In one of the most anticipated talks of this year's Bitcoin Conference, Todd Blanche promised developers would no longer be targeted – with an important caveat.
"It's great to be here," said Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, addressing the audience at Bitcoin Vegas' industry day yesterday afternoon. Blanche, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel, were invited on a panel hosted by Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal to discuss "Code as Speech: Ending the War on Bitcoin."
The hypocrisy of hosting Blanche on a panel about code as speech and the end of the war on Bitcoin raised several eyebrows over the past week on social media. Last year, the Department Blanche now leads sent Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill to prison for close to a decade combined, and secured a conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, preparing for a retrial on the remaining two charges this coming October.
In just over a year, Trump's DOJ has sought – and continues to seek – to lock three non-custodial software developers away for half of a century combined. But developers need to fear not, Blanche proudly proclaimed. As long as they don't know that their software is being used for illicit activity.
This stated exemption continues to intentionally leave the door wide open to prosecute non-custodial developers.
...read more at therage.co
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Is still stunning to see people thinking that Samourai devs were jailed for developing a bitcoin app.
I find this false narrative so blatantly wrong among many bitcoiners and they do not want to hear anything else.
I do not defend also the position of the gov, but opposite.
But guys, wake the fuck up and stop repeating same bullshit somebody else is feeding you on social media.
Samourai devs were charged with money laundering and they PLEAD GUILTY.
We don't really know the details of that case, weather was a setup, a deal or whatever else, IT DOESN'T MATTER. What matter is that they plead guilty for money laundering and NOT for developing a bitcoin app !
If they did it wrong or not, if they really "launder" money or not, also doesn't matter. and is not the subject of this matter "being charged because you write code" as it is trying to be portrayed...
IMHO they could launder as much as they want, is not my damn business and I do not consider "money laundering" a crime.
What matter is that they PLEAD GUILTY. NEVER forget that. And that say it all about the whole case. Keep in mind: no matter what petition you sign or protest you support... is totally useless. A man that plead guilty will not be pardoned. A man that plead guilty was entering in a secret deal with the real thugs. That means betrayal. You are a fool to believe that they are clean.
A man that is innocent of any crime will NEVER EVER plead guilty, no matter what.
So please stop being a peon following the narrative you are fed by all media and influencers.
I agree with almost all of the above. But this, coming from you, is just baffling:
From my perspective, saying that falls into the same intellectually lazy or dishonest error category of "you only need privacy if you have something to hide."
The disappointing bit is that you, our #1 anti-statist megaphone over here, would seem to imply that everyone should trust the state's judicial system to be so pure that it could never, ever convict an innocent person. And therefore, pleading guilty means you cannot possibly be innocent.
Now, if that came from some potentially more mid-curved source, I would mentally roll my eyes and move on without comment. But from you I expect much better.
You didn't understand my words. Read again.
If you are accused of something, address THAT issue and defend yourself for THAT issue, not move the accusations to something else.
NO. I didn't say that. Don't put words that I didn't said.
No, if you plead guilty, are these explanations:
But people read whatever they want from my words and never used their brain to process.
You must read all my posts to understand my position on this case.
what you see in this meme, it really happened.
Again, you as anti-statist will know this better than any normie.
It doesn't matter how hard you declare they have no authority over you if they have the keys to your shackles and the state's backing to declare whatever they did to be legitimate.
You can try to explain why your arguments show inconsistencies when called out, or you can simply call the other side too dumb to understand.
Choosing the latter option as often as you do looks weak to me. It makes you sound like some 16 year-old larping as freedom fighter.
I'm certainly not going to go through your expansive post history to figure out where you may or may not have hidden the golden nugget explaining the inconsistencies of your arguments in this thread.
What's most astonishing to me is that you keep sounding as if you expect the courts to always provide a fair, correct outcome.
So maybe we need to start at a more basic point, so someone like me who never used their brain to process can try to understand:
Do you believe a court can convict a person for a crime they did not commit and lock them away for decades?
If your answer is "no" we're done. If yes, then the follow up question is this:
Do you believe only guilty people will ever consent to a plea deal to exchange a potentially critical outcome for a bad but less extreme one?
"They just need to have the balls to not cave, and rather take the bad sentence. Like real manly men" is not a valid answer, because that is not what I was asking.
Yes. Because the judicial system is NOT to protect the individual.
But you must learn how to defend and rebut their authority.
