Arrested by the US Authorities Arrest For Teaching Cryptocurrency

[Jessica Karren 1242]

This world needs to understand cryptocurrency technology to make profit instead US authorities are arresting those who are teaching this to others. Bad news.

[BTC Future 3946]

I remember this story. The claims were that he given the North Koreans directions how to bypass sactions and launder money through cryptocurrency activities. Hard to prove any of this. Other claims are that he just did that conference and just moved cryptocurrency from South Korea to the North.  From what is said, he was approached by agencies before his trip to Korea and was told not to visit them. I'm not sure of the legislation in the US concerning North Korea, still from what I see I'm sure that they consider them enemies. Probably they should have done more besides just asking him not to visit North Korea instead. 

The full indictment is in this coindesk link:

https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-developer-virgil-griffith-indicted-over-north-korea-event-appearance

charging him with conspiracy to violate something called "The International Emergency Economic Power Acts".

He was arrested this November by the FBI, with many known individuals from the crypto community defending his actions, such as Vitalik Buterin and Roger Ver.

Virgil was released on bail ($1m) in late December 2019, pending trial.

My opinion is that North Korea is a line that the US authorities do not allow to be crossed. They consider them enemies and it was certain that they would arrest Virgil. He obviously knew it the moment he decided to go there, even if he was to provide nothing at all in technical terms.

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by BTC Future

[Babubu609 0]

On 3/20/2020 at 6:40 AM, crypto000 said:

This would be an excuse for some countries to refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies. This is not good news for the world's crypto community. Cryptocurrencies do not want to get into political trouble

Cryptocurrency as a digital currency those not get it self into social political affair it is only for help

[Treat1234 0]

This should not be true, is there any banned in cryptocurrency or there is limitations on what one can do in USA, I knew they are kind of strict on their law

[teminalibug 309]

Just now, Abraham0 said:

USA Didn't accept the bitcoin or any altcoins. So if any USA people buy altcoins they will be arrested. My country also make a law against crytpo. Many days ago some crytpo users were arrested

I think it is unfair of the governments not letting people have something of their own, without having to pay taxes.

[teminalibug 309]

Just now, BensonIT said:

I don't really think this is actually the case and there are so much that are involved in all this without any challenges at all times regardless of the circumstances involved in all this entirely without any challenges at all times always 

I'm sure Nakamoto expected all these challenges, so we should not worry as he kept faith anyway.

[Yunusalemu 0]

so does the also involves thos individuals who teaches and talk about crypto currency on youtube facebook and all othere social media, tgis is a serious issue that need to be addressed 

[tienda 8776]

I think is very important to investigate many thing around the cryptocurrency, some times we do the search about how we use cryptocurrency how we invest and trading, but  we forget to check if our government present new laws against the use of cryptocurrency, so be careful!

[teminalibug 309]

Just now, xassfarabi52 said:

To my knowledge us  There is no problem in declaring cryptocurrency as legitimate and they can deal well with different banks. However, they have different rules and principles if they happen, they can take legal action

Look like they have no problelms on the feathers but they have big problems on the meat, what i mean is they might just nit want people think they are too against with crypto.

[magd 5231]

There are a lot of people who hold cryptocurrency training courses and give lessons on bitcoin, but all of those lessons are through social networking sites. I have never heard of practical cryptocurrency courses, but what crime did this young man commit until he was arrested?

[Babubu609 0]

On 1/26/2020 at 8:27 AM, miskyming said:

This is bad news for us, he just teaching about cryptocurrency and it is not a crime teaching those people about cryptos. Sometimes I don't understand the government.

making an investment in bitcoin and crypto if authorities restrict then they first banned these establishments and will arrest there ceo and owner.

[Sedy 670]

On 11/30/2019 at 10:22 PM, teminalibug said:

I was juts reading Forbes news and I found this news about a guy called Virgil Griffith, who was arrested for teaching about cryptocurrency.

Man! I thought The US had accepted crypto in 2018 at least that is what i was told, then what is this?

 

According to the aritxcle maybe The US has not fully accepted crypto juts like China. you can read more at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2019/11/29/us-authorities-arrest-virgil-griffith-for-teaching-cryptocurrency-and-blockchain/#db602d042cba

 

UPDATE;

The man was arrested for teaching crypto in north Korea, But he was arrested by the US authorities, brings another question, why would they arrest him, I mean he had no permit to travel there and do all that but still.

 

It maybe beacuse of the rivalry between US and North korea. Teaching about crypto currency or any informations passed to North-korea is against the US Law and policy. Crypto currency would benefit North Korea alot, Therefore he was arrested .

[teminalibug 309]

5 hours ago, Sedy said:

It maybe beacuse of the rivalry between US and North korea. Teaching about crypto currency or any informations passed to North-korea is against the US Law and policy. Crypto currency would benefit North Korea alot, Therefore he was arrested .

How would crypto benefit the north Korea in opposed to other countries, US specifically?!

[Raqeebzy 6456]

I thought the US legalised cryptocurrency and it's trading. I will make more research on that. But I understand teaching about cryptocurrency in a country that already put a ban on it is quite illegal. 

