In fact, my discussion in another topic about WasabiWallet blocking outputs used for "illegal transactions", and its users accepting the trade off, is something which I believe is the same debate to not ignore regulations because it could cause the user some legal problems years later.
So, sanction yourself and modify your own behaviors now in anticipation of what the government might do in the future? Yeah, that's going to be a hard pass from me, as I said earlier in this thread:
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked.
Don't use mixers, or the government won't like it.
In fact, don't pay attention to your privacy at all, lest you anger the government.
In fact, why bother even holding your own coins? Leave them in a CEX so the government know exactly what you are doing with them at all times. That way, they will leave you alone.
In fact, better just let them monitor everything you do. You've got nothing to hide, right?
From a technical standpoint, would sanctioning the Lightning Network be as easy as sanctioning Tornado Cash? Tornado Cash is a mixer in Ethereum, Lightning is a whole network of nodes from different locations worldwide.
Of course not. Tornado Cash was a centralized service built on a centralized coin. Not only could they shut down the service, but they could also freeze all the coins and addresses involved. On the other hand, I can open a Lightning channel directly with another user in a peer-to-peer manner with no input from third parties. There is nothing there to sanction, short of sanctioning the entire bitcoin network.