DeFi Developers Question Legal Risk After DOJ Conviction

Roman Storm, the developer behind the Tornado Cash privacy-preserving protocol, has sparked a debate within the open source software community. He posed the question: ‘How can you be sure you won’t face charges from the US Department of Justice for developing decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms?’ His concern stems from the potential legal consequences of being prosecuted as a money service business despite the non-custodial nature of his protocol. Storm believes that the DOJ could argue, based on its recent case against him, that any non-custodial service should be considered a custodial one.