Hal Finney is sort of a bitcoin Walter White. Someone please make a cable series on this.
An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
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Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#62A formerly respected tech publication has been making life hell for hackernews readers by resorting to sensationalist link-bait headlines.
This article also seems to just abruptly end. Been seeing that more frequently lately with stuff posted online. Not sure if its just lazy or poor writing but no closing paragraph makes for a poor reading experience.
Thanks. Something felt off about the article and now that you mention it... the lack of a conclusion is quite off-putting.
Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm afraid that "the police were about to find out about me through this guy" does not count as a reasonable excuse for murdering someone.
It doesn't, but it's also not a non-violent threat. The police were out to lock him in a cage for decades.
No enforcement of any law is completely non-violent. That doesn't in any way excuse or justify killing or trying to kill to avoid enforcement.
Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#64The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…
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Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#65> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.
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Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, but the police do not decide which laws to ignore and which to enforce. They are the enforcement arm, not the legislative. No one should be alarmed that people when people are arrested for peddling illegal drugs.
You're correct. My point was directed more towards people, like the parent I was replying to, who defend government actions simply because something is illegal. It would be equivalent to defending people who returned escaped slaves back in the day because it was the law to do so at the time.
Which would you rather have? Police enforcing the laws, or police enforcing whatever they personally felt was right?
If you disagree with the morality of a law, fine - but your assertion that enforcing drug laws is as immoral as enforcing slavery laws is debatable
Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the police do not decide which laws to ignore and which to enforce They absolutely do. For example, police in Seattle explicitly made marijuana enforcement the lowest possible priority years before Washington legalized it. It was a common sight to see policemen standing right next to people openly smoking pot on the street and completely ignoring them. The police actually have a huge amount of leeway, and it can be…
Actually, in 2003, the voters passed an initiative mandating that police lower their enforcement of marijuana in Seattle[1]. [1] http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Two-years-later-littl...
That's true, but marijuana was still illegal, and some people were still prosecuted. Ultimately the ones deciding who would be arrested and who would be ignored on a case-by-case basis were the police.
Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#68The “police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market,” Ver says, “while evil hackers were busy terrorizing quadriplegic Hal Finney and his family.” "voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal (in other words, like something the police are actually supposed to stop, pe…
Somehow I think you missed the whole "Every transaction is public" part of Bitcoin. Cash is difficult but not impossible to track, Bitcoin is ridiculously easy to track by comparison.
That doesn't mean it's ridiculously easy to attach a transaction to a specific person. If it were, sites like Silk Road would never even exist.
Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "voluntary trade" makes it sound like said trade wasn't actually illegal Just because something is illegal doesn't mean it's wrong.
Right, but the police do not decide which laws to ignore and which to enforce. They are the enforcement arm, not the legislative. No one should be alarmed that people when people are arrested for peddling illegal drugs.
Police officers can, and should, use their conscience to decide whether or not to enforce certain laws.
If you want a legal precedent, the Nuremberg trials somewhat settled that question.
Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters
#70"Ver, who was himself sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for illegally shipping explosive across state lines, believes that Savaged is not only the same person who swatted Hal Finney, but also the person who gained access to Satoshi Nakamoto’s email account earlier this year." --quote from OA...
Why does anyone ship explosives across state lines (or anywhere) unless they run a demolition company? Just wondering (I'm in the UK).