According to BlockBeats, a verdict is expected today, May 14, in the case against Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev. The 31-year-old is accused of laundering $1.2 billion through the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. If Pertsev is found guilty, experts predict a 'chilling effect' on the global open-source community. Developers may fear their code being misused and refrain from writing, and investment may also decrease.
If Pertsev is acquitted, the judge will accept his explanation that the core technology of Tornado Cash - smart contracts - operates independently of human intervention and is legally run. More importantly, the managers of such platforms are not responsible for those who use this technology. The outcome of this case will change the direction of development for crypto privacy.