Kriptoks

Tornado Cash (TORN) is a groundbreaking solution that aims to address privacy and anonymity concerns within the cryptocurrency world, particularly related to transaction traceability. Originally introduced as an experimental software in August 2019, Tornado Cash has since evolved into a fully decentralized and non-custodial protocol that enables private transactions.

The protocol leverages smart contracts on the Ethereum network to ensure a high level of privacy by breaking the on-chain link between sender and recipient addresses. This innovative approach is often referred to as a "decentralized mixer." Crucially, Tornado Cash's immutable nature guarantees that no transactions can be altered or tampered with, providing users with utmost privacy and security.

The founders of Tornado Cash include Roman Semenov, who graduated from Moscow State University with a background in Quantum Statistics and Field Theory. Semenov's professional journey began in e-commerce and social media, where he founded two companies. In 2017, he transitioned to the crypto space and worked as a Chief Software Architect, focusing on Ethereum scalability. Subsequently, Semenov founded PepperSec, a white hat hacker security consulting agency, which ultimately led to the creation of Tornado Cash.

Another co-founder, Roman Storm, boasts an extensive background in the tech, blockchain, and software sectors. He held positions as a Software Engineer at Amazon and Marketron, as well as serving as the Chief Technology Officer at the POA Network. Storm also worked as a Blockchain Developer for Blockchainlabz.nz. Together with Semenov, they founded PepperSec and embarked on the Tornado Cash project.

Tornado Cash distinguishes itself through its permissionless nature and execution of self-executable code. In May 2020, the developers took the significant step of destroying their admin keys, relinquishing any ability to monitor or modify transactions on the protocol. The team emphasizes that their oversight of the protocol is minimal, limited to code publication on GitHub, as they believe that financial privacy is essential for individual freedom.

The cryptographic method known as MPC (Multi-Party Computation), employed to destroy the admin keys, ensures that transactions on Tornado Cash are trustless and unstoppable, as Roman Semenov described. This high level of anonymity even opens the possibility for transactions on Tornado Cash to potentially evade sanctions.

While Tornado Cash has been commended for its commitment to privacy, it has also faced criticism for being utilized by hackers seeking to store their stolen funds and engaging in money laundering activities. Despite the protocol's secrecy, some argue that it may be possible to track transactions if there are significant deposits and low liquidity.

As of August 2022, approximately 1.1 million TORN coins are in circulation, with a maximum circulating supply of $10 million. The tokenomics and issuance schedule for TORN are outlined in the project's whitepaper. This includes a 5% airdrop to early users of Tornado.Cash ETH pools, 10% for anonymity mining in Tornado.Cash ETH pools distributed linearly over one year, 55% allocated to the DAO treasury, to be unlocked linearly over five years with a three-month cliff, and 30% for founding developers and early supporters, to be unlocked linearly over three years with a one-year cliff.