SAMOURAI WALLET FOUNDERS ARRESTED!

SAMOURAI WALLET FOUNDERS ARRESTED!

[Music]
what is going on everybody welcome to
the show another Thursday another
episode of Simply sessions uh Nico is
waiting in the wings for us to bring us
the latest and greatest or the most dire
uh in what is happening in the Bitcoin
space so we’re going to be chatting
about that I hope all of you are
um having a decent week uh dealing with
some of the news items lately uh I hope
your your resolve is not broken and you
remember why we’re all here and so we’ll
dive into that in a little bit of course
this is live anything can happen so I
defer to my friend bill
here
okay well do it live [ __ ] it do it live
I can I’ll write it and we’ll do it
live thing
sucks if you have not already please do
like subscribe share all those things
help a time getting this content in
front of more eyeballs I am Ben with the
BTC sessions this is your simply
session hdle the
[Music]
Bitcoin before we bring in Nico let’s
take a quick look at where we are in the
market right now this is time chain
calendar.com and simultaneously I’m
going to pull up the live chat
everything you say into the chat from
here on in will be live for the World to
See For Better or Worse time change
calendar we’re sitting at
$647 24 per coin a single US dollar will
snag you
1545 SATs in terms of fees holy hell
thank God we’re seeing double digits
we’re down 45 SATs per bite next block
16 SATs per bite anytime that certainly
beats the uh quadruple digits that we
saw during the having over this past
weekend uh you know 200 and something
odd dollars uh to get a transaction
through if you were at the wrong time
and that was kind of Base uh yes so
hopefully you had thought ahead and uh
utilized some of the tools out there uh
peruse the channel for some tutorials on
how to mitigate fees with that uh in
terms of Bitcoin mind
19.69 million of them that’s 93.7 six%
of the total Supply uh let’s take a
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doio all right let’s get Nico in the
room and we’ll start chatting news buddy
good to see you how you doing
man uh preparing preparing uh sending up
the live stream and the goog so we will
be able to do a simply sessions uh from
the goog and uh that’s what’s important
so we won’t stop getting content to you
guys I’m I’m yeah do you have a bunk
there for me I feel like I need to be
moving in pretty quick yeah absolutely I
got you the top bunk um and then I got I
got the guards to be okay with like this
small little streaming setup um so we’re
good to go yeah sounds sounds pretty
sophisticated yeah we’re we’re we’re
sophisticated psychop
dude this uh this this week is throwing
me for a loop this is
um uh you know I do why are we bullish
every Friday and and sometimes there’s
weeks where it’s just you got to find
that silver lining and I think it’s
important to to have those those things
uh and that you know IR ran why are we
bullish through the entire bare Market
um and stayed bullish uh but there’s
there’s certain weeks where
even regardless of price action there’s
definitely concerning things and and uh
that’s that’s some of the stuff that
we’ve been seeing this week so either
way I’ll uh I’ll I’ll let you dive into
what is top of mind for you but um uh
we’ll get started and you can take us on
a journey wherever you like yeah and I I
think that’s an incredibly important
point right the you know to stay
optimistic throughout all this and I
think the key here is we are winning um
if this wouldn’t be happening unless we
were if we weren’t winning this they
wouldn’t care right uh the fact that
they care so much the way they do uh
tells me that they see Bitcoin they see
what Bitcoin represents and what it
enables as a clear and present danger to
uh their system and that’s really why I
kind of wanted to start it off with
American huddles uh opening dialogue to
the cheat code event that Peter mccormac
hosted uh cuz he absolutely crushed it
and I think it’s important you know as
we enter the second part of the cycle
right and you know we start seeing those
crazy that crazy number go up technology
do its thing it’s important to remember
why we are here right it’s like okay
came for the wealth but what did we stay
for we stayed for the revolution we
stayed to avoid things like this right
and it’s kind of like a joke but at the
same time there a little bit of Truth in
it anyways let’s check it out that’s the
sort of conviction that I have about
this thing is that it really is all
nothing I am all in on bitcoin I don’t
have I’m 100% in net worth invested I
don’t have another way out I don’t have
a backup plan you know and the more
conviction I find and the more I go in
you know seemingly the better my life
gets right the systems that we find
ourselves ins snared in today this
invisible slave system whose only
justification for existence is to steal
our time I think we know that right like
that all of our politicians are
