Decentralised Mixer ‘Tornado’ Goes Open Source to Increase Transparency

Popular DeFi privacy protocol Tornado Cash has announced a fully open-source user interface for Tornado Cash Classic, allowing contributors to check out the code and suggest improvements via the platform’s GitHub.

UI vulnerabilities have been a major focus for the Tornado community and, according to a Medium post, the move is part of its efforts to prioritise a fully transparent and decentralised ecosystem:

We personally grew fond of the black and green floating astronaut associated with the protocol. However, you should know our credo by now: we will always lean towards more decentralisation.

Tornado Medium post

What is Tornado Cash?

Tornado Cash essentially works by allowing users to mix their crypto tokens in a pool of fellow users’ crypto, making it practically impossible to track.

In December last year, the protocol announced its integration with Arbitrum, a layer 2 solution that leverages optimistic rollups for Ethereum dApps to ensure faster speeds, lower fees and transaction privacy. 

In April, Tornado Cash started blocking US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) addresses, stating that “maintaining financial privacy is essential to preserving our freedom, [though] it should not come at the cost of non-compliance”.

The protocol has long been a popular platform for users seeking anonymity and decentralisation. The current price of Tornado Cash (TORN) is US$20.40, as per data from CoinMarketCap, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$6.2 million.