This is Going to Be Unpopular, but Ethereans Need to Hear It

I deeply disagree with their actions taken by OFAC. Nonetheless, I want to understand why the govt attacked Tornado specifically, while leaving other privacy protocols untouched. The statements and actions by the US govt actually make it quite clear why these Eth addresses were sanctioned and place on the OFAC list …

Tornado Cash is an Eth address where people input personal funds to a shared common pool. Ultimately, they will end up in possession of units of Eth which came from other people. This is a cooperative process. A large amount of funds from hacks/crimes are transparently being sent to that common mixing pool.

From the govts perspective (not my own), this is no different than swapping marked $100 bills with gangsters. Users are choosing to swap their units of Eth, with Eth that came from criminals. This is the primary/critical reasoning by which OFAC sanctioned those Eth addresses.

Critically, this is not a broad generic attack against privacy and anonymity. For example, the govt left Monero untouched, despite the fact that it's larger, offers better privacy/anonymity, and has existed for longer.

Because from the govts perspective, there is a big difference, since Monero is an encryption protocol where your funds are NEVER sent to a common pool, and you can prove that you NEVER end up with anyone else's units of XMR. Monero is functionally very different than a mixer.

For bureaucrats and lawyers, that is a huge distinction. If you think about it … encryption is still legal. VPNs, Tor, and Monero are still legal. The only thing that OFAC sanctioned, were the addresses being used to mix funds together.

I understand why the ETH bros want to portray this as a broad attack against all privacy protocols. But that simply isn't the case. It's only an attack against protocols which require the active mixing of your funds together to a common pool.

I still believe that this is bad for the ecosystem, and Orwellian AF. But I also want to understand the proper context of the govt's attack vector. As Sun Tsu said: "Know your enemy."