Tornado Cash, which is one of the most popular ways to obscure crypto transactions, doesn’t have to abide by the sanctions against Russia, according to one if its co-founders.
As Bloomberg reported Thursday (March 10), the service is meant to help preserve privacy by breaking the link between the sender and receiver’s addresses.
Roman Semonov, one of the founders, said there’s “not much we can do” regarding the sanctions against Russia because the project comes from decisions made by pre-written software programs instead of individuals. Tornado Cash also doesn’t provide any custodian services or have a central host for its website.
Meanwhile, Jamaica announced Thursday that it will give $16 in free money to the first 100,000 residents using its impending Jam-Dex digital coin.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in a Facebook post, said those who activate their digital wallets after the currency goes live will get an “incentive” of 2,500 Jamaican dollars.
This comes as Jamaica is one of a few different Caribbean nations that has been issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), or the digital versions of their countries’ official respective currencies.
In other news, a Canadian man accused of dozens of ransomware crimes, 34-year-old Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, has been extradited to the U.S., according to a CoinDesk report Thursday.
There was also over $28 million in bitcoin seized at the man’s home in connection with the case. Vachon-Desjardins was arrested in Quebec in January, with law enforcement taking 719 bitcoins, worth over $28 million at the current prices.
Vachon-Desjardins was charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and extortion. Per the report, a protected computer is used either by the U.S. government or a financial institution.
Finally, four Princeton University alums from the 1980s who are now big names in cryptocurrency are donating $20 million to their old school, Bloomberg reported.
The money is planned to go towards research on better understanding how blockchain can be used. It will be housed in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton said Thursday.
