BITCOIN SEASON 2: The Tornado Cash Trial, Explained

Reporter David Morris breaks down the Tornado Cash trial, Roman Storm's conviction on money transmission charges, and what this means for crypto privacy and open source developers going forward.

Aug 20, 2025

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David Z Morris joins us to talk about his extensive coverage of the Tornado Cash trial. We dive deep into Roman Storm's conviction, the legal precedent for privacy tools, and the chilling effects on open source development in crypto.

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NOTES:

• Jury hung on 2 charges, guilty on 1 MTB charge

• North Korea Lazarus laundered $600M

• No direct OFAC-sanctioned wallets used the service

• Appeal process could take years to resolve

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:41 Why the Tornado Cash Story?

05:06 What is Tornado Cash?

11:15 What does Tornado Cash Do?

14:01 Autonomous Smart Contracts

19:34 Run as a Business

23:57 Profits

24:58 Criminal Charges

31:43 Future of Open Source Development

37:15 Advice for Privacy Devs

42:43 Public Perception

46:09 Journalism & Privacy

49:10 What Happens Now?

👋Bitcoin Season 2 is produced Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin. Follow us on Twitter and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech!

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