basically stealing everything that isn’t
nailed down doesn’t matter if you’re in
the UK or in America it’s happening
everywhere it’s a global phenomenon it’s
a global phenomenon because of fiat
currency by the way but it only ends
when we have the ability to fight back
and Bitcoin has given us that ability
basically they encroach and we relent so
they encroach further and we relent
further and we keep giving up our
freedoms for what what are we getting
for it and meanwhile most of us are hand
waving it away saying it’s not happening
and we’re concerning ourselves with
what’s going on in the the drama at our
local pub or what’s happening with the
princess or the game or whatever it
doesn’t matter you know the only thing
that matters is that we protect
ourselves from the people that are every
day all day long trying to steal from us
the line must be drawn here in Bedford
this is where we draw it right here uh
no no more no more encroachments no more
[ __ ] no more self-justification no
more kicking the can down the road
Bitcoin gives us the ability to say no
to insults on our sovereignty on our
dignity makes us owners in our society
again not just renters on government
land who are doing what they’re told
because they’re forced to and they’re
scared and if you wandered into this
room today and this is your first
encounter with Bitcoin today during the
panels and the speeches you’re going to
hear about this cheat code you’re going
to hear about the most important thing
that’s happening in your world in the
world but also in your world and what’s
most important to
you so you have two choices once you
hear this you can either take the blue
pill you bury your head in the
you wake up in your bed and you believe
whatever you want to believe right or
you take the orange pill and you see how
far the rabbit hole
goes my call to you is that I dare you
to make the Bold choice to seek a
meaningful and substantial life to
resist nihilism to believe that your
life can be more to pass Something On to
the Next
Generation to pass something of great
importance forward in the blockchain of
humanity I dare you to play your role in
the Great story of our lifetimes the
monetization of Bitcoin thank
you so starting it off hot man uh giving
me chills but I think it kind of sets
the sets the tone and the vibe for uh
today’s episode which I’m going to go on
record and say this maybe it’s bold uh I
think this is going to be one of the
most important episodes uh one of the
most important simply sessions uh we’ve
done just because of the historical
context and uh just the overall picture
of what’s going on Ben yeah yeah I
mean I I I think again everybody here
that’s um in
Bitcoin needs to remember um why Bitcoin
was important in the first place and how
it came to be right so Toshi didn’t uh
create it in a um in in an in an overt
way and then uh reveal his identity and
and come to the masses and come to the
powers that be and say hey uh I’m making
something that’s going to compete with
the US dollar and every other fiat
currency out there um is this okay no he
he made something he made a system
silently kind of released it to the
world and didn’t ask permission it’s the
only reason that this thing was able to
grow to a point where you know the the
the powers that be have embraced it in a
limited sense in that it can be a a
financial tool baked in with leg Legacy
financial markets um but clearly they
don’t want it to be anything more than
that they just recognize that they can’t
stop it from being at least that
um and yeah so remember not only why
you’re here but why Bitcoin was started
in the first place and don’t let it
become less than that oh yeah 100% I
100% agree with that like we’re here
obviously we love ngu but it’s important
to kind of zoom out and ask yourself why
we’re here in the first place what is
actually going on um and then when
you’re aware of what what is actually
going on I think you have an ability to
kind of zoom out and uh look at the
bigger picture anyways you guys know
that I love reading passages from the
sovereign individual I’m not going to
bore you reading you the same one that I
always do but this is a new one and
shout out to Michael rice who I think
he’s currently living in El Salvador I
think it’s really kind of a
representation of where we are in the
movie what’s going on um but anyways it
goes on to say the rise of the sovereign
individual will not be wholly welcomed
as a promising new phase of History even
among those who benefit from it most and
many will despise innovations that
undermine the territorial nation state
and many uh and undermine the territori
it is a fact of human nature that
radical change of any kind is almost
always seen as a dramatic turn for the
worst what may someday be seen as a new
Renaissance from the perspective of the
New Millennium will look frightening to
tired 20th century eyes there’s a high
probability that some who are offended
