NFTs and privacy 🕵 – by William M. Peaster

Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles

Dear Bankless Nation, 

My nephew recently started researching NFTs. 

He’s the very inquisitive type and he’s already learned how to use Etherscan, so he’s been asking me all sorts of questions about how to use Ethereum and NFTs lately. 

Before this week, I’d considered using the Tornado Cash privacy solution to fund a new wallet with a small bit of ETH that I could share with him. The idea? Basic privacy, just to avert some of the awkward but innocent questions he might ask me about my wallet activities.  

Then, a few days ago the U.S. Treasury dropped OFAC sanctions, which are normally used on people, on the Tornado Cash protocol itself. Now Americans that use Tornado can face 30 years in prison!

The rationale is that North Korean hackers used Tornado, so now the rest of the free world will be criminals if they do the same. What about the internet, should we ban that too since the bad guys use it?

Tornado’s code is free speech and its infra is a public good, open to anyone. In a free society, we shouldn’t cede everyone’s right to basic financial privacy just to counter North Korea. We should go after the enemies of freedom harder in all the other ways that are possible as free peoples. That’s what makes us free and have the high ground in the first place!

I say all this because in a certain sense the attack on Tornado Cash represents an attack on crypto and NFTs altogether. So if ever there was a time to protest for the sake of blockchain privacy, it’s now. In the meantime, thanks for reading everyone, and have a great weekend ✌️ 

-WMP

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William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!

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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

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