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Developer faces prison time for giving blockchain talk in North Korea
The prominent hacker and Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith was arrested by the US government Friday after he spoke at an April conference on blockchain technologies in North Korea. The US government considers his presentation to be a transfer of technology—and therefore a violation of US sanctions.
But Griffith's defenders, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, describe the arrest as a massive overreaction. Griffith worked for the Ethereum Foundation, and Buterin called him a friend.
"I don't think what Virgil did gave the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] any kind of real help in doing anything bad," Buterin tweeted on Sunday. "He delivered a presentation based on publicly available info about open source software."
But federal prosecutors argue that Griffith, a US citizen residing in Singapore, knew full well that his trip violated US sanction laws. They say he sought approval for the trip from the US State Department, and his request was denied. Griffith made the trip anyway, traveling through China to evade US travel restrictions.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday December 04 2019, @09:20AM (1 child)
It's quite plain that ethereum and cryptocoins in general are the target of the drill.
If an overview talk of info accessible on the net is considered aiding the enemy, then any visit to NK is aid. Any click to a NK website is aid. The US itself by refusing a visa imply they have issued ones, which is aid.
The drill wants to sow FUD about cryptocoins, which, like with linux, will last until they manage to infiltrate the main organizations. Then cryptocoins will be almost mandatory and regulated to prevent new ones to rise.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 04 2019, @12:49PM