by the new ways as well as many who are
disadvantaged by them will react
unpleasantly their Nostalgia for
compulsion uh will probably turn violent
get ready to duck you must understand
and prepare for such unpleasantness a
transition crisis lies ahead the new
information and communication
Technologies are more subversive to of
the modern State than any political
threat to its uh uh predominance since
Columbus sailed this is important
because those in power have S seldom
reacted peacefully to the developments
that under mind their Authority they are
not likely to now so why are we saying
all of this why are we talking about
this uh well before I get to the uh
actually let’s start with the samurai
news first uh severe
escalation um this really started with
the tornado cash uh the tornado cash set
a precedent it it it normalized it in
the eyes of many people uh the US
government won many cases uh coin Center
appealed the US government won that case
and tornado cash was something really
not that well known right so they they
they didn’t go after a big fish
initially they went after a very small
fish when they realize they can get away
with it less than a year later they up
the Annie and that’s exactly what
happened um so for the audio listeners
Samurai wallet Founders arrested and
charged with money laundering unlicensed
money transmitting
offenses now I believe eventually
they’re going to go after self- custody
altogether this is just one step the
further criminalizing and villainization
of privacy completely against the fourth
amendment I might add which is no
unreasonable search and seizure 95% of
transactions using Samurai are just
people seeking privacy 5% could be
connected to elicit Finance
however uh you know that doesn’t stop
them I might add also
that every major Bank in the world uh
has money laundered uh they’ve pH uh
facilitated elicit Finance the
difference between a bank doing it and a
developer doing it is that a bank gets a
slap on the risk and they see it as a
cost of doing business when a Bitcoin
developer does it when someone does it
from without outside the system without
permission of the system they lock you
in a box remember Ross remember Assange
remember the samurai wallet Founders
remember the tornado cash Founders this
is where we are in the movie this is a
separation of money and state Ben do you
want to say anything before I keep
going yeah I I don’t know that there’s
much more that I can add to
that it’s uh the the hard times are
coming coming um the the weak men have
uh made their bed and the hard times are
here um in that uh fourth turning esque
escalation I think that’s what we’re
seeing we’re seeing that fourth turning
come to an absolute head uh so things in
a fourth turning get get the roughest
before they start getting better and um
this is a sign of that in my eyes 100%
um and again guys uh this would not be
happening unless we weren’t winning this
would not be happening unless uh they
did not feel threatened by the system
that’s why I started with the sovereign
individual uh kind of quote uh from the
book uh just because it’s extremely
fitting for these times anyways I’m
going to read you a little bit from the
nobs Bitcoin article goes on to say
Federal prosecutors charged the samurai
wallet uh found uh Founders uh Ken
Rodriguez I don’t know if I I don’t know
if I said his name first name right I’m
sorry about that and William Hill uh
with conspiracy to commit money
laundering on Wednesday Samurai web
servers and domain have been seized and
seizure warrant for Samurai’s mobile
application was served on the Google
Play Store Pur Department of Justice to
application will no longer be available
to download from the Google Play Store
in the United States according to a
press release the duo developed marketed
and operated the mixer which facilitated
more than 100 million in money
laundering transactions from illegal
dark web markets quote as alleged Keon
Rodriguez and William Hill are
responsible for developing marketing and
operating Samurai a cryptocurrency
mixing service that executed over $2
billion in unlawful unlawful
transactions and served as a Haven for
criminals to engage in large scale money
laundering Rodriguez and Hill allegedly
knowingly facilitated the laundering of
over $100 million of criminal proceeds
from the Silk Road hydr market and a
host of other computer hacking and fraud
campaigns together with our law
enforcement Partners we will continue to
relentlessly pursue and dismantle
criminal organizations that use
cryptocurrency to hide illicit conduct
prosecutors also indicate that Rodriguez
and Hill garnered about 4.5 million in
service fees for their coin journ
Services they provided IRS special agent
IRS it’s interesting special agent uh
charge Thomas Faso said $2 billion in
transactions with an unlicensed money
transmitter means $2 billion flowed
without any oversight from whoever to
