Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This week we dive into the unprecedented Tornado Cash sanctions, including the arrest of a suspected developer. We also spent some time on the fascinating story of two brothers that operated 10+ anon personas to fake a thriving DeFi ecosystem on Solana with the popular Saber protocol.
The Macalinao brothers used a web of bogus identities to create the illusion of a dev community, juicing value on the Saber protocol and Solana blockchain. Now they’re moving to Aptos.
When you deposit your 1 ETH on the contract, you have to provide a “commitment”. This commitment is stored by the smart contract. When you withdraw 1 ETH on the other side, you have to provide a “nullifier” and a zero-knowledge proof. The nullifier is a unique ID that is in connection with the commitment and the ZKP proves the connection, but nobody knows which nullifier is assigned to which commitment (except the owner of the depositor/withdrawal account). - Understanding Zero-Knowledge Proofs Through the Source Code of Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash, which has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019. - Treasury.gov
“Despite public assurances otherwise, Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to impose effective controls designed to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors on a regular basis and without basic measures to address its risks. Treasury will continue to aggressively pursue actions against mixers that launder virtual currency for criminals and those who assist them.”
“suspected of involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering,” and that “multiple arrests are not ruled out” as investigations into Tornado Cash continue. The Verge
Welcome! I, Degen is a podcast about crypto technology, security, and culture. With a healthy balance of enthusiasm and skepticism, we cut through the misinformation and hype in search of a signal in the noise. Our weekly round-up will keep you updated on the latest in crypto hacks and security. With our open-source audio audits, we interview founders and hackers to surface relevant info about how to stay safe in crypto land.