The terrorist in the samurai wallet incident is a country.

“The state is every institution that can retroactively forgive crimes. Forgiving murder gives you an army, forgiving assault gives you a police force, forgiving theft gives you taxes. And this concept exists. A limited number of people. Sovereignty, which changes the rules for and gives them license to do things that might otherwise be crimes, provides a very clear definition of what the state is essentially doing when it does something wrong. ” @no strings

The recent imprisonment of the developer of the Samourai wallet marks a new attack by the US government on privacy, financial freedom, and especially the use of cash.

They accuse Samourai’s owners of conducting money transfers without a license and failing to comply with strict anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures.

First, they were charged with money laundering, a crime that is not considered a crime in any liberal legal system. In any system of social organization, whether Minkyist, capitalist, libertarian, anarchist, activist, or any other moderately rational form; For there to be a crime, there must be a victim.. That is, no one can be punished unless they cause harm to others. In order for there to be a victim, there must be non-consensual harm to the other party.. Only a communist or pro-communist regime could tolerate aggravated fascism that punishes individuals even though they have never harmed anyone.

The crime of money laundering under current law essentially consists of concealing the illicit source of funds obtained through illicit activities in order to make those funds appear to have come from legitimate activities (illegally) into the legitimate financial system. In other words, it is a crime that causes no harm. In other words, it is an act that clearly cannot be punished. It is also an action that deserves a reward. Don’t “criminals” who decide to use their own money to obtain goods and services that cause no harm to third parties benefit society as a whole? Would preventing criminals from using their money benefit society? The state has already banned harmful activities to third parties that make someone a criminal, so why encourage punishment for absolutely harmless activities such as using money? Don’t voluntary disclosure programs or amnesty programs encourage exactly the same conduct as the crime of money laundering, except that the conduct is lawful in that context? So, given that money laundering laws only sporadically accept such measures, why not just accept them all the time? And if the conduct permitted by money laundering laws (which is essentially the same as laundering) causes harm to society, then why is it permitted? Laundry doesn’t actually cause any harm and shouldn’t be illegal. Or money laundering laws should be illegal because they harm society..

On the other hand, terrorism can be defined as an act of exercising control over others by instilling fear. Terrorist financing is therefore financial support for groups dedicated to domination over others by spreading terrorism. In Samurai Wallet, Tornado Cash, Silk Road, and other similar cases, states have all failed to show financial support to the terrorists they claim to be fighting. If we want to fight terrorist financing, we have to start by fighting tax collection and money printing.. It is the only legitimately proven major financial contributor to the terrorist economy. There is no doubt that in the three incidents mentioned above and many others, the state arrests people to create fear in other developers doing similar businesses.

Finally, it should be noted that the state has no justification, given human nature, to issue and control licenses and permits unique to each individual. In a more or less rational system of social organization, private human actions that do not affect third parties cannot be subject to state regulation. If a person owns a lake and allows others to fish there, the state does not “grant” or take away the right (in this example, a “fishing license”) and has nothing to do with it. Likewise, if you voluntarily accept and wish to provide money transfer services to someone other than the victim, there is no room for the state to intervene since that person has not suffered harm or filed a claim.

Fortunately, Bitcoin solves all of these problems by opening up the possibility of transferring value in a decentralized, peer-to-peer manner, without funding countries and without intermediaries. However, the road to hyperbitcoinization is not and will not be without obstacles. Maintaining the status quo and seeking maximum control over individuals is not something Leviathan will lose without a fight. Meanwhile, many innocent people will pay the price for daring to engage in activities not explicitly approved by the Masters of the World. But I have no doubt that in the end the fight for freedom will be a victory for all of humanity. We are better than them in every way, we produce more, we are smarter, we are more creative, we are more resilient. And, as in the case of this Samourai Wallet, the hand-to-hand combat of each individual against the State was physically defeated by the former; In the long run, Bitcoin and crypto technology will win the battle, aided by the insurmountable walls we help build.

This is a guest post by Camilo JdL. The opinions expressed are solely personal and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.