The Samourai Wallet developers created a tool improving privacy for bitcoin on-chain use, similar to cash. Users held control of their own funds. Prosecutors ignored FinCEN guidance and concocted an unreasonable legal theory of liability to charge them both with breaking money transmission laws despite the tool never taking custody of the funds. Facing millions in legal costs, 25 years in prison, an overzealous and unfair prosecution, and a Judge with no patience for understanding the broader legal and technical arguments, the developers were essentially forced to plead to lesser charges of "conspiracy" for the sake of their families. Now, both developers have one month before they are to turn themselves in for 4+ years of incarceration, all for creating a piece of open-source code that allowed people to do want they wanted with their own money. This prosecution is an unwarranted and unjust process of law that will be looked back on in shame. Every legal tool or resource should be dispensed in order to free them and reverse the dangerous precedent this sets for privacy and financial sovereignty. Privacy is not a crime, and open-source developers who empower users are not criminals. Many wealthy and powerful people today use bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to safeguard their wealth and benefit from a real-time settlement network without intermediaries. Every consumer benefits from better tech tools that allow them to take control of their money and spend how they wish. If people of influence understand and appreciate the broader ethos of the Bitcoin and crypto revolution, rather than trading and getting rich off fees from their shitcoins, they should advocate for both the pardon of these two individuals and for legal safeguards in federal law to ensure this never happens again. It is not just two these people's lives at stake, but it's the future of how Americans will interact and benefit from technology going forward. #freesamourai

Replies (9)

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A. 1 month ago
I don’t know a thing about this—but couldn’t this be defended as free speech? It’s software.
The_Crin's avatar
The_Crin 1 month ago
Not only are they persecuting cryptocurrency developers, but now France also wants to criminalize privacy, as they are now going after grapheneOS developers, demanding that they give them backdoors. If they don't obey, they will be sent to jail. As with Samurai Wallet and Tornado Cash, they invented accusations that it is a system only for criminals, completely ignoring the fact that many people use it to protect themselves. If they are starting to persecute even them, it is most likely that in the coming months we will begin to see several governments start a witch hunt, treating anyone who develops open source systems that protect users as criminals. Don't be surprised to hear that soon they will even go after the developers of the most private Linux distributions, threatening them in the same way.
weev's avatar
weev 0 months ago
There are plenty of attorneys willing to take cases like these pro/low bono. It is a very good case for appeal. Tor Ekeland would have done it for free, I guarantee it. It’s not the money. People are conditioned not to fight.
BTC21's avatar
BTC21 0 months ago
Heartbreaking. Code isn't crime, privacy is a right. We can't let this slide.
You don't understand that they do understand. You need tech like Monero that withstands legal attacks even if it means it gets banned.