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Comment by zeroclip | Hacker News Reader

Seems about right. More users would use Tornado Cash if regulation was clear and allowed it. Zcash and Monero lack smart contracts which limits their use cases.

ZK based privacy was possible and working fine for many users through TC before the sanctions. Now it is risky as you may end up with locked funds or in jail for seeking privacy.

Edit: Should also mention Aztec and Aleo. These are working currently but in the same position that TC was before its sanctions. Hard to know what regulators will do as these tools allow for absolute privacy which is antithetical to the US government’s goals.

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> More users would use Tornado Cash if regulation was clear and allowed it

This is simply not going to happen in the current anti-money-laundering environment. The US made Switzerland give up hiding money, they're not going to let some random geeks make trillions of dollars vanish.

>they're not going to let some random geeks make trillions of dollars vanish.

i've heard this sentiment conveyed in the crypto space since 2011... still waiting on this prophecy to come true.

Due to incompetence, profit motive or traitors to their country, who can tell the difference? (Paraphrasing Robespierre here)

In what way has this not come true? It isn’t random geeks getting rich off of crypto anymore it’s institutions

well... these institutions are a bunch of random geeks? Have you ever been to any of the crypto hackathons? From Jump Capital, to Parity It's a bunch of geeks who where obssesed with flipping on the grand exchange in runescape, got into crypto and are now adept at Rust, flipping bots and essoteric coding concepts like "Ownership".

The blockchain does pose new questions about digital privacy rights. Cryptography that privatizes transactional flow of USDC tokens is indistinguishable from the same cryptography that privatizes transactional flow of digital assets.

Want to purchase an ENS name without corporations and the US government having clear knowledge of it? Too bad, the US government will not allow that. The privacy that we enjoy wish cash purchases will erode as we continue down the path of stripping away privacy in digital transactional systems.

Didn't US and FATF pressure other nations into giving up 'hiding money' through threats to cut them off from the US or partner financial systems? What happens if some coin and its developers have no interest in being connected to the US financial system -- it seems like then there would be limited ability to influence them and off/on ramps would still exist through criminal networks (and the mere presence of an on/off ramp lends USD/"X" pair value, even if the person using "X" doesn't use the ramp).

how would funds be locked

Many who had USDC on TC pools have had their assets frozen. Others might have a hard time sending or receiving these assets to typical US-based services because they will be hesitant to touch anything that has been through TC.

USDC has a block list in the smart contract. Other possibilities include validator block lists, and of course exchanges.

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