Tornado Cash is a autonomous anonymity service built on the ETH chain. It enables users to break on-chain links, offering advanced financial confidentiality.
Unlike custodial mixers, Tornado Cash uses smart contracts that function autonomously, ensuring that users retain complete custody of their funds at all times. This trustless setup brings transparency and removes any central point of failure or censorship.
The core of Tornado mixer lies in privacy-preserving proofs, which let users prove without disclosing specific deposit information. This ensures transaction obfuscation between the deposit and the withdrawal.
Thanks to its robust security, Tornado.cash quickly attracted users by those seeking private fund movements. It’s used for protecting wallet privacy, among other legitimate needs.
However, this tool has also been scrutinized from regulators. In 2022, the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC restricted the use of Tornado Cash, tornado.cash citing its misuse for illegal transfers. Still, the protocol remains active since its smart contracts are permanently deployed and cannot be taken offline.
Experts say that Tornado Cash is a permissionless system, much like the internet itself — and that privacy rights must be defended, even if some actors misuse them.
Use cases for Tornado Cash include:
Separating personal and public wallets
Protecting whistleblowers
Avoiding doxxing
As governments around the world push for more financial transparency, the demand for tools like Tornado.cash continues to rise. The future of on-chain anonymity hinges on whether transparent code will be protected or suppressed.
Whether you're a privacy advocate or just someone looking to secure your wallet, Tornado mixer remains a popular tool in the world of on-chain confidentiality.