On August 8, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash due to its alleged use in the laundering of hacked funds by North Korea. However, Tornado Cash is still in business, even processing transactions valuing over $2 million worth of cryptocurrency the day after the sanctions. It is virtually impossible to completely shut down the operation because it is available worldwide and the sanctions only have the ability to ban Tornado Cash in the U.S..
What is Tornado Cash?!
No, it’s not cash that you stash away in case a tornado hits nor is it a funnel of cash swirling about. Tornado Cash (TORN) is a privacy tool on the Ethereum blockchain. To put it simply, Tornado Cash allows you to deposit ETH or ERC-20 tokens and withdraw them without associating the two transactions. The overall goal is to keep financial transactions private.
What happens to a U.S. citizen who had a large sum of funds sitting in Tornado Cash?
CoinDesk states, “As of now, his funds are blocked and have to be reported to OFAC. There is no clear process for recovering those funds.”
Which is the best hardware wallet for ETH?
Ledger Nano X - This wallet ensures maximum security and keeps your Ethereum and ERC20 tokens safe. The state of the art Secure Element chip keeps the seed and private keys completely offline. You’ll never have to worry about the remote hacking risks of software wallets and exchanges. Plus, the Ledger Nano X is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.
SecuX V20 - For those who want a large screen, the SecuX V20 has a 2.8 inch full color touchscreen. This wallet makes sending and receiving cryptocurrency easy. Your ETH will be safe and secure with pin words, layers of authentication, and offline seed phrase recovery.
KeepKey Hardware Wallet - For those who might need a larger screen for a cheaper price, the KeepKey Hardware Wallet has a 3.12 OLED display. With its ARM Cortex M3 CPU, flawless firmware integrity, and TRNG Hardware based random number generator, you’ll never worry again about malicious hackers or security lapses.
The moral of the story?
Don’t have your cryptocurrency taken by storm! Store it in a hardware wallet and never leave it sitting around online.
