> If you deliberately build something that can facilitate money laundering and ignore finance laws about KYC and mandatory reporting and and so on, you only have yourself to blame if you run into legal trouble. It doesn't matter if you don't like the law or think it should apply.
Do you believe that code is protected speech? Do you believe that people should be prosecuted for publishing source code that has the potential to be used maliciously if compiled and run?
We have a right to freedom of expression and opinion (Australia is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights), but there are a number of areas where this can be restricted e.g. using a telecommunications network with intent to commit or facilitate a crime is forbidden.
I think probably writing/hosting the code might be ok (although Github et. al are certainly not obliged to host it), but deploying it to a cryptocurrency network would be where it becomes a problem. I don't think any reasonable person would believe that Tornado Cash wouldn't be used to commit money laundering offences, and intent does matter when it regards facilitating crime. I would also think that participating in a DAO (exercising voting rights or what have you) that controls a cryptocurrency tumbler would count as facilitating crime assuming you didn't immediately try to shut the thing down once it became clear it was being used for money laundering.
But, I am not a lawyer (and this is not legal advice). That's just my surface-level understanding.
Do you believe that code is protected speech? Do you believe that people should be prosecuted for publishing source code that has the potential to be used maliciously if compiled and run?