FBI Arrests Virgil Griffith, ETH Programmer, for Giving Tech Talk in DPRK🇰🇵

[TwitchySeal]

He had a court hearing last monday.  They decided there's enough evidence to charge him, but the judge is going to let him out on bail, so he should be out in a few days - although we surely won't learn anything from him for a very long time.

His lawyer, same lawyer that Charlie Sherm and MalwareTech used, made a statement:

"We are very pleased that today the judge found that Virgil should be released from jail pending trial. We dispute the untested allegations in the criminal complaint. Virgil looks forward to his day in court, when the full story can come out."

They also unsealed the complaint.

The talk was called "Blockchain and Peace." and during it he "began formulating plans to facilitate the exchange of Cryptocurrency-1 between the DPRK and South Korea,"

Also, in May (a month before he was arrested, he voluntarily met with the FBI, without a lawyer, and told them everything.  His friend said he left the meeting under the impression everything was cool: https://twitter.com/emmangoldstein/status/1200516493823430657

Going to the FBI without a lawyer was probably an even worse decision than going to North Korea.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/nyregion/north-korea-virgil-griffin-cyptocurrency-arrest.html
https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-developer-virgil-griffith-to-be-released-from-jail-pending-trial

It's seems like he may have had good intentions and just didn't realize the possible consequences of what he was doing.  

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[PrimeNumber7]

He might be one of those /r/LateStageCapitalism far leftists, seeing the DPRK as a lesser evil to the imperialist USA.

Rodger Ver tweeted that since sanctions are an act of War, the US should immediately drop all sanctions against NK, as he sees war as universally evil.

I view this as an "absolute" and to be an extremest view. I don't believe many things are either good or bad in any and all situations and circumstances. War is generally a negative outcome, but sanctions are far superior than boots on the ground, which involves bloodshed. Absent some kind of sanctions against NK, the NK government would likely commit their own acts of war against other countries that would involve bloodshed. There are also other military conflicts that produced better outcomes than the probable outcome had the US military not gotten involved.

It is possible that Griffith had similar viewpoints, and wanted to do something to make sanctions less effective (and of course profit in doing so).

[coins4commies]

Absent some kind of sanctions against NK, the NK government would likely commit their own acts of war against other countries that would involve bloodshed. There are also other military conflicts that produced better outcomes than the probable outcome had the US military not gotten involved.

Produced and supported completely by your imagination.  Sanctions are not preventing North Korea from starting a war.  They have advanced their military technology with maximum sanctions.  They developed a hydrogen bomb and ICBM during maximum sanctions.  The sanctions are intentionally immoral because the US knows they do nothing but cause suffering on the Korean people with the hopes that it will turn them against their leadership.  This is what the US does all around the world; obtain power and influence by usurping leadership with the intention of destabilizing the country.  The US end goal is civil conflict.

I'd love to hear what military conflict you think US involvement made better. Japan and Germany are the only ones for which I could even imagine someone putting up an honest argument on behalf of US involvement.

[squatz1]

He might be one of those /r/LateStageCapitalism far leftists, seeing the DPRK as a lesser evil to the imperialist USA.

Rodger Ver tweeted that since sanctions are an act of War, the US should immediately drop all sanctions against NK, as he sees war as universally evil.

I view this as an "absolute" and to be an extremest view. I don't believe many things are either good or bad in any and all situations and circumstances. War is generally a negative outcome, but sanctions are far superior than boots on the ground, which involves bloodshed. Absent some kind of sanctions against NK, the NK government would likely commit their own acts of war against other countries that would involve bloodshed. There are also other military conflicts that produced better outcomes than the probable outcome had the US military not gotten involved.

It is possible that Griffith had similar viewpoints, and wanted to do something to make sanctions less effective (and of course profit in doing so).

Well that's great and all but his views really don't mean anything.

His views don't mean anything when he was working alongside the North Korean government to  be doing some interesting things. If he had been working with individual people in North Korea -- not affiliated with the government -- to help them use Crypto so they'd be able to avoid the regime, no one would care and this guy would look amazing.

But he was working with the government to skirt international sanctions, and that's not something everyone can clap about.