They used moneypak transfers, from what I remember.
Personally, I would rather live in the world where we have financial privacy and financial freedom even if that means dealing with ransomware. (which is mitigable with proper planning).
If a ransomware author doesn't have financial freedom or privacy then that means you don't either. Edward Snowden is being financially censored right now by US Government in a move to take away the proceeds of his book. It is no wonder then that Snowden is a fan of cryptocurrencies which have no such mechanism.
Likewise, WikiLeaks was financially censored by PayPal, VISA and Mastercard under unofficial pressure from the US Gov.
You don't even have to break any laws to be financially censored. PayPal regularly freezes people's balances for 180 days and does not even provide a reason. The sometimes do this at the behest of political activists looking to use financial pressure to censor their opponents.
So, I will accept ransomware as an unavoidable consequence of the greater good - because if all of these people are censored then so am I.
The problem is a social one: we need to lobby the government to ensure folks like Snowden are protected, and not allow the tyranny of the minority through spending money in a way that can't be traced or censored.
We can all agree sending money to North Korea is bad. [1] Funding ISIS is bad. [2] Ransomware is bad. [3] Wikileaks and Snowden? There's a debate to be had. You're actively circumventing democracy by preventing us from having that debate and by refusing to abide by democracy's decisions.
You're attacking symptoms, not problems, with tools that are just broadly worse. Social problems need social solutions, not anarchy and magic beans that live in your computer. Of course that's harder, but it is better, and there's no "number go up" to compensate you.
What? Wikileaks was censored without even being charged with a crime.
The reality is people who have committed no crimes are financially censored on a regular basis.
According to the EFF:
>The actions of a small number of payment intermediaries— like payment processors, banks, and credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard—can heavily influence what kind of speech can exist online.
>The problem is a social one: we need to lobby the government to ensure folks like Snowden are protected, and not allow the tyranny of the minority through spending money in a way that can't be traced or censored.
The problem is 9 times out of ten not the government. Here's a better idea: let's make censorship impossible in all forms.
Addendum: Not to mention the millions of people who live in censored countries (Iran, Venezuela, etc) who are totally innocent. Or the billions of people worldwide who are cut off from western monetary institutions in the name of anti-money laundering laws - people censored purely because they were born in the wrong country.
Or how about the billions of people who live under authoritarian governments which outright censor them. Are they expected to lobby their masters to achieve political change?
>Here's a better idea: let's make censorship impossible in all forms.
It seems like you're proposing government ownership or extremely heavy regulation of private businesses.
For your ACLU/NRA case, you have a good case: this appears to be action by a state government to restrict funding to an organization that is not charged with a crime.
However, for PayPal and erotic fiction authors, this isn't government censorship at all. This is a private company declining to do business with someone. One of the hallmarks of the American business and legal system is the right to free association. You can't force people to do business with other people, unless (due to specific legislation, namely the Civil Rights Act) you can show that one side was discriminating against someone in a "protected class" (race, sex, religion, etc.). "People selling erotic fiction" are not a protected class, so companies are free to do business with them, or not. Personally, I think it's pretty ridiculous, and I have no idea why PayPal would single them out when they provide services for so many others, but again, they're not a public utility, they're a private company. The authors are still free to receive money from clients through cash, checks, bank transfers, competing services like Stripe or Venmo, merchant accounts, etc. Yeah, it sucks that a really convenient payment processor for small entities is off-limits, but it's not like they can't get any money at all, even though it probably would affect their business.
Do we really want to have government in the business of forcing companies to do business with other companies or organizations? What if it's the KKK? What if it's a drug cartel's shell company? What if it's a terrorist organization, but one which the government happily looks the other way for because they're antagonizing some political foe?
And it's not just finances, it's other kinds of business. Should an advertising firm be required to do business with anyone? What if the KKK wants them to post ads? Or some religious cult? This would be a pretty horrible precedent.
You failed to address literally all the things I pointed out.
> The problem is 9 times out of ten not the government. Here's a better idea: let's make censorship impossible in all forms.
PayPal and Visa only make money when they process payments. Not processing payments means they don't make money. Not processing payments for Snowden is therefore likely outside pressure from the government. Not processing "immoral" transactions is likely outside pressure from investors or advertisers, or heck, probably their risk management team.
PayPal is a private company and can choose not to process payments for anyone, for any reason. The Fed/ACH doesn't have the same issues because they are a service in the public interest. They will process payments for anything legal for 1/10th of a cent each over the span of a couple of business days. By the end of the year, instantly, via RTP.
> The ACLU is currently suing New York state for financially censoring an organization which likewise committed no crime.
Luckily being a public institution remediation exists through the courts. BTC's irreversibility makes remediation impossible. You're pointing to a big feature as though it's a bug. Just ask the victims of the ransomware.
