Griffith is a US citizen, and it’s illegal for a US citizen to travel to North Korea without explicit permission from the State Department \u2014 which he asked for, and they refused. He went anyway \u2014 tweeting about his trip, posting his visa for North Korea,<\/a> and encouraging others to come to the conference<\/a> with him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Department of Justice claims Griffith helped transfer cryptocurrency between North Korea and South Korea, a slam-dunk violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act \u2014 and that Griffith literally told this to an FBI agent in an interview.<\/p>\n Ben Munster wrote about the conference in Decrypt in September, quoting at length<\/a> an “anonymous attendee” \u2014 who said that “the main things (the North Koreans) were interested in were using Bitcoin to get around sanctions, and using Ethereum for U.N.-less courts.”<\/p>\n By the way \u2014 the February 2020 conference is open for registration!<\/a> Unless you’re a journalist.<\/a> Passports from South Korea, Japan and Israel are not welcome, but US passports are<\/a> \u2014 “we will provide a paper visa separated from your passport, so there will be no evidence of your entry to the country.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Griffith is a research scientist with the Ethereum Foundation, working on mainnet and enterprise development. (Vitalik Buterin on Griffith’s trip: “enjoy.”<\/a>) The Foundation has disclaimed<\/a> all involvement \u2014 “We can confirm that the Foundation was not represented in any capacity at the events outlined in the Justice Department\u2019s filing, and that the Foundation neither approved nor supported any such travel, which was a personal matter.”<\/p>\n Griffith sure went out of his way to make friends \u2014 he was kicked out of the Tor project<\/a> for collecting, then attempting to deanonymise and sell, user data to INTERPOL and the Singaporean government. And this tweet<\/a> is only one of several stories I’ve heard about Griffith as tech conference sex pest.<\/p>\n I encountered Griffith’s work in 2007, when he did WikiScanner \u2014 a tool to show which organisations were editing Wikipedia anonymously \u2014 and I was answering the calls from the press<\/a> to Wikipedia about it. I remember Griffith seeming surprised that we actually liked the project.<\/p>\n An ex-friend laments<\/a> the Virgil he knew \u2014 “a few years ago I watched him get sucked into the same vortex as many others I knew back then … His feeds started featuring race-and-IQ material and such … not the Virgil I met in the 2000s.” Griffith is also into the LessWrong rationalist<\/a> subculture and neoreaction.<\/a><\/p>\n His website is virgil.gr<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 “Life is a MMORPG. Grind. Level up. Conquer the world.” OK coiner.<\/a><\/p>\n Griffith’s arrest has provoked Amy Castor to start blogging again!<\/a> Preston Byrne considers that<\/a> the Ethereum Foundation really should have known better \u2014 “Yes, North Korea using your coin will drive up demand for that coin. But it\u2019s North Korea … <\/em>Anyone who made a lot of money in Ether should understand that just because you made one good investment back in 2014, and haven\u2019t had to do any real work since, doesn\u2019t mean you are a polymath. More likely, you\u2019re a dumbass and you got lucky.”<\/p>\n Roger Ver has tweeted<\/a> (archive<\/a>) in Griffith’s defense \u2014 using a really obviously Photoshopped parody image<\/a> made by Joshua Davis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sanctions are an act of war. — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) November 30, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/virgil-griffith-visa-tweet.jpg\")
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People enacting sanctions are waging war.
People opposing sanctions are opposing war.#FreeVirgil<\/a> #NorthKorea<\/a> #USA<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/1HuW535OyU<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wQKWMKnDHu<\/a><\/p>\n