12 Sep 2022 [policy]

Monero Policy Working Group: 'OFAC and others exceeded their authority in sanctioning open-source technology'

The Monero Policy Working Group1 has expressed their support2 for the challenge arguing that OFAC and others exceeded their authority in sanctioning open-source technology after the sanctions levied against Tornado Cash on August 8, 2022:

Sanctioning open-source projects sets a bad precedent. Monero, Bitcoin, and Ethereum are open-source projects. [..] The lawsuit aims for a judgment that the Tornado Cash sanction designation is null and void, is in excess of the authority granted to Treasury, and is unconstitutional.

To learn more about the Coinbase-funded lawsuit, consult the complaint3 against the Department of the Treasury.

Older policy posts are also available as .PDFs in the MPWG documents repository4.

To get involved with the workgroup efforts, users can join #monero-policy5.

This is an ongoing story and the report will be updated when new information is available.


  1. https://moneropolicy.org/ 

  2. https://moneropolicy.org/2022-09-12-tornado-cash/ 

  3. https://www.scribd.com/document/592848760/FINAL-Tornado-Cash-Complaint 

  4. https://github.com/monero-policy/docs/ 

  5. irc://irc.libera.chat/#monero-policy (irc), https://matrix.to/#/#monero-policy:monero.social?via=matrix.org&via=monero.social (Matrix)