The U.S. just arrested a privacy software developer and is on the hunt for another.
Absolutely sickening.
The developers are being charged for creating and deploying privacy mixing software called Tornado. This software was used by many well-intended citizens to protect the privacy of their crypto transactions.
This is akin to using encryption in a messaging app like Signal so third parties can't see your private messages, only this does that for money.
Because North Korea used the privacy software, Treasury thinks it has the right to throw these open source developers in jail and ban Americans of their right to use this privacy application.
Read the charges yourself. It does not appear the developers did anything more than deploy the privacy code and not take preventative measures to block North Korea. It's unclear how they would even attempt this second part. The code is an immutable Ethereum smart contract, they can't stop anyone from using it.
Why not arrest everyone who runs an Ethereum validator...or holds ETH...or who tweets about crypto privacy? Surely they bear responsibility.
Why not arrest Tim Berners Lee? How about the makers of https? Surely they are responsible for all the nefarious ways North Korea uses the internet.
If we treated our internet developers like this in the 90s, there'd be no such thing as silicon valley or a free and open internet in the U.S.
What a chilling effect.
What a betrayal of American values.
But because it's money, Treasury thinks it has full surveillance rights - no privacy. They will not permit an https for money.
And they'll go as far as to throw open source developers who writes encryption code in jail.
The people didn't give them this right. The constitution didn't. They took it.
If we don't speak up, they'll take even more.
If you have any doubt over where this is going, just look at the way they end their press release on these charges.
"The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish but to bring about a positive change in behavior."
Thank you professor Umbridge.
I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends.