Non-Custodial Bitcoin Wallet Developers Under Attack: Free Samourai

Marty's Bent

Yeah, the price of bitcoin is down, people are dumping on Michael Saylor and Strategy, the skeptics are dancing on bitcoin's grave and the vibe seems a bit off. This is what bitcoin price corrections and bear markets will do to your psyche. They'll get you emotional and distracted. Now is not the time to get distracted. It's the time to fall back to first principles, remind yourself why you're here in the first place, and remember that bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital cash system that has successfully separated money from the state and central banks.

There will never be more than 21,000,000 bitcoin that hit the market. If you store it correctly you can preserve your wealth in a self-sovereign fashion. And if you manage it correctly when sending and receiving you can do so in a private manner, and this is the part that governments and regulators absolutely HATE. Nothing makes this clearer than the persecution of Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill, who were recently delivered a max sentence after agreeing to a plea deal with the Department of Justice.

For those who are unaware, Keonne and Bill built the privacy-focused wallet Samourai Wallet which helped individuals obscure the linked history of their bitcoin transactions by participating in CoinJoins. Samourai Wallet was designed in a way that made it so Samourai never had custody of user funds as they were transacting. Despite this, the Department of Justice charged the two with operating a money transmission business, despite the fact that control of funds is necessary to be considered a money transmitter. Funnily enough, the prosecutors held a meeting with FinCen a few months before charging Keonne in Bill to get their opinion on whether or not they believed Samourai Wallet could be considered a money transmitter, to which they replied, "No, they don't custody funds." This meeting was not disclosed until midway through the trial process.

via econoalchemist

These men were coerced to plea down and admit guilt for something they didn't do because the alternative was likely a life sentence. For writing and publishing free and open source software. Absolutely insane. And it all stems from the fact that the bloated governments and the parasitic regulatory landscape that has been erected around it absolutely hates when individuals have privacy.

via econoalchemist

They do not care if you are a law abiding citizen. As Keonne describes in the clip above, if you are trying to do something privately the government will assume you are doing something nefarious and label you an enemy to be dealt with. This is especially true for the individuals who are so willing and bold to build tools that help other people achieve privacy.

This is wrong. This is tyrannical. This needs to stop.

There is no reason in the world the government shouldn't expect people using bitcoin to try to attain privacy when transacting. The ledger is known to be transparent and, if proper UTXO management isn't practiced, it is trivial to track individual users as they transact throughout time. By practicing proper UTXO management by using wallets like Samourai, users are able to regain privacy that they not only deserve, but need.

Why should companies be able to track how much bitcoin their employees have? Why should a shop owner be able to do this? Why should an exchange be able to do this? Why should anyone have the right to track someone's finances? More importantly, why can't an individual try to prevent any peer from doing so? It seems like a pretty logical position to take, and that's because it very obviously is. This is an absolute miscarriage of justice and a terrible precedent for the US court system to set.

I thought this was supposed to be the bitcoin capital of the world? How can that be possible if the Nanny State won't even let individuals use bitcoin in a private fashion? Not a great look for the current administration.

Keonne and Bill are set to report to prison next month. There are many in the industry pushing for them to get a pardon from President Trump to right this injustice. If you also believe that this is an egregious overstep that is sending two men to sit in cages for five years there is a petition going around that you can sign. Beyond that, if there are any readers out there connected to the administration (I know you're out there), it would be greatly appreciated if you could make it a point to bring this up and push for a pardon.

Sign the Petition

Stand Up for Freedom: Pardon the Innocent Coders Jailed for Building Privacy Tools!

Change.org

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Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $200M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at ten31.vc/invest.

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Final thought...

I have my first sinus infection in quite awhile and boy do they suck.

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