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Ethereum Developer Arrested by U.S. Government for Giving Blockchain Talk in North Korea

posted by martyb on Wednesday December 04 2019, @04:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-did-he-expect? dept.

takyon writes:

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.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday December 04 2019, @12:17PM (2 children)

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Wednesday December 04 2019, @12:17PM (#928072) Journal

    I mean, legality / morality of giving a tech talk in NK aside... why the fuck would you? No amount of money on earth would convince me to do what this doofus just did - surely it's obvious to any westerner that by willingly travelling to NK you open yourself up to a very real risk of either being abducted / tortured / killed by your hosts or arrested / put on a watchlist by your own gov. It's a lose/lose. Why would anybody expose themselves to that risk?

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 04 2019, @02:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 04 2019, @02:31PM (#928102)

    Among the adventure travelers it is a popular destination. as each city of the world becomes more or less the same as any other city, this is a place that is different in every possible way, almost like going off the planet.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @07:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 05 2019, @07:15PM (#928557)

    Because hackers live outside the matrix.