Hi Charlie,
When you are released, will you be able to work for a bitcoin company (exchanges, wallets, etc), or start your own bitcoin company again? Or do you know if as part of your release, you will not be allowed to engage in "bitcoin activities?"
Best wishes,
David
It would depend on what year Charlie would be released from prison. Maybe in a few years, there won't be a need for a bitcoin exchange. I'll just leave this here.Hi Charlie,
When you are released, will you be able to work for a bitcoin company (exchanges, wallets, etc), or start your own bitcoin company again? Or do you know if as part of your release, you will not be allowed to engage in "bitcoin activities?"
Best wishes,
David
and what kind of company would you start?
Hey!Hello Charlie
Danny here at The Crypto Show. What limitation if any will you have as far as the use of computers or the Internet upon your release? Or is that even an issue? You often hear that so called cyber crime have this stipulation attached to a person upon release.
Hey David,Hi Charlie,
When you are released, will you be able to work for a bitcoin company (exchanges, wallets, etc), or start your own bitcoin company again? Or do you know if as part of your release, you will not be allowed to engage in "bitcoin activities?"
Best wishes,
David
So far I've learnt a few important things. I've learnt that I don't know everything. I was a very arrogant person and let my ego get the best of me. I've learnt how to have patience and slow down my thinking. It's very important to work through problems slowly and not jump at the first emotion. If there is a situation or event that causes you to have a negative reaction, taking a moment to challenge it and think, can be the difference between a good and bad decision. Responsibility, honesty, caring, objectivity, humility and gratitude are great attitudes to grow.What is the most important lesson you have learned from your prison experience?
In 2011 when I was 21 years old, I allowed a customer to buy Bitcoins via my company Bitinstant when I knew this customer was reselling these Bitcoins on Silk Road. I was irresponsible and I should have done more to block him from using our services. I dont blame anyone but myself and every day I think about all the people I let down.Hi Charlie.
For the lay person right now, what happened that sent you to prison? Did you do something bad, was it bad decisions, low experience, messed up system, too much new ground to break, a few of these or something entirely different?
Cheers
Are you saying you should have done more to block the user from buying bitcoins to resell on the Silk Road because it was morally wrong, or because it was illegal?In 2011 when I was 21 years old, I allowed a customer to buy Bitcoins via my company Bitinstant when I knew this customer was reselling these Bitcoins on Silk Road. I was irresponsible and I should have done more to block him from using our services. I dont blame anyone but myself and every day I think about all the people I let down.
Links about Monero (XMR):My thesis is that the transparent nature of the Bitcoin Blockchain leads us to the path of (nasty) government regulation.
This won't be some long theoretical opinion about technical Bitcoin flaws, I will provide you with some clear practical examples. People who love to have extensive government regulation, please move on and ignore this post.
What is exactly problematic about a transparent blockchain? Well, every UTXO has a history. This means mainly 2 things:
1) people who receive a transaction can see this history
2) miners who put transactions into blocks can see this history
Let me be clear. The issue we are talking about here isn't anonymity, it's fungibility.
You can try to hide your coins as much as you want, if you tried to mix your coins using a mixer, coinjoin or another type of "anonymity enhancing feature", we will at least be able to detect that you did. We maybe won't know who you are, but those coins can be flagged as "possible suspicious activity on the blockchain".
So what's the big deal about that? Well, this gives governments the possibility to regulate BTC transactions. Let me explain: Basically it comes down to these 2 possible scenario's: blacklisting and whitelisting
Government could on one hand through “whitelisting” obligate bitcoin users to identify themselves when they purchase bitcoins (this is already happening: KYC and AML) and ask them to whom they are transferring these bitcoins (Coinbase is already asking this for some transactions).
In the future this could lead to a situation in which only “identified” bitcoins would be spendable at regulated payment processors. Every business that accepts bitcoin in a certain jurisdiction would need to use a certified payment processors that only accepts "whitelisted" coins.
As a result, your anonymous bitcoins would only be spendable if you match them to your identity through a regulated authority (exchange, wallet service or directly through government). If you try to spend other coins, the payment processor could send them back you you (best case) or send them to a government wallet (worst case) and maybe you can claim the coins after you identify yourself (at least you have your coins back...)
A more aggressive approach is “blacklisting”. This is a system whereby the government makes it illegal to process certain blacklisted UTXO's.
