I heard Roman Storm’s free speech defense for Tornado Cash got rejected in court. What happened?

Yeah, the court ruled that the code he wrote for Tornado Cash isn't protected by the First Amendment. They said his actions were more about money laundering than free speech.

Wait, so isn't computer code considered speech? I thought it was protected.

It can be, but the judge said that in this case, the code was being used for something functional—helping people hide money, not just expressing ideas. So it doesn’t get free speech protection.

Oh, I see. The code was being used to do something illegal, like money laundering?

Exactly. Tornado Cash was used to mix Ethereum transactions, making them harder to track. The government argued that it was helping people launder money and avoid sanctions.

That’s wild. So just writing the code isn’t the problem, but using it for illegal stuff is?

Yes, that’s what the court focused on. The judge said it’s not about limiting speech but about stopping illegal activities like money laundering.

It makes sense, I guess. But isn't it kind of a slippery slope? Like, could this be used to stop developers from writing other privacy tools?

That’s exactly what some crypto advocates are worried about. People like Edward Snowden and Vitalik Buterin have supported Storm, saying privacy isn’t a crime. But the judge made it clear—this case is about how the code was used, not just writing code.

So does this mean Roman Storm will go to jail?

Well, the case is going to trial, so we’ll see. His lawyers might try to bring up the free speech argument again, but it’s not looking good. The court’s already said that the charges aren’t really about free speech.

That’s intense. I didn’t realize how tricky the line between code and crime could be.

It definitely is. This case could set a big precedent for how crypto and privacy tools are treated under the law in the future.