👁️ Open Source Development's Fate is in the Balance

Roman Storm's trial may finally conclude today, in its fourth week.

I celebrated a fantastic birthday recently (never post your actual birthdate online, folks) but now it’s back to the grindstone - to the criminal trial of Roman Storm, which did not reach a verdict in its third week. So we get to go back today to hopefully get a verdict, in a case with significant implications for the liability incurred by software developers building tools.

Specifically, a conviction of Storm would set a precedent that software developers are legally liable for the actions of later users with whom they have no contact at all. This is not a standard we apply, for example, to gun manufacturers.

To stay plugged in for the verdict, which may well come later today, please follow me on X at @davidzmorris, and follow The Rage, the publication supporting my coverage, at @theragetech.

To get fully caught up on my work, you can read through the Tornado Cash archives at The Rage here. This general overview is a good place to start.

Easily the most interesting development last week was that two devs in a related case, the Samourai Wallet proceeding, were offered a plea deal to a substantially lesser charge just days before the jury was expected to rule in Storm. I take this as an indication that the government has limited faith in its case against Storm. That followed a raft of procedural issues for the prosecution, including shifting charges, seemingly shifting theories of the case, and one witness who barely avoided causing a mistrial thanks to apparent government reliance on the claims of an unrelated scam “recovery company” that has itself appears to have been under Federal investigation.

On Sunday I was the host of a discussion featuring Molly White of Citation Needed; Taylor Monahan of MetaMask; Ethereum Developer Tim Clancy; and Amanda Tuminelli, head of the DeFi Education Fund. It provides a strong overview of Tornado Cash, the current case, and possible implications for developers.

Here, in condensed format, are the topics tackled in the discussion:

04:46: What is Tornado Cash? 10:45 Understanding the charges 21:25 Implications for software developers 30:00 Could the UI stop transactions? 32:36 Did North Korea use the front end? 39:16 Could the relayers stop transactions? 42:57 The Government’s first witness: grounds for appeal? 1:00:00 What would happen after a guilty verdict? 1:02:00 Can developers be held liable for writing open source code? 1:07:00 Could free speech be a ground for appeal? 1:11:00 How do we balance the right to privacy with criminal use? 1:20:00 Dragonfly Capital pleads the Fifth 1:23:00 Chainalysis Relayer highlights breadth of charges 1:31:00 Does the Blanche Memo protect developers?