[guatazoo 7150]

On 11/30/2019 at 7:52 PM, teminalibug said:

I was juts reading Forbes news and I found this news about a guy called Virgil Griffith, who was arrested for teaching about cryptocurrency.

Man! I thought The US had accepted crypto in 2018 at least that is what i was told, then what is this?

 

According to the aritxcle maybe The US has not fully accepted crypto juts like China. you can read more at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2019/11/29/us-authorities-arrest-virgil-griffith-for-teaching-cryptocurrency-and-blockchain/#db602d042cba

 

UPDATE;

The man was arrested for teaching crypto in north Korea, But he was arrested by the US authorities, brings another question, why would they arrest him, I mean he had no permit to travel there and do all that but still.

 

Of course you are right, I also thinking that's American they use cryptocurrency but they don't accepted it, and I have noticed that's Americans they are using private crypto platforms such as BINANCE America.

[teminalibug 309]

51 minutes ago, guatazoo said:

Of course you are right, I also thinking that's American they use cryptocurrency but they don't accepted it, and I have noticed that's Americans they are using private crypto platforms such as BINANCE America.

That means they are smart and they have managed to put crypto under it's pocket.

[Thekingcallme 1975]

He may have been arrested for teaching about illegal cryptocurrencies and he does not have a license to do so, apparently this happened

[George10 9932]

On 11/30/2019 at 7:39 PM, Brushless4500KV said:

You should read the news carefully and completely. The person in question was not in fact arrested for cryptocurrency teaching. He was arrested because he had traveled to North Korea without permission from federal government. US considers North Korea as its adversary and they think Virgil wanted to help Korea evading sanctions by using cryptocurrency.

They think Virgil's teaching about crypto and blockchain will help to increase funding for Korea and they use it to build more nuclear weapons.

This is what I read in the news. If he had taught about cryptocurrency in US, he would never be arrested.

There are lots of academic courses about blockchain in US which means it is legal to teach about this technology.

Thanks for making it clear in this way,I was wondering if the writer had chance to read and understand the news atticle first by concluding that someone was arrested for teaching about cryptocurrency.

[Khadija Akter 49 2]

On April 16th, SpeedRoute, owned by tZero, broke its monthly trading volume record because of increased trading volatility. The increased volume was from traditional security activity, typically equity and bond transactions, and not digital tokens, or digital securities. Saum Noursalehi, tZero’s CEO, believes this was proof that their smart trade ordering systems can handle surges in digital assets as well.

In an interview, Mr. Noursalehi explained that tZero acquired SpeedRoute in January 2016 as a strategic broker-dealer acquisition. The intention was to use their order matching technology for digital token trading.  

tZero is not paying the bills from digital asset trading. But Mr. Noursalehidid mention there have been increases in crypto subscribers and digital asset activity. Market volatility, in response to the economic shut-downs due to COVID-19 concerns, has boosted demand in March for transaction routing and equity stock order processing.

From the press release, "The total monthly trading volume for March 2020 was nearly three times that of March 2019, and this resulted in a 218% increase in revenues compared to the prior period." This was the strongest month in SpeedRoute's history but had nothing to do with digital trading or securities issued via a blockchain tokenized platform. 

SpeedRoute handles digital asset trading and traditional assets as different business units, but they are all part of the tZero’s operation. Mr. Noursalehibelieves that the focus will be on digital securities in the future. He said, "The technology of SpeedRoute was repurposed for digital asset trading and is leveraged for security tokens."

tZero is a technology firm that was founded to utilize distributed ledger and smart contract technology for Wall Street to be more efficient, accessible, and transparent. tZero is a keiretsu company of Medici Ventures, the blockchain subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc. OSTK (NASDAQ NDAQ:OSTK).

[CryptoMaxim 3829]

Of course it is strange that they were arrested for this. In any case, people can deduct it from the network that they are interested in cryptocurrencies and this technology.

[BrolySSJ 7899]

There are many countries that are completely opposed to the idea of crypto and since it is illegal, i can imagine that those that re teaching it would be considered to be promoting these illegal activities and therefore can be arrested for their role in that. However, i think that crypto has come a long way and there are many countries that are accpeting crypto and some are even offering courses on crypto and even offering degrees in the blockchain field. Therefore although this arrest is sad to hear about, i think that there may still be hope for crypto for the future in the US.

[pablomarwan 3082]

I just took action. But one thing is incomplete. You said that he was arrested in North Korea, because of the nature of the American authorities. Shouldn't the Korean authority do that, maybe there is a reason to catch it instead of teaching, maybe it was working on a dangerous project or something like that

[Rezort 846]

The us authorities just probably thought that he is teaching some illegal moves with cryptocurrency that definitely made damage to the us, because otherwise I don't see a reason.

[Zaino34 0]

Many countries impose sanctions on digital currencies and their use because it is still illegal to use these currencies because it affects their economy and their local currencies, and it is unfortunate to hear such news because this will lead to people being afraid of using digital currencies as illegal.

[yuwira 0]

The office of the U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of recent York and the FBI announced these days that it has arrested and charged Virgil Griffith for violating the U.S. sanctions legal guidelines and traveling to North Korea to "deliver a presentation and technical recommendation on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to prevent sanctions."