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

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

#161

Post by samhw »

water-your-self wrote: post #108
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To an extent, I wonder if this is the fear of the unknown. Here is a guy, who actually seems to understand the 'magic' of crypto. God only knows what he could do with dangerous knowledge like that. I am not foreign policy, NK, crypto, or national security expert, but it is not about safety. It is about sending a message at a time when US engages in very heavy sanctions effort ( currently against Russia ). From that p…

What 'magic' is there in crypto. Besides, cryptography as a munition is a known meme in the right circles. This is textbook what not to do.

> What 'magic' is there in crypto.

Well, there's magical thinking, does that count? ;)

(Also, perhaps it's just me, but I really dislike the term 'crypto'. Cryptography is a genuinely valuable field. Maybe we can call them 'waste-backed internet tokens' or something. When they actually implement Moxie Marlinspike's suggestion[0] of using cryptography rather than distributed consensus as proof of validity, then maybe they can call themselves cryptocurrencies.)

[0] "We should accept the premise that people will not run their own servers by designing systems that can distribute trust without having to distribute infrastructure. This means architecture that anticipates and accepts the inevitable outcome of relatively centralized client/server relationships, but uses cryptography (rather than infrastructure) to distribute trust." (https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html)

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

#162

Post by chickenpotpie »

simoncion wrote: post #135
chickenpotpie wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> An american citizen cannot verbally harass someone... >They can, actually. See the quote from the wikipedia article above. No they can’t. Verbal harassment is a crime. Someone can serve a year in jail for it the state of Colorado

> Verbal harassment is a crime. Someone can serve a year in jail for it the state of Colorado Would you be so kind as to link to the text of the law in question? I expect that a critical part of the law will be something along the lines of "The harasser follows around the harassed, despite requests by the harassed that the harasser desist.", which makes it more than just a restriction on speech. If it's a _pure_ rest…

“ (1) A person commits harassment if, with intent to harass, annoy, or alarm another person, he or she:

…

(b) In a public place directs obscene language or makes an obscene gesture to or at another person

…

(2) Harassment pursuant to subsection (1) of this section is a class 3 misdemeanor; except that harassment is a class 1 misdemeanor if the offender commits harassment pursuant to subsection (1) of this section with the intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person's actual or perceived race; color; religion; ancestry; national origin; physical or mental disability, as defined in section 18-9-121(5)(a) ; or sexual orientation, as defined in section 18-9-121(5)(b) .“

https://codes.findlaw.com/co/title-18-criminal-code/co-rev-s...

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

#163

Post by boomboomsubban »

garbagetime wrote: post #39
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.

Why do you think it is that the DPRK places such a priority on emphasizing its nuclear capabilities?

Probably because a country that once razed every city in North Korea has spent seventy years threatening them with nukes.

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

#164

Post by SkyBelow »

stickfigure wrote: post #156
qbasic_forever wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking forward to see how you'll imprison the German government for continuing to purchase oil from Russia through shell companies like Gazprombank.

At the moment that is still legal. The German government may decide to change that in the future.

>At the moment that is still legal.

Is the discussion on what is legal or on what is moral to legally enforce? I had read the parent discussion as being the latter.

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

#165

Post by xtian »

garbagetime wrote: post #52
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!

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.

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

That's contradicted by the historical record. US intelligence believed that Japan was ready to surrender. The goal of using the nukes was to intimidate the Soviet Union.

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

#166

Post by tptacek »

chatmasta wrote: post #48

I met Virgil at an academic workshop back in 2014. We went out in Amsterdam. He was a weird guy, to say the least (he’d probably be the first to agree). He was generally quite affable and obviously highly intelligent. He’s an idiot for this fiasco. But it’s also sad to see him in jail; I don’t see how this benefits society in any way. Five years in prison seems like a disproportionate punishment for an arguably victi…

Leaving aside the questions of whether this is a victimless crime, amply addressed by sibling comments, I'd like to point out that people like Virgil Griffith benefit from these sympathetic assessments, in large part for being part of our in-group, but most defendants do not. You wouldn't want to live in a system where these kinds of sentiments actually controlled even more than they already do.

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

#167

Post by etherael »

kube-system wrote: post #140
etherael wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Cryptocurrencies have no way to unilaterally accomplish that. Bitcoin can’t stop anyone from knocking down your door and taking your belongings. It doesn’t work without access to communication technology. It doesn’t do anything to circumvent barriers to trade in the physical world. Trade requires two transfers. And, you can’t eat a bitcoin. The only people in NK who have the ability to use bitcoin in trade are the po…

You can store crypto in your head, and you can certainly use it to put together funds which would be helpful to escape.

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

#168

Post by malermeister »

spamizbad wrote: post #15

Not surprised: it seems a common theme with crypto evangelists is the application of the blockchain to avoid sanctions. I don't think its deeply ideological (as in anti-America/Pro-NK) - it's more like they view US financial hegemony as a "competitor" to blockchain technology and a hinderance to global cryptocurrency adoption. Why he would throw his life away like this seems silly. I don't see the point in taking pay…

I'd say it is deeply ideological. Not necessarily anti-US/pro-NK, but anti-any government and pro market supremacy.

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

#169

Post by marcinzm »

forinti wrote: post #155
s1artibartfast wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can know that North Korean government does bad things but still be against sanctions. It is not self evident that broad sections help the situation or the people of NK.

Exactly. Sanctions against Cuba, Iran and NK have achieved very little. They might even be helping keep the status quo in those countries.

You're assuming the goal is some sort of democratic revolution rather than keeping the economies of those countries constrained so they have less money to spend on weapons.

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

#170

Post by etherael »

kmeisthax wrote: post #138
etherael wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I clarified above, I am not promoting state to state white market economic activity. I am promoting peer to peer countereconomic black market activity which cripples the control and power of the closed economy with the express goal of destroying the control and parasitism enabled by the closed economy.

"Peer to peer" is a superset of "state to state". There is no technology which will allow a North Korean citizen to sidestep their government's parasitic internal economy without also allowing the North Korean government to sidestep international sanctions.

Which is another way of saying that trade that might be either can't even be effectively policed by the dystopian state if they want to use it for evading sanctions to the extent they're able without simultaneously shooting themselves in the foot.

If they can't police it effectively all the more reason for more people to do it.

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