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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

#251

Post by woah »

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…

This guy literally traveled to a repressive totalitarian regime to perform services for them with the intention of helping them evade sanctions. The fact that crypto was involved is incidental.

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

#252

Post by BobbyJo »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #188
beaconstudios wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

They haven't yet brought about regime change, They haven't yet imposed hardship on the despots, and they haven't yet taken away nuclear capability from North Korea.

The point is, the world needs regime change, in order to be safer (dictators with Nukes are a very dangerous thing to have on the one and only human populated planet). Without the pressure, change is far less likely.

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

#253

Post by sangnoir »

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…

> Five years in prison seems like a disproportionate punishment for an arguably victimless crime

It's not victimless: the United States (government) is the victim, albeit one that's not particularly sympathetic.

Just because the victim is diffuse/a collective doesn't mean the wrongs against it are victimless - this is about as victimless as handing over nuclear secrets to another country (in quality, not severity).

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

#254

Post by inopinatus »

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…

Fundamentally, law cares about the beneficiaries and intentions, especially as these pertain to rights and obligations. The mechanisms are a technical detail.

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

#255

Post by woah »

gmuslera wrote: post #95

What if he did the exact same presentation in youtube, and in NK they saw that presentation? What if someone in NK downloaded the open source implementation of that blockchain, participated on it, or even mined quite a few coins? Could be argued the same about any open source program (and their developers) dealing with encrypted information in any way? What was the problem? Going in person? Answering questions in the…

That's what I thought at first too, but no, it's much more ridiculous and openly criminal.

"The document also includes [...] photos of Griffith, clad in a traditional-style North Korean suit, writing on a white board, on which “No sanctions!” was written with a smiley face."

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/11/former-ethereum...

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

#256

Post by petre »

chrisco255 wrote: post #226
behringer wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine knowing literally anything about north Korea and wanting to help that government. He should be put away for life for aiding crimes against humanity.

Lol what if by spreading crypto knowledge in totalitarian states, you give people in those states a viable way to preserve their income and assets in a way that no other asset class can? Imagine someone trying to protest or escape a regime imposing capital controls on citizens such as North Korea or Canada. What if, those citizens could simply memorize or encode a 12-24 word phrase that could preserve their net worth…

Yeah, sure. Guess how Kim Jong Un financed his nukes and ICBMs. Aided by people like this guy and through state sponsored ransomware attacks. Now imagine Russia using the same strategy. They're already using weapons from Iraq smuggled through Iran against Ukrainians.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-backed-militias-in-iraq-r...

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

#257

Post by tomatowurst »

tomphoolery wrote: post #103

He should be in jail for longer. What a traitor.

I'm no lawyer but I can only dream that they might find more stuff to throw the book at him but somehow i doubt this.

How you go and help a country that your own country is at war with, starves women and children, sends a prisoner's entire family to prison camps for three generations where do all sorts of horrible things and spend only 5 years in prison.

People have been sent to prison far longer just because they had a bag of weed on them.

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

#258

Post by mdoms »

chrisco255 wrote: post #226
behringer wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine knowing literally anything about north Korea and wanting to help that government. He should be put away for life for aiding crimes against humanity.

Lol what if by spreading crypto knowledge in totalitarian states, you give people in those states a viable way to preserve their income and assets in a way that no other asset class can? Imagine someone trying to protest or escape a regime imposing capital controls on citizens such as North Korea or Canada. What if, those citizens could simply memorize or encode a 12-24 word phrase that could preserve their net worth…

He was presenting his "crypto knowledge" to the totalitarian state.

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

#259

Post by mywittyname »

bell-cot wrote: post #206
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…

How far down the "flew 8,000 miles to get there, climbed over the barbed wire fence, licked both his thumbs, and pressed them against the shiny parts labeled 'DANGER! 25,000 VOLTS!'..." rabbit-hole-of-stupid should one have to go, before it's 100% okay for me to stop caring whether or not his sentence was just?

Five years seems pretty mild when you consider the chief purpose of sanctions is to provide an alternative to war as a means of settling disputes. And this man is willfully undermining the ability of his country to levy sanctions.

Surely actively undermining the security of ones country is a serious offense.

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

#260

Post by victor9000 »

bell-cot wrote: post #206
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…

How far down the "flew 8,000 miles to get there, climbed over the barbed wire fence, licked both his thumbs, and pressed them against the shiny parts labeled 'DANGER! 25,000 VOLTS!'..." rabbit-hole-of-stupid should one have to go, before it's 100% okay for me to stop caring whether or not his sentence was just?

I'm not sure about the exact threshold, but in this case we have definitely crossed it.
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