Virgil Griffith is a researcher employed by the Ethereum Foundation. He is currently getting a lot of attention because he has traveled to North Korea to talk about the tech behind blockchain. Griffith has been warned several times to withdraw his plans. He is accused of teaching North Koreans about the use of blockchain to avoid American sanctions.
What’s going on
Griffith is 36 years old and was arrested at Los Angeles airport last week. He is suspected of knowingly helping North Korea to get out of economic sanctions and to help with money laundering through blockchain. He was in the capital Pyongyang in April 2019 during the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference. He also did not get permission from the US to travel to North Korea, so he went through China to North Korea on his own initiative.
After the conference, Griffith had plans to set up an exchange between North Korea and South Korea
In May, the FBI interviewed Griffith and acknowledged that traveling and talking to the North Koreans was illegal and he knew it was illegal. He is said to have even shown the FBI photos of himself in North Korea. He knew that setting up a North Korean exchange went against the sanctions imposed. He nevertheless stated that he would return to the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference next year
Ethereum Foundation isn’t going. This is just my vacation.
– Virgil Griffith | ??????.??? (@virgilgr) January 18, 2019
Griffith has been arrested for his actions and is charged with violating “the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA),” Forbes said. Since then, his arrest has been the talk of the day on crypto Twitter.
One thing about Virgil Griffith that maybe I’m missing: If his blockchain conference aided the North Koreans in undermining US trade restrictions, then wouldn’t it also have aided the North Koreans in undermining their own authoritarian government?
Or not? We need a reality check– Ben Halstead Animation (@HalsteadArt) December 1, 2019
Ethereum’s boss, Vitalik Buterin, is right behind him. He has signed a petition to free Griffith. Not bad, a good entrepreneur stands up for his employees.
I refuse to take the convenient path of throwing Virgil under the bus, because I firmly believe that would be wrong. I’m signing. Reasoning below.https: //t.co/E44p5caeJO
– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 1, 2019
Buterin elaborates on why he is behind the Ethereum Foundation researcher. He does that on Twitter but he also substantiates his arguments by sharing a Medium message from Enrico Talin, CEO of Commerc.io. Talin writes that the two have been good friends for years and that Griffith is often a peacemaker. “In general, I honestly think that Virgil is someone who wants to bridge gaps.” He also asks a few good questions:
- Does anyone really think there is something that Virgil Griffith said at the blockchain conference that was not yet available on the internet?
- As an American citizen, does Virgil Griffith have the freedom to express his opinion or is freedom of expression limited when we talk about blockchain?
Vitalik himself says that he supports Griffith because they are friends of each other and denies that the Ethereum Foundation has anything to do with his decision.
0. Prefacing with two points. [i] Conflict-of-interest disclosure: Virgil is my friend, [ii] this whole thing has nothing to do with EF. EF paid nothing and offered no assistance; it was Virgil’s personal trip that many counseled against http: //t.co/6K3LErVWjI
– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 1, 2019
Buterin goes further and claims that he does not believe that Griffith has given an advanced tutoring, but rather that he gave a presentation based on publicly available information about open-source software.
3. I don’t think what Virgil did DRPK any child or real help in doing anything bad. He * delivered a presentation based on publicly available info about open-source software *. There was no weird hackery “advanced tutoring”.
– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 1, 2019
Of course, not everyone agrees with Buterin’s arguments.
The fact that a big chunk of the Ethereum community (including Vitalik) is in support or Virgil Griffith’s action is quite shocking. All I see are dishonest and naive arguments.
– Lum Ramabaja (@Lum_Ramabaja) December 1, 2019
Virgil Griffith 1) tried to sell tor2web data including user IP addrs, full URIs, and timestamps to INTERPOL and 2) put his filthy %$#% arm around my waist, grabbed my ribcage, and forcefully led me around a room while bragging about his hacking skillz “
rotten, fashy snitch https://t.co/wtL9xQOwed
– isis agora lovecruft (they / them) (@isislovecruft) November 29, 2019
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