Tornado Cash IPFS, Proxy & Mirror List

How Does Tornado Cash work?

While there are many mixers out there that allow for anonymous cryptocurrency transfers, most of them are centralized services that can take advantage of users by stealing their money or personal information.

Tornado Cash's protocol is created with the base value of decentralization in mind. What this means is that it runs off of a set of smart contracts which users can interact with using Web3 wallets. These contracts accept deposits and store them in a singular pool by utilizing zk-SNARK technology. This makes transactions possible without revealing any details about the payments, and therefore assets are anonymized without being able to link back to one specific owner.

Zero-knowledge proofs are a cryptographic method of proving something is known without revealing the information. They enable private exchanges by allowing one party to prove they know a secret, without ever sharing the actual secret. The proof simply demonstrates that the individual is being truthful about what they know.

From the user's perspective, the process is easy: they send a cryptocurrency from one address to a smart contract. From there, it goes to another unrelated address. Once the funds are transferred, a private note is generated that functions as a key for withdrawing funds to yet another address.

The protocol uses anonymous pools for six assets: ETH, DAI, cDAI, USDC, USDT and WBTC. Some pools with low liquidity did not charge the 0.3% commission on transfer amounts. Tornado Cash not only offers Ethereum users the opportunity to save on transaction fees, but also provides this same service for those altcoin and layer 2 scalability solution users.

• Binance Smart Chain: BNB (Binance Coin)
• Polygon Network: MATIC (Polygon)
• Gnosis Chain (former xDAI Chain): xDAI (xDai)
• Avalanche Mainnet: AVAX (Avalanche)
• Optimism, as a Layer-2 for ETH (Ethereum)
• Arbitrum One, as a Layer-2 ETH (Ethereum)

Who Created Tornado Cash

The brains behind this coin mixing service are Roman Semenov and Roman Storm. Even though Storm holds a degree in Metallurgical Engineering, he shifted his focus to blockchain technology back in 2011. His professional history includes Blockchainlabs.nz, Amazon, PepperSec, and involvement with several DeFi projects like 0x, Aave, Compound, MakerDAO as well as 1inch. He has experience auditing Solidity code and developing smart contracts along with ERC-20 tokens while being employed at the various companies mentioned.

Roman Semenov's accomplishments are indeed numerous. He has a specialization in field theory and quantum statistics from a well-renowned university. Furthermore, he is the co-founder of PepperSec - an organization that works to provide security for various social media platforms. Additionally, he has worked with Viking Studio - a Russian company focused on aiding businesses with social media marketing ventures. Lastly, he also has experience working for RedHelper where his responsibilities included optimizing ecommerce funnels and conversions rates.

The developers of Tornado Cash used the open-source code from Zcash to create another privacy-focused blockchain project. While Zcash is its own privacy coin, Tornado Cash is a service that can be used with any cryptocurrency, which has made it more popular.

Why Do People Use Tornado Cash?

One of the main reasons people use Tornado Cash is because blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrency and records all transactions, is publicly visible. This level of transparency has led to users' assets being traced as they are exchanged and, to some extent, de-anonymized completely- even in digital currencies which are supposed to increase user anonymity.

When central authorities are constantly increasing surveillance, what does that mean for digital assets? Although blockchain makes transactions more anonymous, it doesn't make them completely private. And since exchanges and other custodians have to follow KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Laws, a data leak can help regulators or hackers figure out who is behind a transaction.

Tornado Cash was created to address the blockchain's privacy issue that other privacy solutions, such as Monero and ZCash, were unable to solve. These projects run on their native networks; therefore they can't provideprivacy for transactions occurring on other chains.

What is TORN token and It's use?

The Tornado Cash governance token, TORN, is an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum network. In February 2021, 500,000 TORN tokens were airdropped as part of 5% of its total supply of 10 million. Upon being dropped, the valueof the TORN tokens soared 200% to $436.16. Although it has since leveled off and now rests at around $24.13

TORN's primary focus is on the community and the treasury, which explains why 55% (5.5 million TORN) of tokens are in their hands. This distribution amount is gradually unlocked over a 5-year period. Developers and investors play more of a supporting role while they maintain 30% (3 million TORN) stake in TORN’s total supply--so far though, they've facilitated quite a few transactions worth $7.4 billion across 27,631 users with only 2,547 ETH used.

The TORN control token had three functions: Сollateral for repeaters, Stacking, and Participation in the decentralized organization Tornado Cash DAO. To place your offer in Tornado Cash DAO, you needed to have at least 1000 TORN. Only 1 TORN was enough to vote; each token counts for 1 vote.

