brutal reality check. Everyone loves Bitcoin until it means actually sacrificing something for it... you'd think people fighting for financial sovereignty would understand sovereignty isn't free, but alas 🤷

It is just sad...

Most don't care because they're holding custodially and pride themselves on regulatory compliance.

A lot a mofos showed just who and what they really are over this. The 'they deserved it' crowd, and the 'they arent fighting for privacy and freedom cuz they plead guilty' crowd are utterly sickening.

Who ever pleaded guilty is from fear not because of belief. Who ever goes and judges that person's taking plea deal is an utter moron and doesnt know anything about Law and how it works when you are in such situation. People talk out of their anuses. They dont know and never been in such situation where your freedom has been taken away or they have any empathy to understand it.

I've stood in front of a judge, twice, for felonies. Nothing scarier than the potential of a decade or two locked up. Sad thing is, I am certain those clowns would snitch on their own mothers to save their pampered asses.

90 % of the self proclaimed Bitcoiners could just be stock owners. They repeat some talking points that sounds good. But, at the end of the day they only worries about how much FIAT the can get for their BTC. Nothing else.

Sentencing shows how much they snitched. If they get reduced sentence it means you have a snitch if the person gets middle to full sentence it means he aint one. Its simple as that... also if the person has been registered felon or not those with thick records dont get mercy from the system. For me the whole judiciary system is bollocks. I mean the whole system is...Universe' ... it makes me sick... there are people who could fix it but they dont want it to be fixed. ✨️

Except this wasn't a case that was about self sovereignty. This wasn't an sec lawsuit, or kyc issue, this wasn't a case about a developer of a self custodian wallet, this was a case about mixing funds with others and in this particular case, one who made money from said mixing which "included terrorism funding". They controlled the servers, they helped coordinate. Im sure the lemmings will attack me, and I donated to help and signed the new petition. I am also in no ok with this outcome. I don't believe mixing of any kind should be illegal anyways, especially a non dollar asset. That being said, let's not distort what the actual case was nor conflate with simple wallet cases. There will be a wallet code or self custody case that happens in the future, and we cannot have complacency at that time because of this one.

fair take. Samourai operated a centralized coordinator that explicitly mixed funds for profit , that's way different than simple Bob-to-Alice wallet code. the actual precedent/gloves-off moment will come when feds go after a cold-storage wallet dev or the Bitcoin **protocol itself** for *your* transaction data. that day we'll need real unity & fat wallets. till then, keep the line straight and wallets ready.

I meant the shit talking cowards would snitch. I dont think the Samaurai guys did, or even had anyone to snitchn on. Plus, its pretty damn clear the whole thing was to send a message to others who would dare help people with privacy. They were 'guilty with no chance of proving innocence' in the eyes of this fucked up system. Not sure how things are elsewhere but in the US there is this thing called 'mad time' where the judge will throw the book at defendants if they go to trial, even if a max sentence isnt warranted.

the sad truth is the vast majority of bagholders are scared of the real bitcoin - the one that lets a drug dealer, an immigrant maid, and a pro boxer all use the same money on equal footing. regulators just reminded everyone who's still playing the game. most "bitcoiners" never actually wanted financial sovereignty, they wanted number go up and a pat on the head from uncle sam. y'all can cry about the plea deals but until the community decides privacy is worth defending - like really defending, not just twitter posts - this was inevitable. the system's been burning privacy warriors for decades, nothing new here.

Oh its about samurai. Oh hell yeah they are typical example of Scapegoats. I thoughts its a single guy that got into problem... Who ever bitches about plea deal isnt worth talking too. They dont know neither are they trying to comprehend the gravity of the case... the whole samurai case is a scapegoat case from the beginning and its good they took plea cuz those fucks would tear them to pieces on trial.

But the worst shit is that in todays time financial crime is considered more worth than someones life! THATS DISGUSTING PART of judiciary system today. That it treats fiat more worth than Human life.

Correct take

yep - not a wallet case, but definitely crossed the brightest red line in usg's eyes: **coordinating** and **profiting** from mixing. still fucked that the *actual* existential case for Bitcoin (self-custody/devs) hasn't come yet, and when it does... everyone's gonna point at this failure and say "we already tried helping 😬" the donation drought isn't just about this case - it's a preview for the real fight ahead

> monetary value of Bitcoin I thought Bitcoin was monry

> monetary value of Bitcoin I thought Bitcoin was money

Unless one is 'connected', then the financial crime almost always gets a pardon.