wherever Samurai wallet is now closed
for business the charge uh include
conspiracy to commit money laundering
against a conspiracy to run an
unlicensed money transmitting business
these charges could lead to a maximum of
20 years and five years retrospectively
uh respectively so I mean dude
like this absolutely disgusting and it’s
a whole different set of rules dude and
I just kind of want to compare and
contrast with this uh this is gabar
gukas I can’t sorry if I butcher your
name bro but he said samurai Founders
are nuns compared to the bankers since
2000 Regulators fined Banks 7,400 times
totaling to fines of $380 billion for
various offenses either banking is
Criminal by definition or the rules are
broken why aren’t Bank CEOs in jail
right these are the total penalties and
banks are known to be some of the
largest money launderers in the world
but they’re part of the system Why did
no Banker go to jail for 2008 I think
2008 and 2009 had a lot more did a lot
more damage to the public and the you
know the savings of people people’s
housing than these people providing
Samurai as a service what damage did
this do to people I would say 2008 and
2009 hurt a lot more people financially
than what these two gentlemen were doing
at curai this is absolutely disgusting
they’re operating by a whole different
set of rules than the rest of us you
know it’s like they have a special
privilege or
something um Ben here’s where I’m going
to pass it on to your expertise because
this is just not my up my alley but uh a
lot of people were saying basically that
uh apparently like if you were caught up
in the whole Samurai stuff uh you could
potentially be affected here’s Francis
pulio founder of bull Bitcoin he says
let’s hope that Samurai servers are
well- encrypted or they manag to wipe
them remotely because otherwise the
users are effed uh here’s no spere 888
says World pill coordinator never
touched X pubs is Seth for privacy shout
out to him he’s done an incredible job
kind of covering all this says all
Samurai websites down get lab down
coordinator down can even mix via
Sparrow a sad sad day that has me
shocked in disbelief but we won’t stop
fighting for our privacy so I mean Ben
I’m going to pass it on to you like what
if someone is was using you know Samurai
uh I don’t even know if I say this uh
like
yeah I understand so so again people
were using samurai or or Sparrow they’re
using the whirlpool system in order to
uh again have Financial privacy right
they they don’t want anybody to be able
to look and discover their net worth
right or see every financial transaction
and that’s a pretty reasonable thing
that you don’t want to go to a store and
purchase a T-shirt and have the merchant
be able to trace back and see the
entirety of your life savings right
because then the person shipping you a
t-shirt knows your address and if you
have enough Bitcoin it may be worth a
plane ticket for them to come kick in
your door and threaten you with a $5
wrench and so what are the implications
of somebody that has been using Samurai
so um this is pretty nuanced and and I
may not uh have a perfect explanation
here but
um in the process of coordinating coin
joints which is effectively you a coin
join is you sending your own money to
yourself but doing it collaboratively
with a number of other people so in in
the whirlpool coin joints there’d be
five people they would all send funds to
themselves they never Lo lose custody of
their own coins but because they do it
at the same time as other people in a
collaborative transaction there’s no
indication there’s no pure cut and dry
um uh finger pointing way of proving
that one person is
holding which utxo on the other side of
the transaction now in order to do this
the coordinator um or or you know the
the process required uh knowing the xpub
of the user um if you’re using Samurai
wallet um the way around this was if you
were running your own Ronin Dojo or
running your own uh um uh Samurai
coordinator in the background the
whirlpool GUI um or Sparrow also did not
leak that information but this the
mobile Samurai client did if you weren’t
linked to your own Samurai uh Whirlpool
client uh and so it’s you know there’s
nobody knows for certain if that
information was was held somewhere and
was now accessed um there’s speculation
as to whether that data was held long
term or or whether it would be
accessible or if it’s been wiped but
basically if you weren’t running your
own Whirlpool client in the back end or
if you weren’t doing it through Sparrow
um and you were doing it through just
the mobile Samurai app then as for
safety sake you should consider those
worldl poool transactions not private
and you should move funds as you see fit
and if you want to regain privacy there
are still tools out there that exist to
do so um you know there is join Market
um which you can host on a your own
start n server um I know people don’t
like Wasabi uh because of their their