The proposals related to adding new pools, changes in remuneration rates, and the distribution of funds from the DAO treasury. Each proposal was on the ballot for five days and required at least 25 thousand votes-tokens to be approved.

The TORN token was worth approximately $30 before August's sanctions. At present, it is nearly$9, having a market capitalization of over $9.63 million USD. TORN's fully diluted market cap is around $87 million USD with just under 1.1 million TORN tokens presently in circulation; the maximum supply of 10 million is locked-in.

What is anonymity Mining?

Anonymity Mining was a unique twist on liquidity mining because it allowed users to deposit any token to Tornado Cash without having their pool deposits be visible. This privacy angle made anonymity mining very popular among users.

The points are transferred to a special account that shields deposit balance and wallet address info from public view. When a certain number of points is reached, the user can convert them into TORN tokens.

U.S Sanctions on Tornado Cash

On August 7, 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash for its lack of effective controls to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors on a regular basis.

The Office of Foreign Asset Control, a branch of the US Treasury that enforces sanctions, has announced that Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency protocol accused of laundering over $7 billion since 2019, is now under investigation. According to the Treasury, Tornado Cash has laundered over $7 billion worth of crypto since it was launched in 2019. However, a report from Elliptic, a cryptocurrency analyst firm , claimed that only $1.5 billion in funds obtained illegally through ransomware,. hacks and fraud had been laundered via the protocol

The findings from Elliptic differ from the Treasury report, with the $7 billion mentioned by the Treasury supposedly representing the total amount of cryptocurrency that Tornado Cash has handled. This would mean legitimate users who seek financial privacy are included in this number.

The assets laundered, totaling $445 million, were hacked by the Lazarus Group- a well known North Korean hacking entity that is already under U.S. sanctions. This is not the first time the group has been linked to hacks either; other notable hacks include the Ronin Network hack (totaling $625 million) and the Horizon Bridge Hack (comprising $100 million).

Additionally, the Treasury stated that hackers laundered nearly $7.8 million in stolen assets through Tornado Cash in the recent Nomad heist, where attackers took advantage of a severe bug to steal $100 million in cryptocurrencies, including ETH, BNB, USDT, USDC and DAI.

Because of this activity,,the Treasury held Tornado Cash responsible for not implementing proper measures to stop criminals from using it for money laundering activities. They issued a warning that they would continue to sanction coin mixers that help with laundering money.

Amid public outcry, the US Treasury Department finally allowed blocked service users to access funds from their accounts. However, a special permit is required for this process. You can get the permit by giving officials information on the sender and recipient's wallets and transactions, as well as hashes, transfer amounts, date, and time of conduct.

The OFAC clarified that simply interacting with cryptocurrency is not illegal, as long as no illegal transactions are involved. They will continue to block specific addresses associated with illegal activity. In response, the crypto community has urged GitHub to restore the Tornado Cash repositories.

On August 12, developers Alexey Pertsev was arrested in Amsterdam for being suspected of money laundering through the usage of Tornado Cash. However, on August 20th, a rally was held by participants who demanded Pertsev’s release. They said that his arrest sets a dangerous precedent because it opens up the floodgates to bring open source software developers to justice even if their products aren't actually used for criminal activities.

The judge dismissed the appeal later on. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Pertsev, who was born in Russia, has already been in custody for more than seven weeks after being arrested in Amsterdam Aug. 10; this came two days after the U.S government adding Tornado Cash's 44 associated Ethereum wallets and USDC wallet to its Specially Designated Nationals list.

According to the U.S. Treasury, crypto mixing services- which allow for obscured transactions- have "repeatedly failed" in stopping funds from being laundered by malicious cyber actors.

Sanctions Impact on Crypto Community

This ban could be a turning point for digital assets in many ways. First, it demonstrates how the US government is willing to regulate cryptocurrency as it nears mass adoption.tornado cash proponents feel thatthe sanctions were imposed against a piece of code instead of an organization – Tornado isn't an incorporated company but a DAO run by smart contracts.

Not only does this ban indicate the US government's preference for centralized systems over decentralized ones, but it also makes clear that they want to regulate cryptocurrency more. For example, terms and conditions on the Coinbase exchange state that each user must verify their cryptocurrency address. Therefore, projects that have complied with KYC and AML rules are less likely to experience problems from these sanctions.

