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A proposal aiming to contribute to funding the legal defense of the developers of Tornado Cash, the Ethereum-based mixing platform, was removed by the Arbitrum community over apparent legal concerns. Devansh Mehta, lead of the working group of the Arbitrum treasury, criticized the move, stating that there was “absolutely nothing wrong with paying for the legal defense of someone accused.”
Tornado Cash Aid Proposal Withdrawn by Arbitrum Community
A proposal started on the Arbitrum DAO forums to aid the developers of Tornado Cash, a token mixing protocol, with their legal defense has been withdrawn due to legal concerns. Devansh Mehta, lead of the working group of the Arbitrum treasury, reported the news on social media, stating that the “entire forum thread was deleted along with the snapshot without any discussion or record of it.”
The proposal considered allocating between 200,000 and 600,000 ARB (between $400k and $1.2 million) to help Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, developers of Tornado Cash who were charged with money laundering and sanctions violations in August. Before it was deleted, the proposal was overwhelmingly in favor of supporting the Tornado Cash cause with 600K ARB, with over 80% of the votes registered for that option.
Mehta manifested his disappointment with this move, stressing that there was nothing wrong with helping to fund the defense of these developers and that everyone had the right to a lawyer. He declared:
I thought arbitrum was about freedom, when we begin self-censoring ourselves it doesn’t put us in a good light.
Joseph Axisa, known as “Immutable Lawyer,” criticized social media’s reaction to his decision to withdraw the proposal. “Proposal was authored by myself and removed by myself,” he stressed, explaining that it was removed “to have further discussions w/delegates and Alexey and Roman’s lawyers personally re. proper method of contribution.”
Axisa also clarified that the proposal would be republished after “looking out for all parties concerned and effecting additional due diligence to make sure we are all good.”
What do you think about the withdrawal of the Arbitrum proposal to help fund the legal defense of the developers of Tornado Cash? Tell us in the comments section below.