Is privacy oriented wallet software development still an operational risk?

[NotATether]

Weren't Samurai Devs utilizing pseudonyms? And yet there was a huge effort to target them even abroad.

Yes, but the huge effort to target them was because they posted this:



They tend to come after people marketing their product as sanctions-evading very hard.

If FEDs threaten physical security of individuals anywhere in the world developing this tech then who's gonna do it?
Maybe it could be done in a state willing to not extradite developers or at least not letting US FEDs operate within its borders. But which country would that be for real now. Iran, North Korea? I don't see it.

None of that stops the seizures though, they only make it stop at indictments w/o arrest.

The best defense, as I have learned over the years, is to just operate under the radar.

Mass adoption simply does not work with these kind of tools.

The less people using your software, the better.

Too many users, and then there's trouble.

[alani123]

I refuse to attribute the literal manhunt against Samurai Devs to their cockiness.
They were already on the FEDs radar for developing decentralised BTC mixing technology.

Bitcoin is a trillion dollar network with billions in values in the daily if we account it by USD value.
The US is really afraid to let BTC get reliable methods of mixing that could grow at scale.

Tornado cash Devs weren't cocky and yet the FEDs are putting a lot of effort in trying to get them a harsh sentence. The DOJ even very recently appealed a verdict now trying to re-try them with harsher penalties:
https://www.theblock.co/post/392937/roman-storm-tornado-cash-retrial

The Trump administration is contradicting itself with these actions because for instance Kraken was the first crypto exchange to receive a new US authority approved crypto license all while Kraken's exchange keeps carrying XMR markets.

Recently the department of the treasury admitted there are legitimate uses to mixing cryptocurrency: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/u-s-treasury-crypto-mixers but at the same time tries to promote law that will authorize exchanges to freeze assets that are deemed suspicious, probably without a court order being necessary.  Just one more contradiction to add to the pile.

Based on the existing patterns the current administration seems very willing to drop charges and acquit crypto billionaires but continues to go hard on anyone assisting in developing tech on BTC privacy.

Fluffypony faced extradition way after becoming famous for crypto, for something a decade old that was entirely unrelated. It's clear the system tried to tire him.

We also saw zkSNACKs, Wasabi developer, ceasing development for coinjoins and blocking US Users. Obviously fearing regulatory crackdowns.

Since Z.cash is run by a company I wonder if they're not afraid of regulators because by the patterns we're seeing, they could be next.

But especially for BTC, I'm not sure who would be willing to develop privacy solutions anymore. It seems to attract too much attention.
Only Monero seems to survive.