Tornado Cash ported to MegaETH testnet after U.S. Treasury lifts sanctions

Tornado cash has been ported to the newly launched MegaETH public testnet following the removal of sanctions against the protocol.

The crypto privacy protocol Tornado Cash was ported to MegaETH testnet, as originally reported by The Block. Developer Gunboats named this new adaptation ETHTornado and said it was easy to port without changing the code.

“I thought, maybe someone should try to deploy [Tornado Cash] on the hottest thing right now…there is no change in code needed and that’s really a good thing,” said developer Gunboats.

Gunboats decided to port the protocol after the U.S. Treasury removed sanctions from Tornado Cash, legalizing the use of the protocol for American citizens. The said sanctions were imposed in August 2022, when the government accused Tornado Cash of facilitating money laundering, including transactions associated with North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Even though the U.S. Treasury no longer sanctions Tornado Cash wallets, one user noted that some projects might exclude those wallets from receiving airdrops.

Addressing legal concerns surrounding this development, Gunboats downplayed potential risks. He also expressed support for Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, currently facing legal challenges due to his involvement in Tornado Cash, stating, “Free Roman Storm.” However, he acknowledged that ETHTornado has yet to see significant usage, citing the lack of a user-friendly interface as a barrier.

The Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution MegaETH was launched on March 21, claiming the spotlight for being able to handle 20,000 transactions per second with 10 millisecond blocktimes.

Like traditional layer 2s, MegaETH moves transaction processing off the Ethereum main network while still leveraging it for security. MegaETH sets itself apart by employs different data availability solutions, such as EigenDA, and uses specialized sequencers to allow multiple transactions to be processed at the same time.

Beyond the Tornado Cash port, trading platforms GTE and Infinex are already operating on the MegaETH testnet.