Of course you would say that no miner would comply... But think about it. Would a large mining farm operator risk going to jail for "money laundering" or will he comply? After all, he has electricity bills to pay. The profit will be more important than the ideology.
This kind of regulation leads to a loss of fungibility. Bitcoin isn't fungible anymore if one bitcoin is accepted for payment or isn't mined anymore and another isn't.
If you are thinking that i'm exaggerating because there are a lot of jurisdictions and there will always be places where there will not be this strict regulation, you are right.
But it gets worse...
Not only governments but even companies will start to apply regulation by themselves as a form of self-censorship, because they fear government crackdown on their business:
We already saw the "whitelisting version" with the deposit of the Evolution coins to BTC-e. Those coins weren't allowed by an exchange that is pretty anonymous themselves! The reason is that they don't want the CIA and Europol on their doorstep, so they decided not to accepts possible money laundering activity.
And what about the blacklisting by the miners? I'm sure there will be ideologically motivated miners that will keep processing blacklisted UTXO's.
But there are far less pools than there are individual miners. The regulation will slowly affect this. I see a 5 stage system:
1) there will be some pools that voluntarily adopt the regulations, because they fear government crackdown (same situation as BTC-e with the Evolution coins)
2) some miners fear the government, so they ask their pool operators if they will comply with the regulations. If not, they move to a "regulated pool". It will slowly become a disadvantage for pool operators to not comply. If one uses mixed bitcoins, the transactions will start to suffer from delays because of less miners processing them.
3) the regulation will become more harsh. Building on a block that contains blacklisted transactions will become illegal. This will lead to more pools censoring themselves because they fear they will loose the block reward if they don't comply
4) the "illegal block depth" will become larger (f.e. not building on a chain which 3 blocks "deep" had a blacklisted transaction; more pools start to comply
5) almost everybody now complies and blacklisted UTXO's won't be spendable unless they pass through a regulation authority.
In essence this could lead to three kinds of bitcoins:
White bitcoins: bitcoins that satisfy the identification regulation.
Grey bitcoins: bitcoins that are not yet identified, but which are not actively anonymized. transactions are allowed, but not spending them at a certified payment processor.
Black bitcoins: bitcoins that are banned by miners. Processing them is illegal. Maybe even owning them...
The consequence?
Bitcoin will not be fungible anymore: you can’t just use a grey or black bitcoin to buy something from a webshop. If the government is able to discover that you possess black bitcoins or process blacklisted type transactions, you could even be seen as a someone committing a crime.
Eventually Bitcoin will become a fast payment system without counterparty risk but with full government control.
Is that what we really want?
And if you think these are all unlikely scenario's then well... we will talk again in 5 year's time.
I eat all my Mackerel lol, it tastes pretty good with some rice and hot sauce. People even put it in their oatmeal! Good source of proteinhow many hours per day do you spend standing up in the cafeteria shouting out the day’s mackerelcoin transactions?
Hey,What books have you read?
How are you spending your time?
Have you talked to fellow inmates about Bitcoin?
Were they curious?
Hey Charlie! Thanks a million for all you have done for Bitcoin.
My only question for now is about access to currency in the klink... I've heard that they discourage use of cigarettes and other naturally-occurring currencies, but of course that's a per-prison rule, I'd think.
Are you allowed to use one, what is it, and is Bitcoin accessible at all for prisoners?
Charlie! This too shall pass!
Thanks for making Bitinstant happen!
You were the foolish genius Bitcoin needed in 2011-2012.
Do you have the ring? Did they take everything?
Any idea what you'll be doing when you get out?
Oh, and... What should be done about the blocksize limit?
Cheers!
PS: Just kidding, Bitcoin is dead.
We all use Dogecoin now. Sorry.
I just printed them out and now sharing them aroundHey Charlie,
Just wondering what you thought about articles posted to The Daily Hash Rate about you:
http://dailyhashrate.com/2014/10/19/int ... f-bitcoin/
http://dailyhashrate.com/2014/12/21/cha ... in-prison/
Is it stressful to be in prison?
Do you have actual criminals harassing you?
Yes! I dont plan on going back to NY at all. We're looking on moving to Austin, TX and eventually out of the country when its possible. If anyone is in Austin and wants to get in touch, write me a lettter!Charlie!
I wonder what the state of Bitcoin would be now if you were out?
My question is: After you get out, will you be LEAVING New York?
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