US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation • Hacker News Board

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#51

Post by mdanger007 » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:23 PM UTC

ricochet11 wrote: post #28

beebmam wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Korea actively threatens the use of nuclear weapons, offensively, against its neighbors and enemies. There should be no sympathy for this regime or anyone who collaborates with it.

How do we go about improving relations? How do we improve the lives of the people living under that awful regime? How do we give people ways to exit and escape, and have access to the freedoms we have?

Sanctions are one of the few tools the world has against nuclear armed despots. If you're really interested in the questions you ask, I would start here: https://nymag.com/strategist/2018/03/the-10-best-books-about...

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#52

Post by garbagetime » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #29

beebmam wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Korea actively threatens the use of nuclear weapons, offensively, against its neighbors and enemies. There should be no sympathy for this regime or anyone who collaborates with it.

Agreed. And once we finish with North Korea we should turn our eyes to the United States, the country that developed and currently only user of nuclear weapons in combat. No sympathy for users of nuclear weapons or any country who threatens its use!

The USA are the good guys so I'm happy they have their defensive nukes all around the world.

Also, the one time when they used their nukes offensively that was actually to save lives.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#53

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

egberts1 wrote: post #41

endisneigh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. And once we finish with North Korea we should turn our eyes to the United States, the country that developed and currently only user of nuclear weapons in combat. No sympathy for users of nuclear weapons or any country who threatens its use!

… only user …? Clearly, you are qualified to comment on world affair. /sarcasm

That statement is entirely correct; the US is the only country ever to use nuclear weapons in combat. Everyone else has only ever tested them, or used them as threats/deterrence.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#54

Post by elliekelly » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

etherael wrote: post #35

beebmam wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Korea actively threatens the use of nuclear weapons, offensively, against its neighbors and enemies. There should be no sympathy for this regime or anyone who collaborates with it.

Giving North Korean citizens access to an economy outside their locked down one where they can engage in trade may well be the exact opposite of collaborating with the North Korean regime. This could easily be the most practical and realistic way to destroy North Korean control over its economy. If those citizens are no longer beholden to the regime for their economic livelihood and that encourages internal organisat…

How many times do we have to try this "stronger economic ties will encourage freedom/peace/democracy" theory before we accept that it only serves to enrich those who are already wealthy and doesn't do a thing to preserve peace. It perhaps even does the opposite: becomes a tool of coercion the bad actor can use to manipulate the free economies with which they trade. The free markets get hooked on the cheap $thing provided by the authoritarian government and then we're stuck. Our consumers are fat and happy with the cheap $thing so our politicians look the other way as the evil regime does more and more overtly evil things. Trade makes us more tolerant of the authoritarians' bad behavior. It doesn't encourage the authoritarians to behave better. See, e.g., Russia's sale of natural gas to Europe, China's sale of labor/consumer products to the West, KSA's sale of petrol to the States.

Time and again we do business with evil regimes and pretend it might result in some good. It doesn't. It won't. Let's not keep repeating the same failed experiment.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#55

Post by garbagetime » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

egberts1 wrote: post #41

endisneigh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. And once we finish with North Korea we should turn our eyes to the United States, the country that developed and currently only user of nuclear weapons in combat. No sympathy for users of nuclear weapons or any country who threatens its use!

… only user …? Clearly, you are qualified to comment on world affair. /sarcasm

Did a whole nuclear war go by without my noticing?

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#56

Post by stuntkite » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

This is a weird event that it's going to take me a long while to form an opinion on. I just... don't know what to say or think about this. That isn't a thinly veiled condemnation. I genuinely don't know what to think about this but it's clearly something that needs to be evaluated very critically and involves so many things that are so... of their time and place.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#57

Post by light_hue_1 » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

etherael wrote: post #35

beebmam wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Korea actively threatens the use of nuclear weapons, offensively, against its neighbors and enemies. There should be no sympathy for this regime or anyone who collaborates with it.

Giving North Korean citizens access to an economy outside their locked down one where they can engage in trade may well be the exact opposite of collaborating with the North Korean regime. This could easily be the most practical and realistic way to destroy North Korean control over its economy. If those citizens are no longer beholden to the regime for their economic livelihood and that encourages internal organisat…

This is the Merkel-Steinmeier system that was applied to Russia. Bring Russia into the fold economically. Ignore its bad actions. Give it access to money, technology, etc. So that it will become economically dependent with us and then it won't want to attack anyone. Surely as Russians become more economically able they will fight against Putin's brutal reign. Well, exactly the opposite happened.

Look at Ukraine today. People are fighting for their lives while Russians slaughter women and children and throw their dead bodies into wells. That's what the Merkel-Steinmeier approach gives you.

Giving a regime like this money makes the regime more powerful, not less.

> Frankly the US should be all over encouraging this activity, but given how stupid they have been for all modern history I can't say I'm surprised they're not.

The US had been warning Germany to stop its dependence on Russian gas for a decade.

The idea that we should trade with these kinds of regimes is very clearly refuted at this point.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#58

Post by trasz » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:26 PM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #20

Did his PhD at Caltech under Christof Koch in computation and neural systems, was a super talented mathematician... and then he gets involved in crypto. I remember conversations with friends only a few years ago in which we would lament how young brilliant minds were eventually going on to work on adtech, and we would sigh and hope that the tide would turn. Boy, we were not prepared for this tide. Anyway, the NYSD re…

No post body was provided.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#59

Post by happytoexplain » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:26 PM UTC

egberts1 wrote: post #46

spacemanmatt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

freedom of speech is not absolute. it's as simple as that. the guy violated a federal sanction.

except the charges is not on about freedom of speech, not at all, not even close.

The first sentence in the article is "The US sentenced a blockchain researcher to more than five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to help North Korea evade sanctions using cryptocurrency."

Asked why what he did wouldn't be protected by freedom of speech, the parent replied "freedom of speech is not absolute ... the guy violated a federal sanction."

I don't understand what you're implying about this thread of conversation - it seems fairly reasonable. The GP asked about freedom of speech - the parent didn't imply this is a freedom of speech issue. They explained why it isn't.

Re: US sentences crypto expert to 5 years after North Korea blockchain presentation

#60

Post by GauntletWizard » Wed, Apr 13, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

ricochet11 wrote: post #18

This is so sad, how does locking him up for 5 years really helps anyone? or keep anyone safer? He did something stupid maybe, but his work was exploring how digital systems can help bring peace to the world, and he thought a good place for that to happen is NK, so who doesn't agree with that? None of the information he presented was secret, it was all publicly available. For comparison here is a company that actually…

All the solutions to your math homework are publically available, you can find plenty of examples all over. Nonetheless, you're not allowed to go to your friend's desk and do it for him.

North Korea is a country under sanction from the international community for... Cartoon-level villainy, but in the real world. Some of the regimes' crimes are unbelievable because they seem too cruel. They remain actively at war with t This man did not give a talk about how North Korea could evade sanctions, he traveled to Pyongyang to teach them. This is pretty close to being the definition of "Treason".