🚨 BREAKING: A DEVELOPER GOES TO PRISON — NOT FOR CRIME, BUT FOR CODE 🚨
Today, Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, reported to federal prison.
5 YEARS. Behind bars.
Not for hacking.
Not for stealing.
Not for fraud.
👉 His “crime”? Writing privacy-focused Bitcoin code.
What really happened:
• Built Samourai Wallet (2015) — a non-custodial Bitcoin privacy tool
• Never held user funds
• DOJ claims it “enabled” $237M in criminal transactions
• FinCEN itself said it didn’t clearly qualify as a “money transmitter”
• Still prosecuted
• Arrested in April 2024 in a massive FBI raid
• Given maximum sentence
• Entered prison today
The irony?
🟢 Ross Ulbricht — PARDONED
🟢 CZ (Binance) — PARDONED
🔴 Keonne Rodriguez — JAILED
Just 4 days ago, Trump said he would “look at” pardoning him and ordered a review.
But the pardon didn’t arrive in time.
Why the crypto world is furious:
This isn’t about crime.
This is about privacy.
This is about open-source innovation.
This is about whether writing code can make you a criminal.
Rodriguez’s final words before prison:
“This prosecution is anti-innovation, anti-American, and an attack on free people.”
⚠️ If developers go to jail for writing privacy tools…
What code is illegal next?
The fight for Bitcoin privacy is NOT OVER.
💬 Your turn:
Should developers be jailed for writing privacy code?
👇 Drop your thoughts.