As "crime" is simple:
Did Samourai devs did something like that? NO
So why they plead guilty then?
All the rest is another story that can be rebutted easily in a court.
But if you do what lawyers says... you are doomed.
Where did I say that?
Yes, because you tried to put words in my mouth that I didn't said.
NEVER plead. Simple as that.
Pleading means bargain... When you are in a court and fall into bargaining trap, you are done, you are fucked, you lost in the 1st second, no matter you are guilty or not.
Please read about how courts "operate":
That's how we as individuals think of it. But the state's take is "breach any of the piles vague laws we have" as additional, tactical bullet point.
To avoid being sentenced for longer periods on the fourth bullet point.
Being able to rebut does not guarantee not getting sentenced for it, or something else where laws are vague enough to convince a jury.
The GA must have had enough vague points to potentially get a much worse outcome.
Not everyone is willing to roll the dice. Otherwise insurance companies would look very different today.
The GA offered them "insurance" of a shorter sentence if they'd rather not roll the dice on a much longer one.
I'm inclined to agree. But in distress and without the knowledge to help themselves, people will seek council. To make matters worse, they won't be able to tell good from bad council except for old "reviews" of past outcomes.
That's the difference between people with balls (sovereign) and cowards (slaves).
If I know I didn't committed any crime I will die defending MYSELF (not with lawyers) and never plead (bargain) anything.
Read: #581259
I have no issue with that.
But I also expect very few people to choose that path.
And that's the only reason why I disagreed with your initial blanket statement:
I think that is true for very few people and that most will be inclined to take the deal.
They'd rather spend less time in, or take a deal for a more comfortable period of incarceration than risk it all in a claim for their own sovereignty (which they can't enforce).
In this case, the state wanted them to ask for a less severe spanking for having shown an interest in breaking free.
It's a classic abusive relationship with a state we're all born into, trained to accept and, heck, in many cases even defend.
@DarthCoin is an NSA agent.
He poses as a BTC Maxi and infiltrates the community posturing as an anti establishment type but in reality he is working for the NSA.
He doesn't even use BTC here on SNs- hes not allowed to because it would compromise his tax obligations.
The guy is a fake and a traitor...worming his way in here to infiltrate and undermine.
The NSA want to know the inside technical and community details and @DarthCoin delivers it to them.
Nobody here knows who @DarthCoin is in real life- because he is an NSA spook.
In the case of the Samouraï guys it will be very difficult to obtain a pardon because they pleaded guilty, whatever the reasons their lawyers recommended that I don't know
But if you look at the data, most white collar crime takes the deal, that's just the way it is, going to trial could end up with decades long sentences
It's all very well saying you'd never plead guilty but on the day when you're taking advice from legal people and they're saying if you plead not guilty you could get 50yrs at trial
So I can only imagine these guys took the advice of their highly paid lawyers and probably pressure from family members who just wanted the least worst outcome
You don't know until it's you
Stupid move that only cowards are doing it.
If you are not guilty you fight until you die for your defense.
The important part of the speech is this:
If this is true, do they consider developers like Roman Storm and the Samurai guys "third party users"?
Okay, so you can develop software, but if your users use it to launder money -- straight to jail?
Guess the only play is not to have any contact information at all.
https://twiiit.com/LaurentMT/status/2048839885625143320
""If you are developing software...... and you are not helping and knowing that the third party is using what you develop to commit crimes — you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged.""
Translation: if you are developing privacy software, you are going to be investigated and charged.
todd blanche — https://www.therage.co/blanche-vegas/
breadcrumb: #1480178
Very chilling to first amendment and open software in general.
In particular, if you are doing AI gencode for privacy tech, you might need to self host.
DOH’
#1477397
The 'Greater Israel' project proposes that military aggression is justified to achieve the allegedly God given boundaries of the state of Israel.
'Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has suggested that Israel is destined to expand to include Jordan, and even beyond, to parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and even Iraq.
In a documentary film by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte in 2024, Smotrich said “it is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.
This view has support in some parts of Israeli society. Israel’s incursions into Jordan and Syria has intensified international concerns that some actors in Israel are pursuing expansion into other countries...
In August 2025, Israeli prime minister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli TV channel i24News that he was on a "historic and spiritual mission" and that he is "very" attached to the vision of Greater Israel, which includes Palestinian areas and possibly also places that are part of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel
Trump works for Chevron and Zionist war criminals.