What do y’all think of this? Seems pretty terrible on its face

  • poVoq@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Would it change your opinion if he was paid for working on the software by the criminals? It is currently unknown and given the nature of the software involved might never be known…

    • Arthur Besse@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      Would it change your opinion if he was paid for working on the software by the criminals?

      Yes, it would change my armchair not-a-lawyer-but-i-play-one-online legal opinion. If there is evidence that he was (knowingly) hired to write the software by people who were planning to violate laws using the software, then it is not as much of an open-and-shut first amendment case (assuming they’re planning to extradite him to the US…).

      It is currently unknown and given the nature of the software involved might never be known

      Indeed. Which is why your assessment of his arrest should not be based on the assumption that that is what happened.

      • poVoq@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        Feel free to disagree, but I think he certainly benefitted financially from the criminal transactions done on the platform he created. At best he turned a blind eye to it, but just as likely he was fully aware.

        Basically all crypto currencies are kept alive by the liquidity that the criminal money laundry brings. Everything else is either peanuts or just holding it for speculation, so if there were not these illicit movements the exchange market would quickly dry up and the value would crash.

        So if you are using crypto currencies and especially if you are developing tools to enable hidden illicit money flows through it, you are IMHO complicit in these crimes and very likely also benefit financially from them.