Roman Storm, developer behind the decentralized privacy protocol Tornado Cash, has raised serious concerns within the open-source community about potential retroactive prosecution by U.S. authorities. His questioning of whether building non-custodial DeFi platforms might be considered illegal has sparked a debate on the legal risks faced by developers in this space. This comes after Storm’s recent conviction for operating an unlicensed money transfer service, adding fuel to the discussion on crypto regulation and privacy rights as blockchain technology evolves. 2023 will likely see more legal challenges related to crypto privacy and DeFi, with many experts wondering how future actions by authorities will play out.