Crypto Fans Launch Campaign for Arrested Tornado Cash Developer

The initiative claims that the arrest of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev threatens to “kill the entire open source software segment.”

Free Tornado Cash Developer Crypto Promotions

A petition to free open source developer Alexey Pertsev has crossed 2,000 signatures.

The supporters of Alexey Pertsev, the largest contributor to Tornado Cash’s open source code, have collected 2,070 signatures on a petition to free him as part of a campaign to raise awareness of his recent arrest and its potential impact on the future of open source . software. The Dutch Tax Information and Investigation Service sparked outrage in the crypto community after arresting Pertsev in Amsterdam on August 10 – two days after the US Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash – on suspicion of “involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering”.

Despite the considerable outcry from the global crypto and open source communities, Dutch authorities have yet to disclose the laws Pertsev allegedly broke. According to a statement shared of crypto policy and the advocacy group DeFi Education Fund, the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service believes that Tornado Cash was created solely for money laundering. “Regarding the concerns, developing a tool is not prohibited, but if a tool is created for the purpose of committing criminal acts, for example to hide criminal money flows, it may be a criminal offense to put online/make available a developed tool”, told agency DeFi Education Fund in an email response.

On the other hand, crypto advocates argue that publishing open source code should not be criminalized, and that Tornado Cash is an open source technology primarily designed for legitimate use cases such as on-chain privacy. According to the Change.org petition set up to raise awareness of Pertsev’s arrest, he is being held in custody for creating open source code that no one can control after being distributed on the Ethereum blockchain. “The allegations against Alex threaten to kill the entire open source software segment,” the petition claims. “No one will dare to write and publish open source code, no one will invest in the segment if they can become responsible for the use of the tool they have created by other parties.”

Protesters gather in Amsterdam

In an effort to support Pertsev and raise awareness of his case in the mainstream media, around 50 people gathered to protest his arrest in Dam Square in the Dutch capital on 20 August. In addition, some of the crypto industry’s most influential figures have voiced their support for Pertsev on Twitter, urging their followers to sign the petition and donate to the cause at Gitcoin platform. Aave founder Stani Kulechov comments on the incident so that arresting someone for writing privacy-preserving code was “out of line.” He added that the case “makes every privacy/encryption developer a target,” before arguing that the Internet would be an unsafe place without encryption.

Right now in #Amsterdam city… #FreeAlex pic.twitter.com/7xu2wqHxIE

— Sergej Kunz (@deacix) 20 August 2022

According to the campaign website, Pertsev has not been charged with any crime and is currently under arrest only on suspicion of committing an offence. Under Dutch rules, he can be held in prison for up to 110 without charge.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.