Ethereum developer Federico Carrone, known in the community by the pseudonym Fede’s Intern, has finally left Turkey after a tense incident. Authorities detained him at Izmir airport, claiming he could face criminal charges for allegedly helping people abuse the Ethereum network.
“We’re Just Infrastructure Builders”
Carrone, who works on Zero Knowledge (ZK) technologies and other Ethereum infrastructure projects, stated on X that Turkish authorities had informed his lawyer of charges linked to his work.
“They’re telling my lawyer I helped people abuse @ethereum. This is nonsense – we’re just building infrastructure,” he wrote.
He had traveled to the country on business, intending to meet DeFi sector partners and connect with contacts in the local wine industry. Instead, he was denied entry and ordered to appear before a judge over the alleged case.
After several hours in custody, he was released and allowed to leave the country, thanks to coordinated efforts from friends, colleagues, and members of the Ethereum community. Carrone said his team, along with Turkish lawyers, is working on a defense but cannot reveal full details yet.
The Privacy Tools Dispute
Carrone suggested the case might be linked to his earlier academic work Tutela, which he co-authored. This research analyzed user privacy on Ethereum and the Tornado Cash protocol, showing that supposedly anonymous transactions could be deanonymized to some extent.
It remains unclear if this work directly led to his detention. However, Carrone criticized the growing trend of governments targeting software teams developing privacy tools.
“Writing code that ensures transaction privacy does not make you a criminal. Criminals are the ones who break the law,” he said, comparing the situation to the absurd notion of arresting Linus Torvalds because someone used the Linux kernel in a rocket.
Despite the ordeal, Carrone emphasized his positive feelings toward Turkey and said he intends to strengthen both official and community collaborations.
Wider Impact on the Blockchain Community
The case comes at a time when developers of privacy tools face increasing legal pressure. Recently, Roman Storm of Tornado Cash was convicted for operating an unlicensed money transmission business, which could carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Bankless founder Sean Adams described Carrone’s detention as troubling, especially given that Istanbul is a proposed host city for DevCon 2026.
Crypto advocacy group Coin Center also warned that the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet cases highlight ongoing legal uncertainty facing privacy protocols and self-custody tools.
The incident raises serious questions about whether more governments are crossing the line – and whether software developers are becoming legal targets simply for creating technologies that could be misused.
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