Ethereum Researcher Released in Turkey, Donates $500K to Roman Storm’s Legal Defense – Crypto News – Crypto News
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Ethereum Researcher Released in Turkey, Donates $500K to Roman Storm’s Legal Defense Ethereum Researcher Released in Turkey, Donates $500K to Roman Storm’s Legal Defense

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Ethereum Researcher Released in Turkey, Donates $500K to Roman Storm’s Legal Defense – Crypto News

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A blockchain privacy researcher known as Fede’s intern said he was detained in Turkey, where he is being accused of “helping others misuse Ethereum.”

On Aug. 10, Ethereum privacy researcher Federico Carrone was detained in Izmir, Turkey, and held for about 24 hours, according to his own reports on X. Carrone, known as “Fede’s intern” on X, said he was released yesterday and that he had been detained over alleged links to a privacy protocol and a January 2022 crypto mixer research paper.

In an X post on Aug. 11, Carrone explained that he landed in Izmir in part to work on a “DeFi project,” but was detained at passport control and told he couldn’t enter the country. Per his reports, local police cited a pending legal case requiring him to appear before a judge.

“After a few hours, the attorney reached me and explained that the Minister of Internal Affairs had filed a case accusing me of helping others misuse Ethereum, allegedly in connection with a privacy protocol,” Carrone wrote on X.

Following his release, Carrone said that he had decided to donate $500,000 to Roman Storm’s legal defense — increasing what he said was an earmarked $50,000 from his venture studio LambdaClass — saying “builders everywhere need to know they can push innovation forward and that the community will stand behind them when they do.”

Last week, the Ethereum Foundation said that it would match up to $500,000 in further donations to Storm’s defense, posting from its official X account: “Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime.”

Research Paper

According to the blockchain developer, the incident might be linked to Tutela, a January 2022 academic research paper, co-authored by Carrone and eleven other researchers, that examines privacy weaknesses in Ethereum mixers like Tornado Cash by showing how users could be deanonymized.

Referencing Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev’s detention back in November, Carrone stated in his X post:

“A few years ago, on the day Alexey was detained, we received a call, that gladly didn’t escalate any further, regarding an academic paper and code we had published about Tornado Cash, called Tutela.”

Carrone’s post continues: “Our work showed that it was possible to deanonymize users. We never helped anyone engage in illegal activity, it was purely research on mixers and their properties.”

Criminalizing Code

In his explanation of his detention, Carrone criticized the criminalization of open-source privacy tool developers, citing the trial of Tornado Cash co-creator Roman Storm in New York, who was recently convicted of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business while the jury deadlocked on money laundering and sanctions charges, creating a troubling precedent.

“Writing code to make transactions private doesn’t make you a criminal,” Carrone wrote on X yesterday, adding:

“Criminals are those who break the law.”

As Carrone explains, he was released thanks to an international effort, including support from friends and colleagues in the UAE, UK, U.S., Europe, Argentina — and even the Catholic Church — who he said contacted Turkish officials and helped him get urgent legal help.

Although per his X account he is now back in Europe, the case is evidently still open, and Carrone said he is working with local lawyers to understand the charges and is ready to return to Turkey if needed to clear his name.

“We still don’t have the full picture of what happened or why it happened, but we will bring in the best team we can and resolve this,” Carrone wrote on X.

The Defiant reached out to Carrone for further details on the incident, but hasn’t heard back by press time.

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