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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • "If you don’t know what samurai wallet is then that title would be less informative.

    No."

    What do you “no”? It absolutely would be. A samurai wallet could be a physical wallet for cash, some hidden blade device, a toy, a regular non privacy centric crypto wallet. For example lets pretend there is this crypto wallet you haven’t heard of. Would a title like “Developer of Ninja Pocket goes to prison” be more or less informative to you?

    "Replacing samurai with crypto can only mislead the reader into thinking that the issue was the crypto and not the privacy part.

    No. "

    Again, what do you mean “no”? “Developer of crypto wallet imprisoned” tells you nothing about why he was jailed and completely misses the whole point of the story - that he was imprisoned due to the privacy features of the wallet.

    "It also doesn’t tell you anything about why he’s being imprisoned

    Neither does the current title. But at least then we know it’s something to do with a crypto wallet instead of a “privacy tool”."

    Like I said it’s implied. The title doesn’t need to tell you that it has something to do with a crypto wallet because that’s not the important part. The privacy preserving characteristics of it is what matters. His “crime” isn’t making a crypto wallet, it’s making it private.

    At this point I think it’s pretty clear you’re just being disingenuous so I’ll bid you good day.

    IDK how you came to that conclusion but ok.



  • What details are being withheld? His name, the tool’s name, the crime, the sentence? What title would be more informative?

    Samurai wallet dev sentenced to 5 years

    Is that better? Only if you already know what samurai wallet is.

    Keonne Rodriguez pleads guilty to conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business?

    Only if you know who Keonne Rodriguez is and that conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business carries a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

    A privacy tool dev sentenced to 5 years for a conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business?

    Is this any better? I don’t think so. It still doesn’t tell you anything about the actual case. You can’t condense an hour long video into a single sentence beyond the basic premise, and trying to do so risks glossing over important details and misinforming the viewer. Also, it’s not the titles job to give you details about the story, just a basic overview of what the story is about.


  • He is being penalized because of the privacy part, the prosecution argued that the sole purpose of and the intent behind the samurai wallet was money laundering (which he’s not actually being charged for nor was he ever. He was charged with a conspiracy to commit money laundering until that particular charge was dropped as a part of a plea deal) because he knew that it can be used by criminals. So he’s essentially being prosecuted for writing code that other people allegedly used to commit crimes, an equivalent of tor devs and relay operators being charged with a conspiracy to distribute CSAM and facilitate trade of illegal substances. He never held or controlled any funds yet he’s been charged for running an unlicensed money transmitting business despite finCEN explicitly stating that what he was doing did not qualify as transmitting money.

    I can’t explain this nearly as well as the video does so please just watch if you have the time, it’s really interesting and there’s a lot of crazy, outrageous legal fuckery that the prosecution pulled. It’s worth a watch.


  • I wouldn’t say that not going with an overly descriptive title classifies a bait. You can always add more context but that’s what the actual article/video is for, a title is just a brief general description to catch the readers attention. Something like “Interview with Keonne Rodriguez, the founder of Samurai Wallet - a privacy focused bitcoin wallet who’s going to prison after being compelled to pleading guilty to running an unlicenced money transmitting business.” is very descriptive but doesn’t make a great title IMO. It’s like saying that “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is a readbait because calling it “A Wizard Orphan and a Magic Rock” would give more context.