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WikiLeaks Loses Access to a Key Cryptocurrency Account

posted by martyb on Monday April 23 2018, @01:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the eggs-and-baskets dept.

Fnord666 writes:

This hasn't been the best week for WikiLeaks, to put it mildly. Coinbase has shut off the WikiLeaks Shop's account for allegedly violating the cryptocurrency exchange's terms of service. In other words, the leak site just lost its existing means of converting payments like bitcoin into conventional money. While Coinbase didn't give a specific reason (it declines to comment on specific accounts), it pointed to its legal requirement to honor "regulatory compliance mechanisms" under the US' Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

This doesn't prevent WikiLeaks from accepting cryptocurrency, but it will have to scramble to find an alternative if it wants to continue taking digital money from customers buying shirts and coffee cups. Unsurprisingly, the organization is less than thrilled -- it's calling for a "global blockade" of Coinbase, claiming that the exchange is reacting to a "concealed influence."

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/21/wikileaks-loses-coinbase-account/

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @06:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @06:29PM (#670828)

    Firstly, you are free to ask the Bitcoin network to process your transaction without taking a fee, but it takes resources to mine, so you just have to wait for the altruism of one of the miners.

    Secondly, the Bitcoin network is a zero-trust settlement layer, but the world has a lot more trustworthiness than zero; you don't need a zero-trust environment to buy a cup of coffee, and so you could exploit that non-zero trust for profit: There's nothing preventing you from handing a private key directly to a barista, as an extreme example. And, with something like the Lightning Network, you can transact in great volumes with tiny amounts without ever having to hit the Bitcoin network, and without having to trust anybody that much.

    Your problem, which is replicated across so many people's minds, is that you are incapable of seeing the possibilities. You are arguing in two-dimensional land, when Bitcoin is running in three dimensions.