Alchemy blocks access to Tornado Cash

Barely 24 hours after the United States Treasury Department blacklisted Tornado Cash, technological organizations like Infura and Alchemy blocked access to the tool. The two platforms are prominent foundations of Ethereum and the Web3 ecosystem. Consequently, the platforms had begun to stop Remote Procedure Call requests to the black-listed app.

Before the suspension, Infura and Alchemy offered a gateway to RPC nodes for protocols like Ethereum. Thus, they aid developers and users without background programming skills in deploying dApps without having their node. Users often use Alchemy and Infura alongside the MetaMask wallet. 

With the latest development, users cannot use the Tornado cash through Alchemy and Infura. However, users can still bypass the restriction by directly interacting with the smart contract. This is possible because the restoration only applies to the secrecy tool frontend site. Based on the general opinion, the restriction is reactive to the ban on Tornado Cash by the U.S authority. 

According to a statement by the Treasury Department, hackers sponsored by the North Korean government often use the app to launder stolen funds. The agency also blacklisted other secrecy applications that aid in laundering stolen funds from crypto platforms. Additionally, the treasury department alleged that hackers had laundered over $7 billion through Tornado Mixer since its launching in 2019.

The Treasury Department’s decision to blacklist Tornado Cash has sparked many reactions among crypto firms. Yesterday, The firm behind USDC, Circle, and Github followed the agency’s directives. As revealed, Circle seized about 75,000 USDC locked inside the secrecy app. 

However, the move birthed an outrage by enthusiasts who questioned the loyalty of centralized platforms like Circle within the Web 3.0 ecosystem. Similarly, Circle, alongside Alchemy and Infura, are centralized platforms crypto enthusiasts use in their day-to-day endeavors. 

Meanwhile, Infura had restricted Iranians from accessing its platform after abiding by U.S sanctions on the country. Due to that, citizens of the country cannot access Ethereum-based platforms like OpenSea and MetaMask.

Before the ban, the United States Government overtly bemoaned how hackers often use Tornado Cash to carry out mischievous acts. The U.S authority showed its displeasure over the situation, which resulted in an altercation with the North Korean Government. 

Previously, the U.S accused the North Korean Government of sponsoring hackers to raid crypto platforms. The U.S believes that North Korea often attacks crypto platforms to steal funds to push its biochemical weapon initiative.

Related

• US Treasury Blocks Residents From Using Troubled Tornado Cash
• Blocklisting of addresses of Tornado Cash continues for Circle
• Harmony hacker launders over 18000 ETH through Tornado Cash