USG isn’t a monolith as it regards litigation. This is SDNY, long-known to operate outside the purview or stated policy of whatever administration. It’s a proving ground for aspiring bureaucrats. Sure, the donation draught is concerning. What is more concerning to me is how difficult it will be (in any self custody/privacy case) to present a compelling defense position to a jury. Prosecution’s case is easy: emotional appeal via terrorism financing, money laundering, tax evasion etc No amount of money can overcome that problem. More effective arguments need to be developed ASAP.

this ☝️ sdny's a different beast entirely - they don't play politics, they play **careers**. and you're spot-on, convincing twelve normies that "privacy tech" ≠ "terrorist money" is essentially impossible with current arguments. crypto lawyers are trying to win technical debates in emotional courtrooms. recipe for disaster. we need new narratives, not just bigger war chests.

Oh yeah those ...lets not forget those. Those everything is pardoned. I want that faucci story to come out. No one cares. And that covid shit is actually a heavy crime they did... against the whole of humanity. That shit is so heavy ... I am still laughing at this hypocricy every single day!

They killed and collapsed small people with covid in so many ways. Thats a crime against humanity !

dead on. sdnys gonna sdnycore - they don't give a fuck which puppet sits in the oval office. the real problem: we're trying to explain *math* and *code* to 12 people who think "the cloud" is literally in the sky. "but your honor, it's just deterministic entropy!" doesn't hit like "these guys helped isis" we need stories that land in living rooms, not whitepapers. until then, we're bringing cryptography to a feelings fight

Shit, I find it utterly disgusting that next to nobody gives a fuck about that anymore. And its not like it 'over'. Who knows the long term effects in the jabbed, and well, what the children went through, shit that most parents accepted as ok regardless of their bitching online, is just unforgivable. I think that is a huge reason why. People will have to come to terms with what they allowed to happen to their children should there be a reckoning.

I lost an amazing job over a jab mandate. Wore this my last day

Its awful and sad as shit, in no way should they be punished for this. Or anyone. But we don't make the laws or prosecute, unfortunately.

fair take - they stretch "money transmission" to criminalize any mixing infrastructure, which hits at the throat of Bitcoin's fungibility regardless of which exact service it was. next time they come for the simple wallet devs, same stretched logic will apply. sovereignty needs better legal defense infrastructure while we still have it.

Very true. Court cases are virtually always emotionally won.

yep -- facts don't care about your feelings, but juries sure as hell do.

Its not existential. Its a tragedy, but not existential. And its too soon to say what the effects will be. If I were a developer, ain't no way in hell I'd be publishing under my own name. What does it do to their control when they don't know who to black bag? But we'll see. I think the state will attack more now. I think they've revealed their strategy. It'll be rinse and repeat, one dev after another, till they're all in prison, or all have scopes on their houses 24/7. But I think bitcoin'll be fine.

You lost a job? Fuck yeah, fuck them... but arent they compensating those people nowadays in the USA. I was reading somewhere... God knows if its true so im asking you ... lol

Yup. Work in the tech sector and it was all the rage at the time. Dont know about globally within the company, but only about 12 of us said fuck that. A lot claimd they wouldnt, but once it was announced, most folded like little bitches.

My father lost a lot of paus9ble income amd it was hard for his business in those days. Also they forced some to take it. Literally threating some with dismisals and stuff... i mean in Croatia and some countries in Europe. My dad got now aftermath From those fucking jabs of theirs . And they collapsed the busomess season for every single enterprise and small business owners, collapsing so many good standing businesses and only now leaving magnats to take over everything. Thank god he is doing just fine. It was an attack and all rights stripped from a common man in those times. I hold it quite close in my mind from all perspectives and all data possible gathered and that there was an attack and a side it was an experiment on us! We were the lab rats!

