Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a letter supporting Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, who faces up to five years in prison.
In August, a jury in the U.S. found the co-founder of the crypto mixer guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business. However, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on charges of money laundering and sanctions violations.
Storm stated that authorities have criminalized coding in his case, equating privacy tools with money laundering.
“But we know the truth: the right to privacy is a human right. Mathematics is not a crime. The fight for my freedom—and for the future of open-source software—is at a critically important moment. I need your voice to show the world that this community is united,” he wrote.
Buterin responded to his call, emphasizing that as a staunch advocate for privacy, he has supported Storm's work from the beginning. He positioned privacy tools like Tornado Cash as essential safeguards against the misuse of personal data by government entities and private corporations.
The expert firmly rejected the stance of those who believe that governments or intelligence agencies should have complete access to citizens' confidential information for public safety. According to Buterin, such databases are regularly hacked or their contents are simply sold.
He also noted that he personally used Tornado Cash for anonymous transactions when purchasing software, making charitable donations, and in various other instances.
Buterin described Storm as a "principled and resilient developer" defending the fundamental human right to privacy. He pointed out that the applications created by the programmer remain functional years after he stopped working on them.
“Roman, like me, wants to see a world where the fundamental guarantees of our rights, which were an undeniable standard in the last millennium, remain with us in the next. And that’s why I support him,” Buterin concluded.
It is worth noting that Storm's lawyers intend to file a motion to declare the trial against him invalid.