> Addendum: Not to mention the millions of people who live in censored countries (Iran, Venezuela, etc) who are totally innocent. Or the billions of people worldwide who are cut off from western monetary institutions in the name of anti-money laundering laws - people censored purely because they were born in the wrong country.
Take it up with your government. That's how government works. You don't like it, change it, don't circumvent it. It's like setting up your own parallel government because you don't like who's in power: that's not how it works. Do I agree with sanctions policy? Lord no. However, I can always lobby to change it. I think you'll find the majority do agree with sanctions policy and that you're undermining democracy.
> Or how about the billions of people who live under authoritarian governments which outright censor them. Are they expected to lobby their masters to achieve political change?
No, they're expected to overturn the government. Freedom isn't free, and all that. The censorship of their transactions is literally the least of their problems. Social problems require social solutions. Or phrased glibly: bitcoin won't help you as you mine minerals in the gulag. It won't help you avoid the gulag and it sure won't do anything to help you once you get there.
In fact, I'd be more worried about transacting on the indelible public (pseudonymous) blockchain than transacting in say, cash, if I didn't want the government to know what I was doing. You don't think the PRC would build automatic deanonymization tooling?
>PayPal is a private company and can choose not to process payments for anyone, for any reason. The Fed/ACH doesn't have the same issues because they are a service in the public interest. They will process payments for anything legal for 1/10th of a cent each over the span of a couple of business days. By the end of the year, instantly, via RTP.
Sure, PayPal is a private company and can do what they want. That doesn't mean they don't censor individuals. You said nobody ever got censored except for illegal deeds so I pointed out how that is wrong.
Also, can an ordinary guy open a bank account at the federal reserve? I don't believe so so your point is moot.
>Luckily being a public institution remediation exists through the courts.
How about why the hell should we allow this kind of behavior in the first place? You shouldn't need millions in legal fees to participate freely in the economy. Most people couldn't even pay that.
>Take it up with your government. That's how government works. You don't like it, change it, don't circumvent it.
Why? If the policy is not moral there is no good reason to follow it. Civil disobedience. Besides, you see this changing any time soon?
>No, they're expected to overturn the government. Freedom isn't free, and all that.
Oh great. Who will pay for that?
>In fact, I'd be more worried about transacting on the indelible public (pseudonymous) blockchain than transacting in say, cash, if I didn't want the government to know what I was doing. You don't think the PRC would build automatic deanonymization tooling?
Luckily there is Monero which provides actual privacy.
We will never forget that Parliament burned the tally sticks.
We will never forget that FDR banned private ownership of gold.
We will never forget that Kennedy killed the silver certificate.
We will never forget that Nixon killed Bretton-Woods.
We will never forget that bankers and financiers repeatedly take advantage of moral hazard, producing bubble economy crashes, such as the 2001 dot-com bomb and the 2007 subprime mortgage bust. Remember tulip mania? That was in the 1630s. Cleverfolk have been running market-wide financial scams for 400 years of recorded history, from a position of leverage near the controllers of money.
The problem is that governments everywhere have always been taking away control of money from the public, and transferring it to parties that either operated with complete impunity already, or became effectively unchecked once they controlled the money.
The function of money in civilization is too important to allow any one party to put a fence around it, to start collecting tolls whenever it so much as twitches.
While current cryptocurrencies don't yet do it well, it is theoretically possible that everyone in civilization could issue their own scrip, circulate it in trade via a trust web, and later redeem it for the goods and services that they provide, without anyone ever physically printing onto forgery-resistant notes. The credit function of trade would no longer belong to banks and their credit scores, but whether the people who know the people you know believe that you can honor your commitments. The futures, trading, and securities function of markets would no longer belong to financial firms.
We don't need to lobby anybody. We just need to use money that destroys itself if too few of the participating entities can collectively control too much of the system. If anybody tries too hard to be Visa or Mastercard, they end up with x% of nothing instead of x% of everything.
...So cryptocurrencies definitely have an advantage as fertilizer for bullshit libertarian pipe dreams, if nothing else.
Are you quoting me? Cryptocurrencies appeal to more than just libertarians. Richard Stallman, who is a downright socialist recgonizes the anti-censorship properties of cryptocurrencies as important.
Personally, I would rather live in the world where we have financial privacy and financial freedom even if that means dealing with ransomware. (which is mitigable with proper planning).
If a ransomware author doesn't have financial freedom or privacy then that means you don't either. Edward Snowden is being financially censored right now by US Government in a move to take away the proceeds of his book. It is no wonder then that Snowden is a fan of cryptocurrencies which have no such mechanism.
Likewise, WikiLeaks was financially censored by PayPal, VISA and Mastercard under unofficial pressure from the US Gov.
You don't even have to break any laws to be financially censored. PayPal regularly freezes people's balances for 180 days and does not even provide a reason. The sometimes do this at the behest of political activists looking to use financial pressure to censor their opponents.
So, I will accept ransomware as an unavoidable consequence of the greater good - because if all of these people are censored then so am I.