Samourai Wallet seized and founders arrested

[dkbit98]

The thing is, you can't really outlaw mixers and coinjoins without also outlawing privacy coins such as Monero. The reason being, that it makes no sense to ban mixers when people will just do BTC <=> XMR <=> BTC exchanges on different exchanges.

I saw they are already preparing new law to ban such things and anything related with privacy, that only means their CBDC crap is going to be released very soon.
Think of them as ICO scammers who are selling junk, but trying to make it look good with whitepaper, while trying to kill competition before that.
Something seriously stinks here, they are in hurry and acting nervous, as if someone ordered them to do this quickly.
And don't get fooled thinking they will ever leave Bitcoin alone 

[NotATether]

I saw they are already preparing new law to ban such things and anything related with privacy, that only means their CBDC crap is going to be released very soon.
Think of them as ICO scammers who are selling junk, but trying to make it look good with whitepaper, while trying to kill competition before that.
Something seriously stinks here, they are in hurry and acting nervous, as if someone ordered them to do this quickly.
And don't get fooled thinking they will ever leave Bitcoin alone 

But even the normal people don't want to use CDBC. They think that it is too complicated ("why should I use that when Venmo/Zelle/Cash App works just fine for me?") and most are not at all interested in trying to learn complicated things that they don't understand like what a CDBC even is - they'll just think of it as yet another money account.

[Freemind]

But even the normal people don't want to use CDBC. They think that it is too complicated ("why should I use that when Venmo/Zelle/Cash App works just fine for me?") and most are not at all interested in trying to learn complicated things that they don't understand like what a CDBC even is - they'll just think of it as yet another money account.

I agree with what you have said, but we must add the older population to that. Not everyone knows how to use smartphones (in fact, most don't even have these devices, and if they do have them, they are very basic models that do not allow the installation of external software.), not everyone knows how to use applications to manage their finances, since many of these people only use cash. If CDBC is a standard in the near future, who will teach these people how to use it?. We only have to see what has happened in the areas of China where a pilot test was carried out, total chaos in some cases.

[dkbit98]

But even the normal people don't want to use CDBC. They think that it is too complicated ("why should I use that when Venmo/Zelle/Cash App works just fine for me?") and most are not at all interested in trying to learn complicated things that they don't understand like what a CDBC even is - they'll just think of it as yet another money account.

I actually tried talking about CBDC with people who don't know anything about Bitcoin or crypto, and they really don't care much about it.
They think it's going to be the similar thing like with credit cards, and I am sure governments are first going to give it away for ''free'' first, and we all know everybody loves free helicopter money.
If they don't have job, no money and no food, they will probably wait in lines to get ''injected'' with CBDC crap.
Maybe they even start arresting more developers and people who reject safe and effective CBDC   

[bayu7adi]

But even the normal people don't want to use CDBC. They think that it is too complicated ("why should I use that when Venmo/Zelle/Cash App works just fine for me?") and most are not at all interested in trying to learn complicated things that they don't understand like what a CDBC even is - they'll just think of it as yet another money account.

That's right, I see CBDC as just another digital alternative to FIAT... instead of utilizing cryptography and blockchain, but in reality complete control is with the creator of the coin, as well as the lack of privacy makes everyone who originally liked Bitcoin give it no respect which is a lot for a CBDC.

CBDC may be able to prevent money laundering, but it is really far from what we expect as people who value freedom and privacy.

[NotATether]

But even the normal people don't want to use CDBC. They think that it is too complicated ("why should I use that when Venmo/Zelle/Cash App works just fine for me?") and most are not at all interested in trying to learn complicated things that they don't understand like what a CDBC even is - they'll just think of it as yet another money account.

That's right, I see CBDC as just another digital alternative to FIAT... instead of utilizing cryptography and blockchain, but in reality complete control is with the creator of the coin, as well as the lack of privacy makes everyone who originally liked Bitcoin give it no respect which is a lot for a CBDC.

CBDC may be able to prevent money laundering, but it is really far from what we expect as people who value freedom and privacy.

Exactly. And if it's an alternative to fiat, do you think that normal people are going to use it? They are happy with their dollars, for now.

It is mainly intended for the banks and other financial institutions who already use all sorts of weird and strange coins, tokens, blockchains, payment methods from the dinosaur age, who are going to be the main customers of this thing. So all of these people going to events such as WEF for example and promoting this are just doing it for the sake of their rich friends at the banks to make, well, more money.

[Stompix]

I just went over the DoJ papers, while other owners of wallets or mixers might have a chance to get away with a few months or maybe a year or two, Rodriguez and Hill, the two highlighted behind Samurai are done for and seems to me that compared to other cases they want to set and example, I've never seen the US attorney going full blast with incriminating stuff from the start and especially with sensitive stuff as the welcoming by the devs of Russian Oligarsh to Samuray wallet tweet when sanctions where enabled.

Also, kind of interesting of them to mention this one:



I'm 99% sure this will be one hell of a conviction and prison term,  it's going to be really bad for the two above.

[dkbit98]

I'm 99% sure this will be one hell of a conviction and prison term,  it's going to be really bad for the two above.

Yeah I think that also, unless their lawyers manages to do something amazing with support of community and other people who support Bitcoin and privacy.
I would not be surprised if they end up in similar way like Ross Ulbricht founder of Silk Road, just as an example to other developers.
Another interesting ''coincidence'' news I heard today about arrested Roger Ver, he is currently held in the same prison in Spain as late John McAfee... and we all know how they suicided him back in 2021. 

