Virgil Griffith - Crypto Advocate and Educator Arrested at LAX from DPRK

[Comet Dweller]

On 29/11/2019 19:49, grarpamp wrote:

"GRIFFITH was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday
and will be presented in federal court in Los Angeles later today.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman stated: "As alleged, Virgil Griffith
provided highly technical information to North Korea, knowing that
this information could be used to help North Korea launder money and
evade sanctions. In allegedly doing so, Griffith jeopardized the
sanctions that both Congress and the president have enacted to place
maximum pressure on North Korea's dangerous regime." Assistant
Attorney General John Demers said: "Despite receiving warnings not to
go, Griffith allegedly traveled to one of the United States' foremost
adversaries, North Korea, where he taught his audience how to use
blockchain technology to evade sanctions. By this complaint, we begin
the process of seeking justice for such conduct."


What the frag. How could that "conduct" be illegal? Didn't the US Gov learn about the idiocy of trying to keep math and algorithms secret with the whole encryption = weapons thing decades ago now?

Surely the North Koreans can just read all they need to know about blockchain via any number of freely available publications or websites. Github would be a good place to start, for example. Isn't this just pointlessly persecuting someone for doing something that no sane person would think of as illegal or criminal and which could, at worst, be of only trivial benefit to any putative enemy.

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