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. 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,[1] adding more than a dozen Tornado Cash related Ethereum addresses to the OFAC's SDN list.