[Stompix]

Another interesting ''coincidence'' news I heard today about arrested Roger Ver, he is currently held in the same prison in Spain as late John McAfee... and we all know how they suicided him back in 2021. 

Common, that's the last man the US would want to kill, he was already being extradited, he was going to face a full lifetime sentence in the US, it was clear he will be found guilty on at least five counts of tax evasion and wire fraud, if the US would have wanted him dead they would have killed him the first time he was deported to the US from Belize, he spent 4 years back in the US and nobody touched him despite being arrested twice for DIU.

He was a nutcase, there was nothing else about him.

Yeah I think that also, unless their lawyers manages to do something amazing with support of community and other people who support Bitcoin and privacy.

It's one thing to care about privacy it's one other thing to advertise your business as helping to evade the laws of the country you reside in.
You have a US citizen enjoying his life in the States and then advertising how Russian oligarchs can bypass US sanctions by using his service, see the irony?
They are done for and you can see nobody is going to go out in the open and defend them.

[dkbit98]

if the US would have wanted him

Such naive thinking... 
He literally said before several times that if anyone in future ever claims that he performed suicide, that is a lie.
Sure they wanted him dead, and not because of some stupid taxes charge but because he knew dirty things about them.
They started arresting developers, and one day they will come for everyone else...

He was a nutcase, there was nothing else about him.

Sure he was crazy, but what government is doing all the time is ''normal''. 

It's one thing to care about privacy it's one other thing to advertise your business as helping to evade the laws of the country you reside in.

When laws became crazy it's not such a bad thing to evade them.

[NotATether]

Also, kind of interesting of them to mention this one:

Every single sector of non-custodial crypto is a threat to Europol.

But instead of  trying to understand it so that they can better catch the criminals in the act, they want to carpet-bomb the whole space.

[Stompix]

Such naive thinking... 
He literally said before several times that if anyone in future ever claims that he performed suicide, that is a lie.
Sure they wanted him dead, and not because of some stupid taxes charge but because he knew dirty things about them.
They started arresting developers, and one day they will come for everyone else...

Saylor has been arrested three times in the US, he was already deported once from Bermuda, they let him go and he ran away for 5 years, claiming he has...what?
Think for a moment, if you would know so much, if you would have such a fan base wouldn't you put all that info aside and have it released if something happened? If I knew something so important the first thing would be to post an ecrypted message here on the forum and then timelock the password for 1000 newspapers and 100 relatives, yet...nothing!

We're talking about a guy who when he saw a police car in his yard ran to the beach with a shovel dug a pit put a tarp over it and was found the next morning there after he nearly smoked himself with pot to death. Father of 47 children and ...penisless....

There are 12 000 deaths each year from people falling from a stair but god forbid a politician to die like that cause nobody would believe.
There are 700 000 suicides each year, 700 000 but no, once you're famous you can't suicide, they are all killed, right?

When laws became crazy it's not such a bad thing to evade them.

Oh no banning foreign people from a foreign nation that threatens you every day it will nuke your whole country to do business in your country and using your banks is crazy?

[dkbit98]

Every single sector of non-custodial crypto is a threat to Europol.

Did you see the latest announcement made by European Central Bank president, Christine Lagarde?
She openly announced start of Digital Euro aka CBDC in whole EU, and that is no coincidence with recent arrests and regulation change.
It is a lie that people will have the choice between cash and CBDC!

Oh no banning foreign people from a foreign nation that threatens you every day it will nuke your whole country to do business in your country and using your banks is crazy?

What the heck are you talking about?!
US and most of the big countries in the world are in constant war for years, they are bombing countries left and right while making threats all the time.
I think you forgot to get latest booster dose 

[examplens]

If someone does not follow this thing, a fork of Samurai wallet appears, it is called Ashigaru.
The download is possible only from the onion page.

I will just repost their ANN post ^{only one} from Btt

The Ashigaru Open Source Project is happy to announce the release of our mobile wallet which we forked from Samourai. The app is Tor only with an overhauled UI and UX flow for creating / restoring a wallet to prioritize connecting to your own Dojo server.

- Our website is available on both clearnet https://ashigaru.rs/ and as a hidden service but you need to use the Tor Browser to direct download the APK  http://ashigaruprvm4u263aoj6wxnipc4jrhb2avjll4nnk255jkdmj2obqqd.onion/download/. We self host our repo and the code is reproducible.

- As Samourai's infrastructure has an uncertain future, we have launched our own PayNym directory with a fun, new "Pepehash" scheme at https://paynym.rs/ and as a hidden service at  http://paynym25chftmsywv4v2r67agbrr62lcxagsf4tymbzpeeucucy2ivad.onion/

- Online, peer to peer coinjoins are available again to users using the Soroban messaging protocol in app

Further details on each of the above can be found on our website announcements page: https://ashigaru.rs/news/

We have no social media presence. If you like the project, please share the news and, for anyone on Keybase, please give our https://keybase.io/ashigarudev account a follow. This helps our users verify our public key by leveraging the web of trust.

[dkbit98]

Few days ago I created a new discussion topic for Ashigaru wallet, maybe it is better to move conversation there.
I still hope Samourai wallet developers will get released from charges, but even if that happens I doubt they will allow them to continue working with Samourai again.
Anyway, it is good to have another privacy wallet again:
https://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?topic=324691