Full statement:
In case you prefer to read their statement here:
  • "CoinJoin coordinators are simply message passers. This is true of Wasabi & Whirlpool. They are not money transmitters, they are not facilitators they simply pass data packets to connected clients. Clients never surrender custody to any 3rd party. Clients collaborate w/ each other."
  • "Your ISP is not responsible for the websites you visit, even though they serve you the data packets that made your visit possible. Your VPN is not responsible for copyright infringement when you illegally download a torrent."
  • "The ability to share data freely be it books, art, media, thoughts and ideas, or UTXO state is essential for free society and is fundamentally human. The radical encroachment of the state into the lives of ordinary law abiding citizens is on an a concerning upward trajectory."
  • "By bending the knee to reg overreach instead of fiercely fighting, especially when you have the resources to do so effectively, you tacitly accept and endorse that overreach and the next one. Give an inch and they'll take several miles."
  • "Blacklists are an affront to everything that is supposed to make bitcoin special. Unfortunately development in protocol level privacy stalled by 2015 making the censorship resistance of bitcoin reliant on the social layer and the application layer."
  • "By 2018 the social layer of protection had all but crumbled with new adoption. Again with tacit acceptance of old world paradigms into our new system - see the overwhelming acceptance and encouragement of custodial solutions as an acceptable condition of 'mass adoption' and NGU."
  • "That leaves the application layer. This is where Samourai is. Let's face it, most stuff in this space at best ignores privacy, at worst despises it. Privacy tech is always niche, generally passion project by small teams, and largely ignored by most, until suddenly it isn't."
  • "We're starting to get to that suddenly part. More and more people globally are starting to recognize the incredible amount of power they have ceded to the State and the sting of the iron fist when it flexes and uses that power. We hope privacy takes a front seat once again."
That's pretty naive to hope for the benefactors of the fiat system to play by the rules they set while fighting against their greatest enemy. Make no mistake, they WILL try to outlaw everything that has to do with Bitcoin: on-ramps, wallets, services, custodians, anything they can reach. The confrontation is inevitable, prepare accordingly
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There are big players in the field nowadays. This would be an epic legal battle.
I guess nothing is bigger than the US government anyway sadly.
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Let's face it, most stuff in this space at best ignores privacy, at worst despises it.
Very true. I've been lazy lately and using verification exchanges (i.e., KYC required) rather than RoboSats and trying to earn in Bitcoin.
By continuing to patronize those verification services, I am part of the problem (tacitly accepting and endorsing the overreach). I will mend my ways. I just needed a reminder such as this post, thank you for sharing it.
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They will start with high net worth people... anything more than a couple of bitcoins will get scrutinized eventually.
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