Ethereum Foundation’s donations are not something new that is not known in the crypto industry. The institution is known for making several donations to the Tornado Cash developers. And once again, news of yet another donation is making headlines in the crypto industry.
In the midst of their own legal disputes, the Ethereum Foundation and Keyring Network have started a campaign to gather money for Tornado Cash inventors Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev.
Yet another donation on the line
The two groups have started soliciting money to “pioneer open-source legal defence funding,” according to a statement released on October 10.
Additionally, according to the release, Storm and Pertsev’s legal defence will get the first three months’ worth of fees from zkVerified permissioned vaults on the Ethereum mainnet.
“We believe privacy is a fundamental right, and that open-source developers should not face criminal liability for writing code,” said Alex McFarlane, CEO of Keyring Network.
“By donating our early protocol fees to the defence of Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev, we’re signalling that zkVerified DeFi can uphold compliance, safety, and privacy while standing in solidarity with the builders who paved the way,” he added.
Previous donations from the Ethereum Foundation
UnoCrypto earlier reported in June that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin revealed that the Ethereum Foundation is matching contributions to help with Roman Storm’s legal defence.
Additionally, previously in a daring declaration of its dedication to open-source development and privacy, the Ethereum Foundation has contributed $1.25 million. The money was donated to help the co-founders of Tornado Cash with their legal defence.
Details of the donation
Through zero-knowledge proofs, Keyring’s zkVerification layer protects user privacy while guaranteeing that only verified participants may access vaults, adhering to compliance norms.
Without disclosing personal information or opening up new attack vectors, the approach enables both institutions and individual users to access DeFi benefits.
Also Read: Solana Policy Institute Makes $500,000 Donation To Support Tornado Cash Devs Legal Dispute
The proposal comes after Keyring launched its first zkVerified vault on Avalanche with Euler Finance on August 7. Since then, it has drawn almost $15 million in TVL.
Keyring is starting a larger endeavour to connect its business model with the protection of open-source developers and privacy rights by allocating fees from that deployment to Storm’s and Petsev’s legal defence fund.
A little background
Details on how this donation will be used exactly and how it is going to help the developer, only time can reveal that.
Storm’s lawsuit dates back to 2022, when Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US government.
Money taken from the Axie Infinity network was among the money that authorities said the tool was laundering for North Korea.
U.S. citizens were prohibited from using or contributing to Tornado Cash as a result of the sanctions.
Prosecutors have since accused Storm of violating sanctions laws and aiding in money laundering. There are severe punishments for the charges.
Also Read: Tornado Cash Co-Founder Roman Storm Seeks Urgent $500,000 in Legal Funds Ahead of Trial