Probably we will see devs working on LN facing charges like the tornado cash dev at some point ? Authorities work slow but they will act at some point .
tornado dev didnt get charged for just writing mixer code. he got charged for receiving a fee for being personally involved in shuffling finds used in a crime
its like silk road owner.. if he just operated a craigs list platform where he never touched ant coin.never took a fee.. his life story would be very different
LN devs wont be charged just for writing LN code. but if they operate a node channel that allows routing of their funds to process payments for a fee on behalf of others.. and if they take a fee for routing. then they are operating as a MSB. and thus need to be doing things as suggested by regulations. if they dont and if found they processed and profited from routing to a threshold that treats them as a business.. but never registered as one. then trouble begins
if they then ontop are found to have processed criminal/illicit payments. then they can be charged for bigger crimes.
tornado dev didnt get charged for just writing code