This week, Matthew and Brileigh are joined by Ameen Soleimani. Ameen is a co-founder of Spank Chain—a payment platform for the adult industry—co-founder of Iran Unchained, a non-profit providing humanitarian aid in Iran—and a member of Moloch DAO, which has provided funding for open-source projects on Ethereum, including Tornado Cash.

In this episode, Ameen tells us about the recent history of Tornado Cash: how it got started, what led to the arrests of Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, and why Ameen is taking a stand to fundraise for their legal defense. With Alexey’s trial coming up in March 2024 and Roman’s later in the fall, legal expenses range from $90k - $100k/month. The next 6 months will be crucial in shaping their defense strategy and their arrests carry serious implications for developers’ rights to publish open-source software.

Ameen and other supporters formed WeWantJusticeDAO which engaged an international team of legal counsel to represent Roman and Alexey. Justice DAO has launched a crowdfund on Juicebox and all funds raised until February 22nd will support the legal aid of Pertsev & Storm. Alexey and Roman need your help to defend the right to privacy and the right to publish code.

Show Notes:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:34 Ameen’s background

00:02:34 What is Tornado Cash & how it got started

00:04:11 The events leading up to Pertsev and Storms arrests

00:06:35 Fundraiser for Roman and Alexey’s legal aid

00:08:29 Why privacy matters

00:13:25 The implications of Roman and Alexey’s 2024 trials

00:14:41 Ameen’s relationship to Roman and Alexey

00:15:15 The risks developers now face writing open-source software

00:18:04 Closing thoughts

Topics Discussed:

Tornado Cash

Alexey Pertsev

Roman Storm

WeWantJusticeDAO

Open-source software

Why privacy matters

Fundraiser for Pertsev and Storm

Juicebox