[HN Gopher] Tether will not freeze Tornado Cash addresses
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       Tether will not freeze Tornado Cash addresses
        
       Author : dgs_sgd
       Score  : 37 points
       Date   : 2022-08-24 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tether.to)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tether.to)
        
       | politician wrote:
       | OFAC rules don't require notice by a government agency. They're
       | automatically incumbent upon all citizens to follow.
        
         | 323 wrote:
         | Correct.
         | 
         | I've worked in a company which dealt with user money and it was
         | our duty to figure out if someone opening an account was
         | sanctioned. Which was actually hard because you just have lists
         | of names which can be pretty vague like "John Doe, Florida".
        
           | mh8h wrote:
           | There are services for exactly that check. See Equifax OFAC
           | Alert as an example.
        
             | pirate787 wrote:
             | Treasury.gov also offers a free public API
        
         | geraldwhen wrote:
         | I'm surprised their lawyers don't understand this. Sanctions
         | are not a thing that you get a alerted to. You need to follow
         | who and what is sanctioned and bake compliance into your entire
         | company when handling money.
        
           | wmf wrote:
           | Tether is an offshore money laundering company with clown
           | lawyers so they're not really down with any kind of US
           | regulations.
        
           | mikeyouse wrote:
           | Right - the legal term of art is strict liability. Perkins
           | Coie has a little explainer:
           | 
           | https://www.perkinscoie.com/en/news-insights/ofac-
           | releases-n...
        
       | loeg wrote:
       | Tether has never worried about the rule of law before; why start
       | now?
        
         | wslh wrote:
         | There is not a single rule of law. This is not an statement in
         | favor or against Tether.
        
       | otoburb wrote:
       | >> _Tether has not been contacted by US officials or law
       | enforcement with a request to freeze the addresses sanctioned by
       | OFAC, but as noted above, Tether normally complies with requests
       | from US authorities, being in contact with them almost on a daily
       | basis._
       | 
       | Rephrased as: "US Treasury, we're ready to lock & freeze as many
       | addresses as you need -- just give us the word!"
        
         | NikolaNovak wrote:
         | I am ignorant, but do they expect government to contact them? I
         | assumed sanctions are sanctions - you broadcast publish them
         | rather than try to inform each and every entity specifically.
         | So this feels like either incompetent ignorance, Or wilful
         | pretence ignorance.
         | 
         | <snide comment> Which, hey, _Crypto_...  </snide comment>
        
         | altairprime wrote:
         | > "a request to _freeze_ the addresses sanctioned"
         | 
         | Emphasis added. The precision of their statement allows for
         | having received other requests.
        
       | WXLCKNO wrote:
       | The only stablecoin people should use through Tornado Cash is
       | DAI.
        
       | lavventura wrote:
       | this news was enough to pump Tornado Cash 50% and dumped 40%
       | afterwards
        
       | davidgerard wrote:
       | This looks a bit like Tether attempting to steal DeFi market
       | share from USDC - as Circle is a US entity, USDC blocked all the
       | addresses immediately.
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-24 23:00 UTC)