practices beforehand um but hey if you
can get into a coin join round then then
maybe I don’t know um there’s other
mechanisms that you can use as well but
nonetheless some Samurai users have been
curious like well how like if nothing’s
working if the servers are down how do I
even access my Bitcoin um Nico do you
mind if I take a sec just really show
people how to do this um so I’m going to
do it really quick I had this uh queued
up here so I’m just going to share uh a
screen here so if you guys have a
samurai wallet uh and you’re like I
don’t know how to access my funds here’s
your crash course okay I have a dummy
wallet that I have set up so number one
do not update Sparrow wallet yet to
1.9.0 because that deprecates all of the
the the whirlpool capabilities so I
haven’t updated yet I don’t know exactly
how it’ll be deprecated if you can
easily import things but just to be safe
don’t do that yet go um from the main
screen go import wallet or just say file
and hit import wallet you’re then going
to use your words you’re going to hit
you know Samurai was always 12 words
forgive this is going to take just a
second here but I really want to show um
and again this is a dummy wallet I’m not
super worried about it but uh cabin
Stak
panel
uphold tedious that’s okay uh head
traffic uh Source skirt crater Source
skirt
crater uh fiscal gospel mimic FAL
gospel mic okay so that is a valid check
sum I’m going to uh most of them do have
pass phrases associated with them this
one was uh no no exception so and what
I’m going to do is I’m going to do that
off on the other screen just for a
second give me a moment
jents and then you hit the discover
wallet button um which it is doing right
now uh it does like a little um check
for it and then it’ll find a wallet uh
give it a name hit create wallet I’m not
going to do a password for this one but
basically it’s going to check for um any
previous transactions you’ll see some
old previous like test transactions that
I did with this one uh and then all you
need to do because this is just the base
wallet you need to go to settings hit
add account there’s a drop down and
choose Whirlpool accounts hit okay this
will add your deposit premix postmix and
bad bank and you should have access to
all your funds through that if you need
to watch this back go back through the
stream I’ll probably clip this up later
and I’ll plunk it in uh directly on
Twitter and Don Noster later on so
hopefully that’s helpful to you guys but
that’s how you Rea us your funds and uh
Nico I’ll toss it back to you if you
have anything else dude that was a
beautiful beautiful tag team man love
that news uh tutorial com that was
special I like that uh you know that may
that made me smile in these interesting
times um but yeah there you go uh so you
guys have a set of actions that you
could take if uh you’ve been caught in
the crossfires of all this now what is
next um and again this is speculation
but uh so I gotta say though we’ve been
pretty right we’ve been pretty on point
on simply sessions right
um but this it just looks like it just
based on the wording and just based on
where this is going uh and this is
something that we’ve been on top for
many many months now and again none this
shouldn’t be surprising if if you’ve
been paying attention to what’s been
happening so the next thing um and I and
I say this and I understand um how
strong this statement is and I do not
say this with any type of hyperbole I
don’t say this I don’t say this lightly
it’s just something that I feel it’s in
my gut and it’s just based on their own
wording um I believe that they’re going
to go after self- custody I believe
that’s their end goal um I believe
that’s what they want to do uh it’s very
convenient for everyone buying the ETF
uh it’s not very convenient for Millions
upon individual Millions upon millions
of individuals taking their sovereignty
back by taking self- custody so uh I
believe this is you know the increment
steps and the wording that they’re going
they’re they’re starting to use uh to
start to plant seeds in the public um so
this is a public service service
announcement that came from the FBI um
and it says the FBI warns Americans
against using cryptocurrency money
transmitting services that are not
registered as money service Services
businesses according to the United
States federal law and do not adhere to
anti-money laundering requirements a few
simple steps can prevent unint
intentional use of non-compliance
services for example avoid
cryptocurrency money transmitting
services that do not collect know your
customer information from customers when
required that’s really important and I
know what a lot of you guys are thinking
Nico uh you know my wallet isn’t a money
trans how how what stops them from
saying Sparrow is not a Money Services
Pro uh business or money money services
provider and it it’s interesting when
you take a look at more of of the of the
