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Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

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Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#51

Post by mdoms »

antonzabirko wrote: post #48
arcturus17 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wild to me is that someone would think that it’s a good idea to give talks about anything in North Korea, a regime that has murdered and starved millions of people. Also, the people of North Korea do not have access to the internet or Youtube as far as I know.

Sorry how is that regime any different from the US? No idea what he had to gain by travelling to north korea, but more power to him. If it's public info then yeah this is a sham considering that the international financial system is a cartel.

I do not believe that you're asking "how is the NK regime different to the US one" in good faith.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#52

Post by hypervisorxxx »

Traster wrote: post #42

I can't actually beleive people in this thread are downplaying someone travelling to North Korea to explain to them how to evade economic sancations. This is literally confirming all the worst things people say about crypto-currencies. What's happening in North Korea isn't a joke, we have sanctions for a reason.

It appears some people are still so uneducated about life in north Korea they believe they believe the people can fire up a browser extension and overthrow the government or something.

Alot of people don't WANT to leave either and have been so brainwashed they are terrified of the outside world and believe it is a lawless land filled with gang warfare and burning trashcans, according to one of my friends who got to tour there which is a very rare privilege and outsiders are supervised every moment on a state sponsored tour after being forced to leave flowers at the dictators picture upon landing in North Korea and anyone who refuses to do so before following their sanctioned state sponsored tour (no unsupervised interactions with any citizens is allowed the entire time) is sent back on the plane immediately. The tour guide asked him how he had survived the outside world so long and if he was so relieved to finally be in a safe place when he got on....

I'm not sure the dictator is suddenly going to allow them to download Google chrome and install metamask and pretend he doesn't know what's going on and watch his country be overthrown he would more likely nuke his own people first.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#53

Post by thefr0g »

hypervisorxxx wrote: post #27
chrisco255 wrote: post #3

"Griffith was arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in November 2019 after he travelled to North Korea to give a talk on blockchain and crypto." This is pretty wild to me. The guy gave a talk in North Korea and gave them non-classified information they could easily find on YouTube or any other public website. And now he's facing 20 years.

Oh no... How do I tell you this? People in North Korea don't have access to YouTube and the internet. Are you aware of what life is like for the people of North Korea? Only a few select businessmen working for leaders of North Korea are ever allowed to leave and they usually travel to china for unknown business. Giving a talk like this in North Korea is like teaching businessmen how to engage in moving criminal/ terr…

> Giving a talk like this in North Korea is like teaching businessmen how to engage in moving criminal/ terrorism money without getting caught.

Since when is that problematic? Should we lock up CIA agents for 20 years too? I thought USA was the land of the free.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#54

Post by I_am_tiberius »

staticassertion wrote: post #40
I_am_tiberius wrote: post #29

Honestly I'm too scared of the US to post criticism now. It seems to become very random whether to be arrested there or not. I don't want to take that risk.

Yeah, same, what if I accidentally end up in North Korea giving a talk on money laundering? It could happen to anyone. I'm petrified.

I'm talking about my relatives logging in to one of my online accounts.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#55

Post by antonzabirko »

mdoms wrote: post #51
antonzabirko wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry how is that regime any different from the US? No idea what he had to gain by travelling to north korea, but more power to him. If it's public info then yeah this is a sham considering that the international financial system is a cartel.

I do not believe that you're asking "how is the NK regime different to the US one" in good faith.

I'm talking about what he said, not holistically.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#56

Post by chrisco255 »

hypervisorxxx wrote: post #27
chrisco255 wrote: post #3

"Griffith was arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in November 2019 after he travelled to North Korea to give a talk on blockchain and crypto." This is pretty wild to me. The guy gave a talk in North Korea and gave them non-classified information they could easily find on YouTube or any other public website. And now he's facing 20 years.

Oh no... How do I tell you this? People in North Korea don't have access to YouTube and the internet. Are you aware of what life is like for the people of North Korea? Only a few select businessmen working for leaders of North Korea are ever allowed to leave and they usually travel to china for unknown business. Giving a talk like this in North Korea is like teaching businessmen how to engage in moving criminal/ terr…

The point about the information being publicly available on the internet is that it's public information. Not that your average Joe in NK can access it. The regime most certainly does have internet access though, so pretending like this guy gave some top secret info worth locking him up for 20 years of his life for is ridiculous. Nevermind that in 2019 we were in active peace talks with North Korea and even Trump was seen walking across the border without secret service protection to speak with Kim Jong Un that year.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#57

Post by legutierr »

chrisco255 wrote: post #3

"Griffith was arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in November 2019 after he travelled to North Korea to give a talk on blockchain and crypto." This is pretty wild to me. The guy gave a talk in North Korea and gave them non-classified information they could easily find on YouTube or any other public website. And now he's facing 20 years.

North Korea is building nuclear weapons in order to threaten the United States and its allies with them. Tens of thousands of American soldiers are stationed in South Korea in order to defend it from North Korean aggression. The war between the US and North Korea—which began 70 years ago when the current dictator’s grandfather invaded the South and declared war on the United States—is technically not over, and the possibility that active hostilities may resume at any time still exists.

Sanctions are one of the few tools that the US has to exert leverage against the North Korean regime, and Virgil Griffith is alleged to have travelled to North Korea specifically to help North Korea in violating those sanctions. What he is alleged to have done has been illegal for 70 years.

This is not just about one guy giving a talk.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#58

Post by chrisco255 »

arcturus17 wrote: post #13
antocv wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hilarious, land of freedom, justice muh democrazy. Hilarious.

You think people should be free to collaborate with a degenerate regime that has killed millions?

In 2019 we were in active peace talks with North Korea and our own president even stepped foot in the country to collaborate on peace. It didn't pan out the way we hoped but it was worth a shot.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#59

Post by 0x008 »

legutierr wrote: post #57
chrisco255 wrote: post #3

"Griffith was arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in November 2019 after he travelled to North Korea to give a talk on blockchain and crypto." This is pretty wild to me. The guy gave a talk in North Korea and gave them non-classified information they could easily find on YouTube or any other public website. And now he's facing 20 years.

North Korea is building nuclear weapons in order to threaten the United States and its allies with them. Tens of thousands of American soldiers are stationed in South Korea in order to defend it from North Korean aggression. The war between the US and North Korea—which began 70 years ago when the current dictator’s grandfather invaded the South and declared war on the United States—is technically not over, and the po…

I am sorry but to me the wording of your comment seems way too political and biased-sounding for hacker news.

Re: Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith back in jail after checking $1M Coinbase account

#60

Post by mytherin »

h_anna_h wrote: post #50
mytherin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because information is publicly available does not mean they know how to best utilise that information. You can find guides online on how atomic bombs work, but if a physicist traveled to North Korea and gave a talk instructing them how to build an atomic bomb that person should absolutely be arrested. The Ethereum Foundation dev was arrested over a year ago after US authorities claimed then-36-year-old’s confer…

The US government forbidding a citizen from giving a talk sounds quite totalitarian to me. Looks like the constitution of the US is not worth any more than the paper that it is written on.

Information is power. Sharing critical information with a hostile nation can be incredibly dangerous and can lead to many people being killed. Labeling that as "just giving a talk" is misleading. Any government on earth will arrest people that share critical information with a hostile nation. If doing so makes a government totalitarian then every government on earth is totalitarian, which simply means the totalitarian label is meaningless.
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