An initiative group advocating the development of open source software will hold a rally in Amsterdam in support of the arrested Tornado Cash developer Alexei Pertsev.
“Stand up for privacy, freedom of speech and open source software!” – under this slogan, on August 20, a rally will be held in Amsterdam in support of the arrested developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer Alexey Pertsev. The initiative group shared their plans for the action on the Meetup page, a social media platform for hosting and organizing events for people and communities with similar interests, hobbies and professions.
“Join us in Amsterdam this Saturday to protest the unwarranted attack on open source software. The arrest last week of Amsterdam-based software developer Alex Pertsev threatens to set a dangerous precedent as all developers could now be prosecuted for misuse of their software.
Proponents of open source software development believe that it has always been a major driver of innovation in the technology sector. Many popular products such as Linux, Mozilla Firefox, and VLC Media Player have been developed as open source software that is not copyrighted and can be used anytime, by anyone, for any purpose.
“In the US and Europe, Alex is accused of creating open source code that was used by Tornado Cash. But everyone knows that the developer has no control over how his open source code will subsequently be used. The accusations against Alex threaten to kill the entire open source segment, as no one else dares to write and publish it. No one will invest in the segment if they can be made responsible for the use of the tool they created by other parties,” the members of the initiative group believe.
Recall that the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC) has added the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer to the sanctions list. Tornado Cash helped launder 74.7% of the total criminal funds on the Ethereum network in 2022, according to SlowMist, an analytics firm. The decision of law enforcement agencies to arrest Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev caused a split in the crypto community.
In addition, the capitalization of the second largest stablecoin USDC decreased by $1.6 billion after the Circle consortium decided to block the addresses of the Tornado Cash service.
Source: Bits
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