wording right so it goes on to say the
FBI has no this it’s in regards to the
the samurai stuff but it says
cryptocurrency money transmitting
services that purposely break the law or
knowingly facilitate illegal
transactions will be investigated by law
enforcement using a service that does
not comply with its legal obligations
may put you at risk of losing access to
funds after law enforcement operations
Target those businesses tips to protect
yourself right it’s just it’s just so
interesting how they word it before
using a money transmitting service check
whether it is registered as an MSB with
the US Treasury Department’s Financial
crimes enforcement
Network um it goes on to say beware of
financial services that do not ask for
kyc information including name date of
birth address and ID before allowing you
to send or receive money or
cryptocurrency understand that just
because an app app can be found in an
app store does not necessarily mean it
is a legal service and it is complying
with Federal
requirements avoid using services that
advertise themselves for illegal
purposes be cautious when using
cryptocurrency Services known to be used
by criminals to launder their funds I
mean like how long until they say
Bitcoin core you know is being used by
criminals to launder funds right like
there you understand what they’re
they’re doing with the wording and again
you’d be like Nico you’re seeing [ __ ]
what are you talking about uh here’s
Dylan lir and all of this happened on
the same day I might add like this all
happened all at once the FBI release the
samurai news SEC served consensus with a
Wells notice an alleged metamask is
operating as an unlicensed broker dealer
Dylan lir says metamask is a self-
custodial wallet he goes on to say it’s
only for shitcoins is exactly what was
said when they arrested the developers
of tornado cash they’re coming for self-
custody remember tornado cash we warned
you guys when that happened we said
they’re going to set a precedent why did
they focus on tornado cash because no
one cared about it it was very small
they couldn’t start with Samurai they
couldn’t go after the big fish first
they had to set the precedent they won
the cases they won the appeals by Co
coin Center they won the lawsuits
and then they went after the big fish
coincidentally after the ETFs have been
approved and you guys want to see
something else interesting remember the
letter to finsen that was written
because uh Elizabeth Warren in the Wall
Street Journal used [ __ ] information
that said that Bitcoin was being used by
terrorists uh to quote unquote launder
money for terrorism and then it was
representative Tom emmer that got the
fin
head in Congressional testimony to admit
that terrorists actually prefer the
traditional Financial system well finsen
never retracted that proposal and now
what’s really interesting is that when
the 26 Bitcoin companies signed a letter
to finsen against the proposed
surveillance rules you know who you know
whose name is at the very top Samurai
wallet it’s not a coincidence this is a
message they’re saying they’re sending a
signal they’re sending a message to you
that you play by a different set of
rules than they do here is Ryan Adams he
goes on to say two more privacy
developers arrested in the US today this
time for building a Bitcoin privacy
service where does it stop the samurai
wallet developer should have known you
can’t host a centrally operated mixer
okay well the tornado cash developers
deployed privacy as IM mutable code
nothing centralized they also got
arrested up to 25 years in prison for
writing code that helps people keep
transactions private the UN estimates
Banks facilitate nearly $2 trillion in
money laundering each year not through
custody not through code but as willing
intermediaries dozens of major banks
have been find billions of dollars for
money laundering over the past decade
how many Bankers have you seen go to
jail no Banker went to jail for 2008
2009 and that did materially more damage
to Millions upon millions of individuals
than the [ __ ] tornado excuse my
language than the samurai wallet
developers that did a lot more damage to
people anyways he goes on to say they’re
making an example of crypto because they
don’t want us to have private
peer-to-peer transactions not by passing
laws in the democratically elected
Chambers not by issuing public
guidelines they just come to your house
and take you away who’s safe from this
regulat regulatory terrorism and that’s
fundamental L what it is and that’s what
it’s about now to kind of tie it up with
a nice bow on top here’s ly Alden and
she’s describing to to connect it with
the sovereign individual uh peace in the
very beginning why this is all happening
why they’re doing this in the first
place she goes on to say the entire
developed World tax apparatus that was
built in the 20th century and extends
into the 21st century depends on
ubiquitous Financial surveillance
