It has recently come to my attention that multiple U.S. Congressmen who have taken very public pro-Bitcoin stances are not even aware of the currently unfolding prosecution of Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill.
This is simply mind-boggling to me as a Bitcoiner. The current legal prosecution of the Samourai team, as well as the relevant prosecutions against Roman Sterlingov, accused of operating the mixer Bitcoin Fog, and Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, two developers behind Tornado Cash, are the most important legal cases impacting the sovereign and private use of Bitcoin on the docket today.
Roman Sterlingov is sitting in jail right now after a conviction attained with zero hard evidence whatsoever. His conviction was based on nothing more than unproven assertions by blockchain analysis company Chainalysis. The Samourai and Tornado Cash developers are being prosecuted under money laundering legislation for developing purely self custodial software that, in no circumstances in which their software could be used, gave them any control over user funds.
The fact that this is not only not on the radar of any Congressman or Congresswoman who claims to be pro-Bitcoin, but not being loudly talked about, is absurd.
So, let’s do something to change that. I’m calling on every United States citizen reading this to take the form letter below, fill it in appropriately, and send it to your congressman or congresswoman — especially if you are in a district with a representative claiming publicly to be pro-Bitcoin.
This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State, Zipcode]
[Email]
[Phone Number]
[Date]
The Representative [or] Senator [Congressman or Congresswoman’s Name]
[Congressman/Congresswoman’s Address]
[City, State, Zipcode]
I am writing as a concerned citizen of [your State]. I wish to bring to your attention a very important matter regarding the criminal prosecution of open source developers writing software for the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill of Samourai Wallet, Roman Semenov and Roman Storm of Tornado Cash, are being prosecuted for various acts of or assertions of conspiracy to commit money laundering. All four of these men have done nothing but produce and publish open source software that was/is freely available to the public.
A foundational reality of decentralized networks like Bitcoin is the ability their architecture gives to their users to interact and transact with their money using nothing but open-source and freely available software that communicates with a decentralized computer network. When using cryptocurrencies in this way, no one except the end user of the software has any ability to influence, control, or restrict the transfer of a person’s assets on these decentralized networks.
All four of these men have done nothing beyond produce and operate freely available open-source software with the aim of helping end users of these networks protect their personal privacy. Americans have a right to privacy, especially financial privacy, which is why the Bank Secrecy Act mandates that financial institutions take measures to protect the security and confidentiality of American’s financial information.
Blockchains by their very nature, however, are public stores of information. For everyone to guarantee that the rules of the decentralized network are being followed properly, everyone must be able to download and verify the entirety of a blockchain’s transactional history. Everyone’s transactional history. This allows anyone who you transact with to see potentially how much wealth you have, even to follow and learn of future transactions you make.
This is not only very sensitive information to have in the public domain in general, but it can present a very serious risk to people’s physical safety. Incidents of kidnapping, physical assault, and home invasion in order to steal bitcoin from private individuals have increased in frequency as its value has increased.
Software that enables users to maintain their privacy while using networks like Bitcoin is critical, not only to their privacy in general, but also to their physical safety. Both Samourai Wallet and Tornado Cash do so in a purely self-custodial manner, meaning no entity other than the end users themselves ever has control, or ability to influence, the transactions that are made. This also means that there is no legal entity that the current charges actually apply to (i.e. a custodial financial institution subject to financial regulations).
Separately, Roman Sterlingov has been convicted in criminal court of operating a custodial mixing service used to achieve privacy on the Bitcoin network. While this service was custodial, and as such would have financial regulatory obligations, the evidence presented at trial of Roman’s involvement in operating this service is purely circumstantial. Many details of the nature of this evidence, and its questionability, exist on the public record from Sterlingov’s attorney Tor Ekeland.
I strongly urge you to investigate these matters, and take action to correct these severe miscarriages of justice resulting from the application of nonapplicable financial regulations to open-source software developers, and the complete flouting of the requirements to show evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to achieve conviction in a criminal proceeding.
[Only include the bold if your congressman/congresswoman is publicly pro-Bitcoin]
This is incredibly important when it comes to the freedom to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in a self-custodial and freedom-preserving way. I hope to see your actions in Congress live up to your stance on public record when it comes to Bitcoin as a policy issue.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]