Oddbean new post about login | logout Roman Sterlingov’s conviction for running a mixer is a dangerous legal precedent The only hard evidence for him to serve 20 years in prison is that his KYC Bitcoin went through many hops and wallets before it later was used to buy a domain name. Which was then used for illegal activity. This would mean that you’re responsible for the future actions of anyone you pay
did judges not understand this ? Or are they simply that stupid ?
Clearly both
It is corruption. They purposefully dragged him from a California arrest, to DC/Virginia area (the other side of the country) to get a harsh jury and judge that automatically side with the government
This means that if you sell your bitcoin to JP Morgan or Blackrock, you’re going to be held responsible for foreign regime change, forever wars, rigging the metals markets, and massive amounts of fraud and theft. Act accordingly.
That’s a really good point. @jack created a legal defense fund to protect developers. Is anyone creating a legal offense fund so Blackrock and JP Morgan can be held accountable for their crimes against humanity?
Arms of the state don’t get held accountable unfortunately, such is the reality of the monopoly of violence
Unbelievable. If so, all drug crimes are related to the FED and banks. Both the FED and the banks should go to jail. Because criminals used the currency they printed to conduct transactions.
lol good one
Completely fucked. @ODELL's rip with Roman’s lawyers was both enlightening and frightening.
What episode was this?
Any chance for an appeal on this?
Yes there is an appeal going on
What sort of activity? Worse than their pedo legal rings?
It’s irrelevant what the Bitcoin source is, because the service has no way of knowing that information. And the entire thing is past the statue of limitations being from 2011
I will never understand why Bitcoiners ignore Monero, when one friend after another gets prosecuted, thrown into jail or killed for the transparent use of Bitcoin. Bitcoiners hear me out: Your government might want to get rid of you or your wealth in the future. For your own safety. Use the right tools for the job provided by us cypherpunks. nostr:nevent1qqsqqqqzzcmk47dnm5q9y8q5tcejjta6gm92vkr4a7kzc2jhuc6umccppamhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5pzptpldtlpwkflvxqs2y76exs7238g0wwwjxe86dac3mzclw4fq992qvzqqqqqqyeagacz
Next time Roman uses Monero to buy a domain name...
You are absolutely right: if we don’t stop criminalization of #bitcoin #freedomtech in the legislative and judicial approaches of democracies, everyone - developers, bitcoin miners, end-users, investors can be targeted/prosecuted. The good news, that comparing to the authoritarian regimes in democracies we still have strong instruments how to defend our rights and freedom tools as bitcoin/privacy instruments. We need to educate legislators and judges on the concrete examples, for instance: 1) how bitcoin privacy tools helps to protect human rights to financially excluded people in the authoritarian states, which are majority in the world. 2) remind that compromising privacy instruments at the time when AI is used by the dictatorships it is a risk for democratic institutions to be manipulated/destroyed. We did the same in #Guatemala, defending SimpleProof developer Rafael Cordon, whose bitcoin solution helped to protect elections results against AI fraud. Corrupt regime persecuted Rafael, but we organized campaign to support him, and just one example, that his case was supported by many of deputies. At the end joint pressure help to defend Rafael. So all possible, but we should educate and build our coalition, orange-pill deputies and judges, not just complain. https://pace.coe.int/en/files/33143/html https://image.nostr.build/8e6eebc017a9239b0983fe73703c21f6b14c7cbcbf2754c8acb286e487ff0012.jpg
Well said
