Roman Storm’s DeFi Dilemma: Are You Next? 🤔

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Alright, so Roman Storm-this guy’s the developer of Tornado Cash-anybody heard of it? He decides to ask the open-source community, “Hey, are you guys sure the DOJ isn’t gonna come knocking on your door someday?” I mean, what a way to boost confidence, right? 😂

He throws out the question: “How can you be so sure you won’t get charged by the DOJ as a money service business just for building some non-custodial protocol?” Because apparently, in the DOJ’s mind, if it’s decentralized and you didn’t hold their hand, it’s probably a crime. Genius, huh? 🤡

Storm’s thrown in a little disclaimer too, saying, “Our company doesn’t control Tornado Cash. It’s like trying to control the wind-good luck with that!” But, wait – this guy was convicted in August. Convicted! For conspiracy to run an unlicensed money-transmitting operation. The punishment was pretty much a legal slap in the face to open-source crypto devs everywhere. 🥳

The fight for privacy? Still going strong… or is it? 🤷‍♂️

Legal experts are now debating if the DOJ will bother retrying the case or just move on. The jury couldn’t even reach a consensus on the big charges, so they’re just stuck with the “unlicensed money transmitter” misdemeanor. Like, “Eh, close enough?”

Jake Chervinsky-this guy’s a legal eagle-tweeted something along the lines of, “If Trump wants the US to be the crypto capital, the DOJ better stop messing around and retrial on these deadlocked charges. Or what’s the point?”

Meanwhile, Matthew Galeotti, the acting DOJ guy, says, “Relax, we’re not going after Storm again. And we’re not sending crypto devs to jail just for writing code-code without evil intent, that is.” Because apparently, writing code is now a free pass… for now. 🙄

Honestly, it’s a wild ride. The DOJ’s like that neighbor who’s always watching and never quite sure what they’re gonna do next. 🕵️‍♂️

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2025-10-19 00:02