. Individuals and institutions are typically excluded from its list of specially designated nationals.

"We do not object to the Treasury sanctioning bad actors, and we take a strong stance against illegal conduct," Coinbase said in a blog post that Treasury took the unprecedented step of sanctioning an entire technology instead of a specific individual in this case.

Dapp developers, beware.

A sanctioned tool does not guarantee hackers, criminals, and the like will not use it. The smart contract will be used for the nefarious purposes of criminals, sanctions be damned since criminals have no respect for the law. Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer, has been arrested after the North Korean-linked Lazarus Group allegedly laundered $455 million through a smart contract mixer. It was revealed on Aug. 23 that he would spend at least another 90 days in jail. As far as the Dutch investigators are concerned, Pertsev has never been formally charged with any crime. It remains to be seen whether OFAC's clarifications will affect his release - although it appears that opensource code cannot be considered criminal. On the contrary it is the targeting of innocent people by the OFAC that is illegal in itself. Developers have little control over how their software is used, and even less over who uses it.

Privacy is at risk due to shortsighted strategies.

Web3 community members have warned of alarming effects that Pertsev's arrest has already had on developers as a result of his arrest. In the first place, the fact that he was arrested and held without bail set a chilling precedent of government overreach.

In addition, the sanction itself may be overbroad, preventing people with legitimate reasons to use mixers and liquidity pools and jeopardizing their financial privacy and data security. Anyone can access open-source software. Anyone can access the Ethereum blockchain. Despite the fact that the code is still accessible, the U.S. government has done tens of thousands of crypto users a disservice by imposing needless bans. The Tornado Cash is more of a public good than a contraband item and the predominance of users arises from that category.

It is not necessary to say whether sanctioning a piece of code is practical. You are free to fork open source software if it is open source. If that happens OFAC will continually be playing catch-up, trying to sanction newly deployed smart contracts left, right, and center. It's not a realistic strategy, let alone being completely unwarranted as well as being an illegal action.

PROJECT 1

Cookie Sale

cookiesale

cookiesale

cookiesaleio

PROJECT 2

Kodi (KODI)

kodicoin

kodicoinofficial

kodi_coin

Cookie Sale launched in February 2022, and aims to become one of the biggest launchpads for tokens on the BSC. With its sleek design and easy-to-use interface, CookieSale looks to be adaptable and adoptable for developers and a safe environment for investors. CookieSale works side by side with Kodi’s marketing & advertising agency Pitch. This benefits developers and holders of Kodi as well. As a developer, you will be able to use CookieSale as an “A to Z” platform.

From advertising to zhooshing up your “cookie” there will be something that satisfies almost anyone’s tastes. As a Kodi holder, a percentage of the revenue generated through CookieSale will be bought back into Kodi and then airdropped to holders, holding 10 million or more Kodi tokens.

Backed by powerful auditing companies such as Certik, SpyWolf, Brewlabs, Dessert Finance, Contract Checker, and HashEx developers will be able to choose between three pre-audited contracts or create their own and have it audited separately. Other key features include liquidity locking, anti-bot features, custom airdrops, visual cues to aid in identifying safer investments, and more.

One notable feature that stands out amongst other launchpads is that CookieSale will only charge a flat fee for listing. Developers will be able to launch the right way, without the fear of a large sell from the launchpad taking profit.

Kodi’s mission is to create a one-stop-shop IDO platform and provide investors with an interactive Entertainment Network that will keep users engaged, informed, and entertained while investing in the crypto space.

Clear Vision

Kodi`s vision is to create an ecosystem that will be a driver in promoting a safer economic environment for crypto investors to participate in and for developers to grow their projects. Kodi is creating an industry-first Entertainment Network that will become THE place for crypto investors to socialize, have fun, win prizes, and learn about everything crypto. Is there anything more about Kodi? How do you, as an investor benefit? Kodi by itself, is an entertainment project. Kodi plays games. post podcasts, do AMAs, have tournaments, live streams, and play plenty of music. At Kodi there are two subsidiaries. "Pitch" being the in-house advertising agency, which is a one-stop shop, all things content creation, both in crypto and fiat. Branding, websites, commercials, you name it Kodi does it. The Pitch Advertising Agency and CookieSale launchpad. Cookie Sale will work in unison to become the go-to destinations for developers to build their brands and launch their projects With Cookie Sale, you can launch your project from A to Z. Gone are the days of taking your token supply. Kodi simply charges a flat fee, no strings attached.

So how do you benefit as a holder? Well, if you're, a holder of at least ten million KODI you receive BNB, rewards automatically deposited into your wallet. You also can participate in Kodi`s weekly games where you can win, BNB for free. But here's where things get really exciting. Two percent of every transaction goes straight into the Kodi treasury contract. The treasury buys back Kodi tokens, creating an increase in price, and stores them in the treasury. Twenty percent of these tokens are burnt and 80% gets used to top up the staking pools as needed revenue generated through pitch and cookie sale also gets added to the treasury contract. This creates the everincreasing price floor, whilst also removing tokens from circulation. Go say hi on their telegram community, or check out their website at Kodicoin.com.

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