Roman Storm is an immigrant entrepreneur, a dedicated software engineer, and one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash—a privacy-focused protocol built on Ethereum. Just for the code he wrote, he has been charged in the U.S. with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and sanctions evasion. If convicted, he faces up to 45 years in prison. Similarly, Alexey Pertsev, another co-founder of Tornado Cash, was arrested in the Netherlands and detained without trial for months, accused of facilitating money laundering through supplying autonomous code. Both developers are being prosecuted for creating open-source tools that prioritize user privacy. Despite this, Roman and Alex continue to fight for the principle that writing and publishing open-source code should not be a crime.
Their legal defense emphasizes Tornado Cash's automated nature—once deployed, transactions process without human oversight. They have won the support of organizations like the DeFi Education Fund, Coin Center, and the Blockchain Association sending letters of support defending the right to develop software freely. As regulatory pressure intensifies, Storm and Pertsev's case raises a critical question:
Should developers bear responsibility for how others use their autonomous, open-source code?
Their battle extends beyond personal freedom, standing as a crucial defense of developer rights, crypto innovation, and the future of open-source development.