econoalchemist's avatar
econoalchemist 4 months ago
Transcript of the Samourai Wallet devs responding to judge Cote asking for them to describe what they did in their own words during the plea agreement hearing. The moment during the Samourai Wallet plea agreement hearing when judge Cote confuses the 1956 money laundering charge & 1960 unlicensed money transmitting charge, then nonchalantly brushes it off as "much the same thing" ☠️ Basically, prosecutors just need to establish the facts of the matter: the devs built a wallet, a hacker used the wallet to obscure the source of criminally derived coins, and the devs had knowledge of this. Package that all up as a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge & if the defendants plead guilty (even a false confession) then the judge is spared from any critical thinking because she can just take the prosecutor's allegations as true. None of that proves the prosecutor's interpretation of the law is correct, that would require a trial which was avoided here and anyone with half a brain in this space can clearly understand the defendants did not in fact transfer funds on behalf of the public as it was a non-custodial wallet and therefore could not be considered a money transmitting business. Hence the wording of the defendants' statements. But for all intents & purposes of the plea agreement, the only issue here is whether or not there is evidence (even one example) that supports the allegation that the defendants are pleading guilty to. A hacker who used Samourai Wallet in this case:

Replies (11)

Lots of trials are show trials. I expected nothing less. This is our generations moment to show code is free speech. This isn’t the first time math or code were outlawed. I feel for the devs, but in the end it makes the tools stronger. Whirlpool implementations exist now maintained by anons, hosted on tor. People were regarded for thinking they could do otherwise. I’ll never admit to running a Lightning node. If I did, it would only be on tor and i2p, with my own node. Anyone doing differently is living in la la land. Hope y’all fly under the radar.
This only convinces me even more that these Developers were planted government agents that were tasked with establishing this horrible precedent without ANY evidence or trial being required to do so. It's a coin toss as to whether that was the case, or they are simply naive cowards who started a fight to defend a hill they weren't prepared to die upon. Either way, it doesn't matter, the result is that they have weakened privacy tools builders' defense against government over-reach and legal attack upon us all. They are NOT heroes, they are cowardly turncoats who helped the enemies of financial freedom more than they provided ANY assistance to the relatively few users of their software.
econoalchemist's avatar
econoalchemist 4 months ago
No precedent is set in the Samourai Wallet case because they reached a plea agreement first of all, so your premise is DOA. If you think having the FBI conduct militarized raids on the devs, the courts holding their families homes in a $3m bond, being placed under house arrest for 460 days and counting, personal property seized, spending $1m+ in legal fees, and still facing 5 years in prison plus $6m in fines means that they are "planted government agents" then god bless your heart, you are fucked in the head and need all the help you can get. These men put their lives on the line so anyone could have improved anonymity on a public blockchain. Mean-while, basement dwelling sperglords like you did what exactly to defend privacy?
100% Samourai devs have been on the front lines for years. They were perceived as a threat to the criminal cabal, so the cabal took them down. now the cabal’s braindead comment minions are out trying to keep the grift going.
If not government agents they did the work for them by picking a fight then backing down. They aren't heroes, they are cowards who backed down when faced with the consequences of the fight they picked. Their plea deal was a cowardly choice. IF they weren't ready to deal with the consequences they shouldn't have engaged in this battle. They did NOT advance the cause of freedom and financial privacy, they weakened it!
uncleJim21's avatar
uncleJim21 3 months ago
Is it normal for a judge to do this? Im sure there are tons of pleas from innocent people that know they did nothing wrong. Theyre already taking the penalty. Feels like a dunk. Maybe its orwellian or maybe im just ignorant?
What an absolute farce. Imagine hauling up Mr Ford and asking if he was aware that his cars were being used by bank robbers 🤦🏻‍♂️. I mean I get how anal people are about financial transactions... But: 1. Under current guidance SW was legal 2. Bitcoin isn't technically money, it's a commodity like corn or wheat. 3. SW devs never had control of the bitcoins