$4.06

Tornado Cash is a protocol designed to address privacy and anonymity issues in cryptocurrency, particularly the traceability of transactions. It launched as experimental software in August 2019 and evolved into a decentralized, non-custodial system enabling private transactions. Using smart contracts on Ethereum, it breaks the on-chain link between sender and recipient addresses, functioning as a decentralized mixer. The protocol is immutable, meaning transactions cannot be altered, even by its developers, ensuring high privacy for users.

Roman Semenov, a co-founder, studied Quantum Statistics and Field Theory at Moscow State University. He later worked in e-commerce and social media, founding two companies in those fields. In 2017, he entered crypto as Chief Software Architect at an Ethereum scalability foundation. In 2018, he co-founded PepperSec, a white hat security consultancy, which led to Tornado Cash. Roman Storm, another co-founder, has a background in tech and blockchain, including roles at Amazon, Marketron, and as CTO at POA Network. He also worked as a blockchain developer. Together, they founded PepperSec and started Tornado Cash.

Tornado Cash is permissionless and runs self-executing code. In May 2020, developers destroyed their admin keys, losing the ability to see or alter transactions. They claim minimal oversight, only publishing code on GitHub, arguing financial privacy is crucial for freedom. The cryptographic method (MPC) used to destroy keys ensures transactions are trustless and unstoppable, according to co-founder Roman Semenov. This anonymity could even evade sanctions. However, the protocol faces criticism for enabling hackers to launder stolen funds, though some suggest tracking might be possible with large deposits and low liquidity.

As of August 2022, approximately 1.1 million TORN coins are in circulation, with a maximum supply of 10 million. According to the whitepaper, the token distribution includes: 5% (500,000 TORN) airdropped to early ETH pool users; 10% (1,000,000 TORN) for anonymity mining over one year; 55% (5,500,000 TORN) for the DAO treasury, unlocked over five years with a three-month cliff; and 30% (3,000,000 TORN) for founding developers and supporters, unlocked over three years with a one-year cliff.

Tornado Cash operates on the Ethereum network and is secured by zero-knowledge proofs. The protocol and its anonymity mining have been audited by several professional firms, including Zeropool.

TORN trading began in February 2021, coinciding with an airdrop of 5% of its total supply, which amounted to 500,000 TORN.

TORN launched at $214.29 and reached an all-time high of $436.16 in February 2021, but has since declined by 95% in value.

TORN can be purchased on major centralized and decentralized exchanges, including Binance, Gate.io, Uniswap, OKX, BingX, CoinW, Sushiswap, and Deepcoin. A full list of eligible exchanges is available for reference.