Tornado Cash Ported to MegaETH Testnet After U.S. Treasury Lifts Sanctions

Tornado Cash has been successfully ported to the newly launched MegaETH public testnet following the U.S. Treasury’s decision to lift sanctions against the privacy protocol. This move marks a significant milestone in the ongoing development and potential rebirth of Tornado Cash.

The protocol, known for its privacy-preserving features, was ported by developer Gunboats to the MegaETH testnet, a scaling solution for Ethereum, with minimal adjustments to the codebase. Gunboats noted that the porting process was straightforward and did not require any changes to Tornado Cash’s original code. In a statement, Gunboats highlighted the ease of deploying Tornado Cash on MegaETH, a platform known for its ability to handle high throughput with 20,000 transactions per second and 10 millisecond block times.

The decision to port Tornado Cash to MegaETH came after the U.S. Treasury removed its sanctions on the protocol, which were initially imposed in August 2022. The Treasury had accused Tornado Cash of facilitating money laundering, particularly through transactions linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. With the sanctions lifted, Tornado Cash is now legal for use by U.S. citizens, and developers can once again experiment with its deployment on various networks.

Gunboats, who is behind the porting effort, acknowledged the legal challenges that Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm faces due to his involvement in the protocol. He expressed solidarity with Storm, adding, “Free Roman Storm.” While the Tornado Cash port to MegaETH has been completed, Gunboats mentioned that the platform, now dubbed ETHTornado, has not seen significant user activity yet. The lack of a user-friendly interface is considered a barrier to widespread adoption at this stage.

MegaETH, the Ethereum scaling solution on which ETHTornado operates, offers several advantages over traditional layer-2 platforms by using unique data availability solutions like EigenDA and specialized sequencers. This allows for faster and more efficient transaction processing, contributing to a more scalable Ethereum network.

Besides Tornado Cash, other platforms such as GTE and Infinex are also operating on the MegaETH testnet, demonstrating the growing interest in the network’s high-speed and scalable capabilities.

This development is a key step forward for Tornado Cash and its community, as it can now be deployed on a high-performance testnet with the backing of a more favorable regulatory environment.