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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

#451

Post by s1artibartfast »

bonzini wrote: post #383
s1artibartfast wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comparison is striking. Kennedy ordered a naval "quarantine" to prevent missiles from reaching Cuba. By using the term "quarantine" rather than "blockade" (an act of war by legal definition), the United States was able to avoid the implications of a state of war. After several days of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive…

> the US refused ultimatums to stay out of Ukraine Which is just a pretense. On different days, the "special military operation" has been to avoid NATO bordering Russia (which it already does in the Baltic), "remove Nazis", "fix Lenin's mistake of separating Ukraine from Russia", "free Donbass and Luhansk" and probably others that I forgot. And anyway, US didn't do anything (this time). Ukraine has a right to join NA…

>Ukraine has a right to join NATO if they want, without asking uncle Vladimir beforehand

by this standard, Cuba has the right to have Russian nukes pointed at Washington DC. But we all know that the US would wipe Cuba off the face of the earth and kill every civilian there before that happened.

They are still under sanctions 70 years later for playing that game and assuming they have territorial autonomy.

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

#452

Post by SkyMarshal »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #182
thereddaikon wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Better conditions and due process. Whataboutitists love to conveniently the latter.

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

#453

Post by w7 »

syshum wrote: post #430
hayd wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The santions [sic] are resposible [sic] for starving women/children. This is a lie, and if you think NK leadership is going to be spending crypto on food for their populace you're deluded.

If you think the Sanctions will either change the NK government or slow their weapons program I have an apartment in Shanghai to sell you

If you think filling the coffers of the North Korea, a country with a caste system that mandates certain people have limited food access, will improve the lowest caste member's lives then I've one in Pyongyang to sell you.

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

#454

Post by JustLurking2022 »

syshum wrote: post #428
af78 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoting one of the lawyers who helped draft sanctions law: https://freekorea.us/sanctions-nkspea-faq/ """ Section 207 of the NKSPEA contains broad exemptions for food imports and humanitarian aid, and provides for waivers for humanitarian reasons, or when a waiver is important to the national security or economic interests of the United States. The Treasury Department has also published general licenses permitting hu…

And yet they still starve, it is almost like crippling economic systems but allowing shipments of rice is not humanitarian at all, but more a "face saving" position so they can claim they are not the baddies

It's almost like the place is run by a dictator who would take food out of the mouth of his own people to fund a nuclear weapons program that serves no purpose other than to keep him in power.

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

#455

Post by etherael »

kube-system wrote: post #212
etherael wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'd really like to hear how you think that would physically take place.

If you had the ability to relatively risk free assist an NK defector and knew doing so would give you access to large economic reward, why would you choose not to?

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

#456

Post by boomboomsubban »

kyleplum wrote: post #447
boomboomsubban wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. They're free to choose who they trade with, using who that country trades with as a decider violates their autonomy. You're just framing the violation as a choice and saying it is their right to make that choice. Sure, they also have the right to make the choice to invade Canada, but actually invading is obviously violating their autonomy.

Okay let's use a specific example: I decide that I don't want to trade with Country A because they are producing weapons that they plan on using to attack me with. Now let's say Country B is trading with Country A, and I think they are trading components being used to produce the weapons in Country A. Is it a violation of Country B's autonomy for me to decide to not to trade with them because they are trading with co…

>Is it a violation of Country B's autonomy for me to decide to not to trade with them because they are trading with country A?

Yes.

>am I violating the autonomy for all of those countries?

Yes.

The clearer example would be imagine country A attacked me, would refusing to trade with country B violate their autonomy? And the answer is still yes, but both country A and B are already violating your autonomy so it's a justifiable violation.

With your example, I wouldn't say producing weapons clearly violated your autonomy, but that's a completely different argument.

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

#457

Post by homonculus1 »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #438
afarrell wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It similarly sucks that our justice system punishes the clumsy criminals and lets the really skillfully sneaky ones go unpunished. Nobody has yet faced charges for robbing the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

That's why I find the fact that real murder and attempted murder have different sentences to be a grave injustice. Criminals should not receive a discount on their sentence because they happened to be a bad shot or because the good trauma surgeon was on duty that night.

Unfair as it may seem, it's better that the legal system limit itself to actual occurrences and not extrapolate to hypotheticals

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

#458

Post by ttybird2 »

paxys wrote: post #421
ttybird2 wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me personally the second. But I am sure that regardless of what we think regarding what he did, we can all agree that it's a shame that someone like that won't be around to work on cool tech due to his sentencing, kinda like with Hans Reiser.

He always had the option to work on cool tech. What he instead chose to do was go to North Korea and educate them on how to use Ethereum.

I think you missed my point. I meant that he will now not have that option.

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

#459

Post by homonculus1 »

sneak wrote: post #433
bell-cot wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

He was imprisoned for teaching. You have to construct quite a mental abstraction for that to be a legitimate criminal offense.

You say it like he was teaching the gospel of Christ. Teaching a hostile foreign power how to evade sanctions is a crime for a reason, and if he wants to be a martyr against that principle then let him be one.

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

#460

Post by JustLurking2022 »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #411
kyleplum wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not banning trade doesn't force the countries to trade, it just gives them the choice. And the choice made by the US is to not trade with Cuba or anyone who trades with Cuba - it's their right to make this choice.

It's not. They're free to choose who they trade with, using who that country trades with as a decider violates their autonomy. You're just framing the violation as a choice and saying it is their right to make that choice. Sure, they also have the right to make the choice to invade Canada, but actually invading is obviously violating their autonomy.

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