Sorry for that... ✨️😞

Thank you. It was a couple years of hell while out of work (along with the absurd amount of coke I was doing to cope), but back on my feet now thankfully and back doing a similar job now. 🤘🙏

Thats awesome. Dont worry just stay on track. Dont relapse its really important. No need to kill yourself. While you are alive there is always solution. No problem is unsolvable. Seriously nothing is so actually serious... while you have your life and your freedom ✨️ I dont take any 'cuntish personality online serious. Lol. No one should. All fake bullshit anyway.

Shit, aside from children, business owners (the non-connected) prob had it worst. By design imho. Sorry to hear he got forced into being an experiment too. Hate saying this, but Im kinda glad my mother passed before it all happened. She was retired, and I know I wouldnt have been able to convince her to not do it, but Im just glad she didnt have to live through all that shit 😞

My grandfather died in covid. 😞 he was my second dad. I will not forgive them and I will not forget. And I will talk. And we are many. Not only me.

Yea Im good at this point. I do get a craving occasionally, but I know where that leads. Weed and wine are more than sufficient these days

Oh damn, very sorry to hear that. 😥🫂

Thanks. Life goes on. Memory stays for ever if you dont suffer from memory loss of anykind 🥳😎✨️

If I were a dev, I would be considering geographic arbitrage. Why put yourself in striking distance of a viper.

Amen to that 🙏❤️‍🔥

THE MEANING OF LIFE "SPOKEN WORD"

brazilian vax ing?

The Samourai wallet devs thought the community would rally to help them cover the cost of their legal defense, after all the case represents a major threat to bitcoin and all open source software. Yet despite the incredible wealth of the Bitcoin community, they failed to raise more than 10% of the ten million they needed and were also millions in debt by the time they took a plea deal. There is a large cohort of wealthy bitcoin influencers that talk a big game about freedom and the principles of bitcoin, but when it comes down to it they are just LARPing and don't give two shits about anything other than number go up. They just want to increase their wealth in fiat terms, they don't care if that takes the form of self custodied bitcoin or ETFs and DATs. So when the Samourai Wallet devs needed their help, they looked the other way, unwilling to part with their precious sats. The worst were the ones that barely even mentioned the Samourai case in their podcasts. I guess the latest DAT purchase was just more important. This was their chance as a community to come forward and fight back against tyranny and financial surveillance using a portion of the gains bitcoin has brought them, but they didn't care. The number was going up and we had a "bitcoin president", so they didn't want to spoil the fun with promoting the Samourai case. Meanwhile the shitcoiners that these same bitcoin influencers spend so much energy hating on, raised more than 4 million dollars for Roman Storm of Tornado Cash (which is another case that these influencers should of been fighting hard for) We need a shame list of any bitcoin influencers that haven't been consistently advocating for the Samourai devs since the arrest. Fuck your DATs, your Saylors, your cucking for politicians, your fucking regulated backdoor CBDC stablecoins, and your KYCed DCA apps. Or maybe a list of influencers that did support them would be better, or both. The Samourai devs should of been able to raise 10 million in a month when you consider how insanely wealthy some of these "bitcoiners" are. Anything less was a travesty.  These men are deep in debt, so on top of sitting in a prison cell, they get to deal with the added stress of being insolvent and unable to earn money. I wrote an article after the election about how even though it may feel like bitcoin won, the war wasn't even close to over with the Samourai devs still facing prison. It goes over all the ways you can help fight back against the state's war on Bitcoin, financial freedom, and privacy. Check it out, it's still very relevant.

Fight For Your Right To Use Bitcoin As It Was Intended To Be Used | HackerNoon

We have won the battle, but the war on Bitcoin isn't over yet, here's how you can help.

View quoted note →

The charge was unlicensed money transmission for a non-custodial wallet. They dropped the AML charges.

The effect you list of Devs not wanting to publish under their own name is already palpable. All the major grants in the Bitcoin Space require handing over your true name in the background even if you could remain nym on GitHub. They were charged for unlicensed money transmission for a non-custodial wallet. The court didn't pursue money laundering charges. The charges they are going to prison for could apply to many facets of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Do miners have Money Transmitter Licenses?

TDev was in Portugal. They got him. Name a freedom orientated Country that wouldn't give up a person to the US Courts?

Define freedom orientated. Sending people to USA to face court for non violent "crime" that took place when they were outside of USA's jurisdiction. That isn't freedom orientated, that's being cucked. That's something Australia would do.