Many cryptocurrency users are left with difficult decisions to make as they wait for governments to establish firm regulatory guidelines. For example, how far are they willing to lower their values in order to achieve mass adoption? Are they going to cooperate or defy regulators?

Most crypto enthusiasts were surprised and offended by the Treasury's recent ban on Tornado Protocol and other privacy solutions. These bans go against Americans' right to use privacy solutions for both legal and genuine reasons.

How to use Tornado Cash Safely and Anonymously

Avoid Transaction Correlations

While outsiders cannot verify which withdrawal is from which deposit, they can make an estimation. For example:

If a deposit and withdrawal are close together, it is highly probable that they come from the same account. We suggest waiting until several deposits are made after yours before withdrawing the note.

If there is a group of deposits from one address, followed by withdrawals of an equal amount to another address, then there is a good chance they are connected.

If you must make multiple withdrawals, space them out and withdraw to addresses that aren't linked. Also, after you deposit, wait until some time has passed. Even if there are other deposits after yours they might all be from the same person trying to spam deposits and deceive users into falsely believing there is a large anonymity set when it's actually lower (this is called a Sybil attack). We recommend waiting at least 24 -48 hours to ensure that depositors during that time were numerous. Check the instance statistics before using it.

Spreading out your deposits and withdrawals throughout the day--rather than just during business hours--may help you maintain more anonymity.

The anonymity set is the total number of deposits that have been made to a given instance of Tornado.cash. However, this number can be lower in practice due to various factors that are hard to formalize off-chain. For example, someone might make a Twitter post about their private transaction, which would then exclude it from the anonymity set.Similarly In all other circumstances where a user reveals their identity, their deposit does not provide any anonymity. Therefore, it is beneficial for you and all users of Tornado.cash to keep the amount you deposited private, as well as the dates and times (specifically withdrawals).

A good rule of thumb is to mingle with the crowd in order to avoid any correlations that may suggest your deposits and withdrawals are linked.

Protection from Network-level Identification

As it stands, we are only able to address the privacy concerns that come with on-chain data. However, improved network-level privacy is something users must take care of themselves.

Because your IP address can be accessed by many parties, like your ISP or any router between you and the server, it is considered public information. These entities could log when you send packets to Relayer and compare those timestamps to withdrawal transaction timestamps. To avoid this snooping, use a VPN or Tor browser during withdrawals.

The note includes information that can be used to show the connection between your deposit and withdrawal. If you would like to give someone else permission to review your transactions, you should save the note data which will act as a viewing key, but only once it is spent.

Before using a new address for dApps, be sure to clear the cookies associated with your old address. If a dApp sees both addresses with the same cookies, it will know that they are from the same owner. A good way to do this is by using a new identity (browser, wallet, IP) for your new funds.

If you use a public RPC for all your wallet interactions, the service might be able to tell that your addresses are linked. For example, this could happen if you use the same IP address or API token for different identities. Note that Metamask will automatically use the same API token for all requests made from within the extension.

Consider Using Private RPC Nodes

Using a Private Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for all your wallet interactions is considered to be a more secure and private option compared to using a public RPC. In this article, we'll go over the benefits of using a private RPC and why it's recommended for those concerned with the security and privacy of their cryptocurrency transactions.

Increased Privacy: You know what they say, "privacy is key". And you wouldn't want your crypto transactions to become the talk of the town now, would you? By using a private RPC, your transactions will remain between you and your wallet. No need to worry about the service snooping on your spending habits or crypto portfolio.

Improved Security: Using a private RPC is like having a personal bodyguard for your crypto transactions. You have control over your own data, reducing the risk of it being accessed or compromised. Bye-bye, hackers!

Reduced Centralization: Who needs a middleman when you can handle your own transactions? By using a private RPC, you won't have to rely on the service to handle your sensitive information. You're the boss, baby!

More Control Over Your Transactions: The beauty of using a private RPC is that you have control over your own transactions. No need to worry about the service tracking your moves or connecting the dots between your different addresses. You're in the driver's seat!

Supports Decentralized Applications: Decentralized applications are all about being secure and private. And using a private RPC can help support that. Your transactions and data will remain private, keeping the decentralized spirit of dApps alive!

In conclusion, using a private RPC for all your wallet interactions is the way to go if you want to keep your crypto transactions secure and private. Don't let anyone else control your crypto game, be the captain of your own ship!

Although it might be more convenient for some users to ignore a few of those points, doing so comes at the cost of privacy. When everyone can see the full history of transactions on a block explorer like Etherscan, dapps or RPC nodes that have the ability to track transactions will know much more about their user's behavior.