In one of the most anticipated talks of this year's Bitcoin Conference, Todd Blanche promised developers would no longer be targeted – with an important caveat.
"It's great to be here," said Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, addressing the audience at Bitcoin Vegas' industry day yesterday afternoon. Blanche, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel, were invited on a panel hosted by Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal to discuss "Code as Speech: Ending the War on Bitcoin."
The hypocrisy of hosting Blanche on a panel about code as speech and the end of the war on Bitcoin raised several eyebrows over the past week on social media. Last year, the Department Blanche now leads sent Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill to prison for close to a decade combined, and secured a conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, preparing for a retrial on the remaining two charges this coming October.
In just over a year, Trump's DOJ has sought – and continues to seek – to lock three non-custodial software developers away for half of a century combined. But developers need to fear not, Blanche proudly proclaimed. As long as they don't know that their software is being used for illicit activity.
This stated exemption continues to intentionally leave the door wide open to prosecute non-custodial developers.
...read more at therage.co
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Is still stunning to see people thinking that Samourai devs were jailed for developing a bitcoin app.
I find this false narrative so blatantly wrong among many bitcoiners and they do not want to hear anything else.
I do not defend also the position of the gov, but opposite.
But guys, wake the fuck up and stop repeating same bullshit somebody else is feeding you on social media.
Samourai devs were charged with money laundering and they PLEAD GUILTY.
We don't really know the details of that case, weather was a setup, a deal or whatever else, IT DOESN'T MATTER. What matter is that they plead guilty for money laundering and NOT for developing a bitcoin app !
If they did it wrong or not, if they really "launder" money or not, also doesn't matter. and is not the subject of this matter "being charged because you write code" as it is trying to be portrayed...
IMHO they could launder as much as they want, is not my damn business and I do not consider "money laundering" a crime.
What matter is that they PLEAD GUILTY. NEVER forget that. And that say it all about the whole case. Keep in mind: no matter what petition you sign or protest you support... is totally useless. A man that plead guilty will not be pardoned. A man that plead guilty was entering in a secret deal with the real thugs. That means betrayal. You are a fool to believe that they are clean.
A man that is innocent of any crime will NEVER EVER plead guilty, no matter what.
So please stop being a peon following the narrative you are fed by all media and influencers.
I agree with almost all of the above. But this, coming from you, is just baffling:
From my perspective, saying that falls into the same intellectually lazy or dishonest error category of "you only need privacy if you have something to hide."
The disappointing bit is that you, our #1 anti-statist megaphone over here, would seem to imply that everyone should trust the state's judicial system to be so pure that it could never, ever convict an innocent person. And therefore, pleading guilty means you cannot possibly be innocent.
Now, if that came from some potentially more mid-curved source, I would mentally roll my eyes and move on without comment. But from you I expect much better.
You didn't understand my words. Read again.
If you are accused of something, address THAT issue and defend yourself for THAT issue, not move the accusations to something else.
NO. I didn't say that. Don't put words that I didn't said.
No, if you plead guilty, are these explanations:
But people read whatever they want from my words and never used their brain to process.
You must read all my posts to understand my position on this case.
what you see in this meme, it really happened.
In the case of the Samouraï guys it will be very difficult to obtain a pardon because they pleaded guilty, whatever the reasons their lawyers recommended that I don't know
But if you look at the data, most white collar crime takes the deal, that's just the way it is, going to trial could end up with decades long sentences
It's all very well saying you'd never plead guilty but on the day when you're taking advice from legal people and they're saying if you plead not guilty you could get 50yrs at trial
So I can only imagine these guys took the advice of their highly paid lawyers and probably pressure from family members who just wanted the least worst outcome
You don't know until it's you
The important part of the speech is this:
If this is true, do they consider developers like Roman Storm and the Samurai guys "third party users"?
Okay, so you can develop software, but if your users use it to launder money -- straight to jail?
Guess the only play is not to have any contact information at all.
https://twiiit.com/LaurentMT/status/2048839885625143320
DOH’
#1477397
The 'Greater Israel' project proposes that military aggression is justified to achieve the allegedly God given boundaries of the state of Israel.
'Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has suggested that Israel is destined to expand to include Jordan, and even beyond, to parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and even Iraq.
In a documentary film by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte in 2024, Smotrich said “it is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.
This view has support in some parts of Israeli society. Israel’s incursions into Jordan and Syria has intensified international concerns that some actors in Israel are pursuing expansion into other countries...
In August 2025, Israeli prime minister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli TV channel i24News that he was on a "historic and spiritual mission" and that he is "very" attached to the vision of Greater Israel, which includes Palestinian areas and possibly also places that are part of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel
Trump works for Chevron and Zionist war criminals.