Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash is an Ethereum-based protocol that allows users to obfuscate their activity. When used correctly it allows users to achieve a certain degree of privacy on blockchains that are typically completely transparent such as Ethereum. Tornado Cash acts as a trustless mixing service, allowing users to deposit funds into a smart contract and later withdraw them anonymously using a zero knowledge proof.[1] This breaks the link between depositor and withdrawer because it is impossible to discern one withdrawer from another without analyzing additional transaction metadata.
Tornado's governance token is called $TORN.
Tornado Cash operated exclusively on the Ethereum blockchain until June 2021.
As of today, Tornado Cash is operating on:
- Ethereum Blockchain: ETH (Ethereum), DAI (Dai), cDAI (Compound Dai), USDC (USD Coin), USDT (Tether) & WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin),
- 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
U.S. Sanctions
On the 8th of August 2022 the U.S. Treasury announced the sanctioning of Tornado Cash,[2] adding more than a dozen Tornado Cash related Ethereum addresses to the OFAC's SDN list.