US cryptocurrency expert jailed for helping North Korea evade sanctions
www.bbc.com
Virgil Griffith was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by a court in New York.

Very normal freedom loving country as always.

Also critical support for buttcoins in this particular case, I guess.

  • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Libertarian crypto "expert" has better foreign policy than the average western "leftist"

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      In this case you don't have to. He gave a presentation in NK where he told all of the exact same lies about crypto that crypto bros tell everyone else and the USGov decided that that was a violation of the NK sanctions. It's not like he organized a transfer of a bunch of crypto to a wallet controlled by the DPRK government, he was just hoping that their government buys into the scam the same way they got Costa Rica's and a few others to.

      • blobjim [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        He gave a presentation in NK where he told all of the exact same lies about crypto that crypto bros tell everyone else

        Where are you getting this claim from?

        • ssjmarx [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I'm assuming based on the actions of Ethereum's shills in other countries and the article's description of him going there "to speak at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference". I don't think he traveled to the other side of the planet to warn Kim Jong Un that it's a pyramid scheme.

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    :picard-pointing: The one good crypto nerd.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      :freeze-peach: In North Korea there is no free speech or academic freedom :freeze-peach:

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      All of the wiki watchdog stuff has been SEO'd out of prominence by a service that literally exists to help corporations monitor and astroturf their wikipedia page, lmao.

  • frick [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    im really curious how one gets involved in a job like this... like did some NK consulting company reach out to this guy because he's prominent on github or whatever and be like "we need a bitcoin mixer" and he built it?

    • space_comrade [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Wouldn't be surprised they paid him a lot of money. Cryptobros love money more than anything else.

      It might be that he did it out of genuine anti-imperialist sentiment, some libertarians are on occasion consistent with their ideology and are big anti-interventionists.

  • Catherine_Steward [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    In communist north korea they put you in the gulag for five years for traveling to another country to give a public presentation on your area of expertise