Ethereum Foundation member Virgil Griffith was arrested on Thursday for traveling to North Korea to hold presentations regarding crypto and blockchain technologies. Griffith, a US citizen, has been accused of providing the North Korean government with what was described as ’highly technical information’, knowing that it could be used for helping the country evade sanctions and launder money.
Good etherium is run by a bunch of communist anyway
Ooo this is a mess. On o e hand its NK but on the other the us gov is violating this man's personal liberties by saying they wont allow him to travel somewhere.
"Griffith, who has a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology,... provided valuable technical information, and engaged in talks about using cryptocurrency technology to circumvent sanctions and launder money, prosecutors said." - another proof that a PhD can be an idiot. Caltech must be proud.
Make him stay there & Insist that he worship North Korea's way of life
this is ridiculous. it's not a state secret. he's a business man and those ideas do not belong to a state. eth wasn't even invented by Americans.
Is not blockchain fairly well known at this point? What novel thing did NK learn that could not be gained from talking to any number of other people in the field?
I confess, I'm confused. How could a hacker from the US inform the Norks how to game Crypto currency? Are they that dumb? Then how could they hack the internet? Or build nukes? Not buying this. Smells fishy to me.
the guy is scum for helping them buuuuuut all he did was travel and use free speech soooo this is pretty fucked
Wow, amazingly stupid thing to do when specifically ordered NOT to by the US Justice Dept. I also find it amazingly stupid of him to travel back to the US after flaunting his violation of the order.