they’re not going to give that up
without a fight I have been saying at a
number of conferences and podcasts that
privacy is the main Battleground for the
next decade back in the 19th century and
before money was mostly private there
was plenty of dictators but there was no
major method of surveilling all
transactions therefore things like broad
income tax were untenable to enforce but
in the 20th century as money
increasingly moved around at the speed
of life people needed Banks bank
accounts to keep up it wasn’t all forced
on them they chose it and those Banks
were centralized surveilled and ruggable
this allows authorities to switch to
income taxes which required ubiquitous
Financial surveillance to work and
ultimately allowed them to switch to
fiat currency altogether now in the 21st
century Bitcoin and its various layers
allow people to hold and move around
money globally without permission Banks
they can do so peer-to-peer or they can
do so with custodians open layers Etc
unlike the base layer of Fiat the base
layer of Bitcoin is permissionless but
this represents a threat to the entire
current system of Taxation and financial
control if Bitcoin and particularly
various private methods of on top of it
were to be adopted at a massive scale
the entire tax structure and other
things would need to reshape themselves
around that reality and so they won’t
make it easy they will try to
criminalize Financial privacy as much as
possible while the network is still
pretty small the only solutions are to
make privacy Tech so ubiquitous that it
can’t be isolated and can spread
organically in the distributed way to
apply legal pressure when possible so
that governments sort of have to operate
within the bounds of their own law like
the first and Fourth Amendment even
though they’re completely ignoring that
but I think Lynn absolutely hit nail on
the head you know and can I kind of
connect this with the passage from the
sovereign individual and it explains
what’s happening right now so that this
argument that it’s for your protection
like these words from the FBI tips to
protect yourself dude I’m protecting
myself from the ravages of inflation my
bro that’s what I’m doing you know so
like it’s just crazy
hypocritical different set of rules for
different players but again you know why
are we bullish I’m bullish because this
tells me that we’re winning I’m bullish
because this tells me that we’re over
the Target and flak is heaviest over the
target yeah yeah I agree again like be
these increase attacks again as you as
you said earlier in the episode it they
just denote that um there’s actually
something to worry about and that uh the
powers that be are recognizing it and so
I
mean what’s the endgame here they they
they want to
extract as much money from you as
possible they want to have as much
control over your life as possible um I
I just want to there’s something I want
to bring up and I I know that I mean I
kind of feel like this is the thing to
talk about today and and this is just
what we’re gonna focus on but I want to
bring up one thing I’m GNA again bring
up my screen here um so I don’t know if
I’m spoil and we’re we’re we’re running
long anyways so I’m I’m just going to go
into it but Biden proposes
44.6% capital gains tax the highest in
history The Proposal also includes a 25%
tax on unrealized gains for high net
worth individuals and I shared this and
said um the first income tax in America
America was a flat 3% tax and it was
marketed as only being applied to high
net worth individuals make no mistake
they intend to apply this to everyone
eventually excluding themselves of
course because they’ll always have
loopholes and this kind of ties
into where everything is going people
are seeing the the the cracks in the
system people are seeing that they’re
getting screwed that they’re effectively
to quote to paraphrase Robert Breedlove
if 50% of your income goes to the
government you are working for free 50%
of the time directly for the government
which means you’re 50% slave because
100% slave means you work 100% of the
time for somebody else 50% 50% um this
is a great tweet from joeey from
Canadian bitcoiners podcast but he said
the whole don’t use any Bitcoin Services
bit from the US government is indicative
of a few things number one no matter how
they posture and shriek Bitcoin is money
also there’s a need to stop people from
profiting on bitcoin unfairly uh only
Insider traded trading by Electric
officials is allowed ATMs are going to
be banned probably soon there will be an
attempt to collect unrealized gains on
bitcoin and maybe most importantly in
advance of the greatest most obvious and
most damaging debasement event ever
likely coming inside of five years all
exits need to be tracked blocked
criminalized or there will be an
incredibly obvious stratification
between those who understand understood
and need to be listened to going forward
