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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

#181

Post by genidoi »

xtracto wrote: post #159
danielvf wrote: post #71

According to the original complaint, a few months after being interviewed by an FBI agent on returning from his trip to North Korea, Griffith had the following conversation over text messages: Griffith: I need to send 1 [REDACTED UNIT OF CRYPTOCURRENCY] between North and South Korea. Other Guy: "Isn't that in violations of sanctions?" Griffith: It is. A few day later, also in text messages to someone else: Someone: W…

> I need to send 1 [REDACTED UNIT OF CRYPTOCURRENCY] between North and South Korea I find this fascinating. How can you send any crypto between one country and the other? In reality, everyone who is using crypto is doing the transaction in every country where a validator/node is running. There is no concept of "sending BTC between Mexico and the USA". There may be a concept of someone paying USD money to somebody els…

You don't even need a validator/node running in your country -- another standard node merely needs to hear about it, run the standard bitcoin-core code for tx propagation to its connected peers (happens automatically ofc.) and it will be included in the next block if network congestion conditions permit miners to do so.

Interestingly, this leads to a startling scenario if you use an 'advanced' client such as Electrum, where you have the ability to create & sign a valid transaction, before broadcasting it. During that time, which is ofc defined entirely by your decision to hold off broadcasting the TXO, the transaction 'exists' but isn't recorded in the blockchain. In fact anyone who can get ahold of that transaction data (not to be confused with your private key) can send it off to the network, and it will be registered in the next block. So a valid transaction, once signed by the corresponding private key, is almost entirely removed from the signor, and the decision to broadcast it can be viewed as a seperate one altogether from signing.

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

#182

Post by s1artibartfast »

thereddaikon wrote: post #175
mtoner23 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Victimless? North korea is not a victimless country. There's a reason why they are sactioned. He clearly broke a big and important law and knew he was doing it. idk what else one would expect

Yeah I don't see how anyone could consider it victimless. By helping North Korea circumvent sanctions he indirectly has blood on his hands. This is a country that sentences multiple generations of a family to work camps.

The USA has a similar incarceration rate to North Korea, albeit with better conditions.

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

#183

Post by matheusmoreira »

boc wrote: post #151
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…

If you helped smuggle $1M in cash across the NK border you'd also be arrested and convicted for helping to evade sanctions. If anything crypto-enthusiasts should be happy to hear that the US government treats crypto as a legitimate means of moving money between nations, and punishes actors accordingly. I'm glad he's a nice guy based on your interactions, but he knowingly tried to enrich an totalitarian state that has…

> If anything crypto-enthusiasts should be happy to hear that the US government treats crypto as a legitimate means of moving money between nations, and punishes actors accordingly.

Cryptocurrencies being easy to move is old news. It would be much more interesting to discover that some cryptocurrency is actually immune to government sanctions.

Monero has shown hints of this. US treasury tried to sanction a wallet and ended up sanctioning a transaction hash.

https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdnlist.txt

> Digital Currency Address - XMR 5be5543ff73456ab9f2d207887e2af87322c651ea1a873c5b25b7ffae456c320;

https://localmonero.co/blocks/search/5be5543ff73456ab9f2d207...

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

#184

Post by mzs »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #123

Mods: Better link: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/united-states-citizen-p... Better title: "United States Citizen Pleads Guilty To Conspiring To Assist North Korea In Evading Sanctions"

or this for the sentencing itself: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-citizen-who-conspired-assi...

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

#185

Post by kyleplum »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #174
marcinzm wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting implications for the case of Cuba. If so, their primary crime is being a country in close proximity to the USA. So much for arguments of respecting national autonomy.

Refusing to trade with a country is not a violation of their national autonomy.

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

#186

Post by tristor »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #174
marcinzm wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting implications for the case of Cuba. If so, their primary crime is being a country in close proximity to the USA. So much for arguments of respecting national autonomy.

> Interesting implications for the case of Cuba. If so, their primary crime is being a country in close proximity to the USA. So much for arguments of respecting national autonomy.

I believe their primary crime is being a country in close proximity to the USA, that is unfriendly to US interests, and at least once offered the USSR, a then enemy of the US, to host nuclear ICBMs on their territory so they could more easily target Americans.

It’s not like the US randomly and unilaterally decided to sanction Cuba, nor is it like thousands of Cubans fled the country by any means possible to end up seeking asylum in the US for no reason.

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

#187

Post by ashtonbaker »

xtracto wrote: post #159
danielvf wrote: post #71

According to the original complaint, a few months after being interviewed by an FBI agent on returning from his trip to North Korea, Griffith had the following conversation over text messages: Griffith: I need to send 1 [REDACTED UNIT OF CRYPTOCURRENCY] between North and South Korea. Other Guy: "Isn't that in violations of sanctions?" Griffith: It is. A few day later, also in text messages to someone else: Someone: W…

> I need to send 1 [REDACTED UNIT OF CRYPTOCURRENCY] between North and South Korea I find this fascinating. How can you send any crypto between one country and the other? In reality, everyone who is using crypto is doing the transaction in every country where a validator/node is running. There is no concept of "sending BTC between Mexico and the USA". There may be a concept of someone paying USD money to somebody els…

This is indeed fascinating, but is it unique to crypto? Seems like analyzing any electronic transfer like this would get you into a discussion of which bits are stored where on earth. If you're doing something which transfers value to a party under sanctions, and you're publicly announcing that as your intent, then I think courts are unlikely to be interested in metaphysical discussions like this.

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

#188

Post by s1artibartfast »

beaconstudios wrote: post #146
s1artibartfast wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like he simply didn't support the sanctions and doesn't believe in blind obedience to US law.

There are sanctions that are worthy of criticism - the decades-long sanction on Cuba, for instance, even though I disagree with their regime - but North Korea is pretty transparently a despotic regime that should be opposed.

I have yet to hear a convincing argument how sanctions do anything aside from impoverish the 25 million people living in North Korea.

They don't bring about regime change, They don't impose hardship on the despots, and they don't take away nuclear capability from North Korea.

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

#189

Post by wolverine876 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #123

Mods: Better link: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/united-states-citizen-p... Better title: "United States Citizen Pleads Guilty To Conspiring To Assist North Korea In Evading Sanctions"

Business Insider isn't a great source, but I don't like primary sources: They will be very biased in their own interest. A good secondary source can provide context, information from sources that disagree or have other perspectives or concerns, etc. That's one reason Wikipedia requires secondary sources.

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

#190

Post by eimrine »

xiphias2 wrote: post #93
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I agree and I am willing to defend him a little bit here. Vast majority of US population would be astounded if they learned even a fraction of screening that goes on behind the curtain; that does not even include existence of SARs or differences between jurisdictions. And they typically don't know, because, usually, those issues touch either sophisticated players with money to spend on defense, or actual desi…

He was helping the worst dictator on Earth increase his power even more. Right now there are sanctions against Russia, and some US companies are giving Bitcoin to Russians to help to escape the country, but the US government doesn’t make that illegal, because they are not helping Putin, but the refugees who got stuck in a horrible situation. Of course US can make sending Bitcoin to Russian people illegal at any time,…

> make sending Bitcoin to Russian people illegal

Isn't it impossible? Bitcoins are being sent to random 256bits, not to people. Unless some Russian person reveals some adress and promises that he really owns the key, this kind of transaction may be hard to proove.

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