Vitalik supports Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm: If coding is criminalized, society will pay a greater price

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently published an open letter supporting Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, directly pointing out that criminalizing software development behavior could have far-reaching impacts on privacy rights, open-source innovation, and the overall tech industry.
(Background: The U.S. Department of Justice convicted Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm of “unauthorized remittance,” prompting collective support from the crypto community)
(Additional context: From sanctions to legal trials: the debate over privacy and responsibility in Tornado Cash)

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently issued an open letter in support of Tornado Cash protocol co-developer Roman Storm, strongly questioning the recent judicial trend of criminalizing software development activities. Buterin pointed out that the core issue in such cases is not actual financial crime, but whether society has begun to consider “writing code” itself as an act punishable by law.

Done. Re-posting the contents for public consumption: pic.twitter.com/8nUrnkAz9w

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 9, 2026

Roman Storm is currently awaiting a court ruling in the United States related to cases involving Tornado Cash. Buterin bluntly states in the letter that the prosecution of Storm is essentially a trial against software developers, not against those directly engaged in money laundering or financial crimes.

Privacy tools are infrastructure, not accomplices in crime

In his open letter, Buterin emphasized that the existence of privacy tools like Tornado Cash is fundamentally to protect personal data and transaction privacy, not to serve criminal activities. He pointed out that privacy is not an extreme or novel political stance, but a basic safeguard society has long provided for personal communication, freedom of movement, and financial activities.

He believes that in an era before widespread digital surveillance, individuals’ control over their own information was a “default state,” and modern privacy tools are simply an extension of this protective logic. Equating privacy technology directly with crime could undermine the fundamental rights that society already possesses.

Buterin: I am not only a supporter in principle but also an actual user

In the letter, Buterin also shares personal experiences to illustrate the legitimate use of privacy tools. He states that he has used software developed by Roman Storm for technical payments and donations to human rights charities, ensuring that relevant data is not fully collected or stored by corporations or governments.

Buterin particularly praises Storm’s engineering spirit, noting that the applications he developed can still operate normally even after years of neglect, demonstrating responsible technical quality for users. He also uses this to criticize some consumer tech products that market themselves with “privacy” slogans but actually have poor quality.

Buterin further warns that if the judicial system continues to treat software developers as potential criminals, it could create a chilling effect on the entire tech and open-source community. He believes that if developers are held criminally responsible merely because tools could be misused, future innovations in privacy technology, communication, encryption, and foundational internet tools could be at risk.