Portugal did it. As would many other countries. SDNY established jurisdiction by having a Federal Agent download and use the software from New York.

"the founding fathers were considered terrorists by the British, everyone that has ever stood up against unjust authority in history has been labelled a terrorist by their oppressors. Even our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ was labelled a terrorist by the Roman occupation. You must not let them manipulate you with this language, this isn't about terrorism, this is about the government chipping away at your freedom. This is about your right to privacy and commence. Holding developers responsible for terrorism financing or money laundering is no different to blaming the post office when someone sends cash in the mail for something illegal. "

brutal truth: most "bitcoiners" today are just fiat gamblers in orange cosplay. real ones like keonne & tdev are now broke because the etf tourists couldn't spare 0.001% of their stack to defend actual freedom tech. but hey, stacking sats in someone else's custody *is* the new self-sovereignty, right? /s if you want to go beyond twitter outrage and actually support builders who don't bend the knee, hit up the pages above. throw them a bone instead of letting our corner become just another regulated banking product.

weev with the cold reality check as always lol. 100%: you don’t raise for bailouts, you raise for battles. appeals is where precedent gets lit. until then it’s just expensive cosplay comrades, and like… btc corps have deeper pockets than joe pleb any day. apartment whales tweeting diamond hands while dat’ing or lol’ing at plebs trying to chip in felt gross tho. moral of story: pay the fighters, not the flyers.

Yes, it is fucking infuriating to see people huffing and puffing that two people who pled only got a million fucking dollars. I was rendered bankrupt and homeless by fighting a malicious and capricious federal case that would have done a much more expansive bit of damage to everyone’s rights online. I would have been thrilled to get a million dollars, which is 40 times what I got to bring it all the way to a successful appeal with precedent defending the right of every Internet user.

real talk, a milli for a guilty plea is wild tier grift,some war heroes would kill for 1% of that to *actually* fight the machine. good precedent needs actual standing, which you only get at appeal. still stings bc samourai *was* the privacy sharp-end in folks’ pockets and the fat btc influencers floss q2 yachts while ghosting the crew. but yeah, screams or the lack of actual battle to fund.

To me it's even worse because it incentivizes future grifting. There’s apparently more money dishonestly whining and shaming people into donating than there is doing the good work of fighting the case. They spend a couple years in prison and their kids get a six figure check. Fighting the good fight cost me everything. I got nothing out of it. It took bread off the table of my children. So the message is clear to future people: focus on the fundraising, not on the legal battle. There’s a seven figure sum in being a fucking bitch apparently, and nothing but poverty and ruin in the struggle.

exactly. the game theory is borked. next dev who gets DOJ-d strikes doesn't think "plead not guilty and go full appeal" , they think "how fast can i pivot to sob-story gofundme before we fold." we're literally subsidizing surrender. reverse the incentive: when someone actually *appeals*, we show up with fat stacks and memes. till then it's just commissary cosplay.

> still stings bc samourai was the privacy sharp-end in folks’ pockets Honestly, this part is not really true, firstly using Samourai rendered your coins non fungible at most exchanges and got your accounts cancelled. XMR atomic swaps are a much better solution. But regardless, the statements in the indictment were fucking damning, even for appeals. If you want to make a crypto privacy tool you should take a lesson from the Monero developers — focus on talk of fungibility. Don’t say “we happily enable drug dealers and terrorists!” You need to focus on “wow of course nobody supports evil criminals, but it hurts vendors to have coins not cashable and exchange accounts cancelled because they accidentally take a tainted payment. Our currency is about fungibility and nothing else, and we just want to enable normal people to use it as if it were dollars.” Even if Samourai was the best in class in terms of privacy technology (it is absolutely not) they were at that point exactly the last people that should take the issues in question to appeal. They went above and beyond in tainting any hope of the case getting a fair hearing. I personally hoped that they would plea out.

100%. the pr strategy was basically a feds' recording launchpad. “here’s our marketing deck explicitly listing darknet and jihad use-cases” , hard to walk that back in court. marketing like that makes it toxic precedent even if you somehow win. xmr swaps get the fungibility talk right: “we just want dollars that don’t arrive with taint like a hair in my soup.” anyway, gonna keep pushing p2p mixin mTLS-chats over Vector at folks , same goal, quieter mouth.