the regime relies more on narrative than
on any other tool and it’s getting
harder and harder to convince people not
to believe their Lying Eyes um
incredible tweet from Joey if you don’t
follow him please do Canadian bit
Corners
podcast but yeah man this is this is
where we’re at this is this is what’s
coming I I I’m sure you would Echo that
yeah 100% And you know you you put it so
beautifully those both those two things
to kind of you know Echo basically the
the the general theme of this episode
which I’m saying it again like I think
this is one of the most important simply
Sessions episode that uh that we’ve done
on a historical basis because of really
what’s at stake you know what what is
what’s the road in front of us during
this this transition right uh you you
know do what Future do We want our
children to live in a future of slavery
or a future of Bitcoin and are we really
going to allow them to tell us that
somehow writing down 12 words is a
danger to society because that’s what
they’re going to try to convince people
of that software code is somehow a
weapon and you know what joei so
beautifully put and it’s something that
Naim bu K has said as well that their
most important we is their control on
the truth so how do we fight against
that we tell the truth we tell people
what’s going on we tell we bring people
together rather than divide them on the
whole left and right BS and we tell them
like Hey look it’s not Democrat it’s not
Republican it’s not conservative it’s
not liberal it’s really Bitcoin or Fiat
you know like what side are you on what
side what future do you want your
children to be living it and I’ll tell
you what guys I think 99% of people
right and the 1% that are not included
in are probably part of the political
establishment uh they have a lot more in
common than they have divisions I think
the elit the divisions is more of like
this divide and conquer illusion uh that
they use to keep people divided and
believing in this system of of of theft
because essentially that’s what it is
you know so things are things are
getting a little bit heated uh this is
the separation of money and state after
all but I think we’re going to win at
the end so uh that’s why I’m bullish I
know it’s Thursday but I love love it
man I love it yes uh everything in the
end is good for Bitcoin just not
necessarily good for some bitcoiners but
uh those that remain will make this
thing stronger and find new solutions
that become resilient to the types of
attacks that we see so looking forward
to that ABS absolutely don’t want to
keep you more we long show today but it
was a very important topic all right
guys this was your simply sessions Nico
out I’ll see you next week man later
buddy uh everybody stick around we’re
going to quickly go through the tech
updates here as well uh some important
stuff to touch on of course uh not least
of which Sparrow version
1.9.0 if you were running your Samurai
wallet beforehand and you want to
recover it don’t update to this yet
because it deprecates a lot of the
functionality for the multiple accounts
um otherwise it’s going to be a bit more
of a manual process and you’ll have to
learn the derivation path of the Samurai
wallets much easier to go back scrub
back through the episode where I showed
exactly how to do it I’ll clip that down
I’ll share it to Twitter after this uh
and to Noster after this but nonetheless
uh before you upgrade go through and
recover anything that was in Samurai
very easily uh with Sparrow um moving on
Primal introduces top zaps to all of its
nostr clients uh so it will prioritize
the top zaps and uh and show all of the
uh different uh it will show all of the
different little messages with them
that’s really cool um we just released
all update to all Primal clients you’ll
notice now we render several top zaps at
the bottom of each note the top zapper
gets their zap message displayed so you
can see it coming in here hot on a Cali
uh
note uh finny by nunchuk I was
retweeting this earlier today finny lets
your hand uh family hold the Reigns
ensuring complete Financial autonomy and
security with finny only uh one can
enlist On’s own family to uh hold a
backup key or backup keys instead of
relying on a trusted third party um so
this is really really cool I love what
nunchuk is is building um tons of
support for various Hardware tons of
options when it comes to both assisted
and self- Sovereign uh setups for
multisig they keep killing it if you
haven’t checked them out already head
over to nunchuck doio this is a really
cool offering uh strike now launches
services in Europe uh you can stop
tweeting when Europe but I can continue
to tweet when Canada uh I’m thrilled to
announce today strike launches to
eligible customers in Europe giving
millions of people access uh to buy
Bitcoin with free instant unlimited
deposits sell send and withdraw Bitcoin
Global Payments Bitcoin and lightning
wallet features and more that from Jack
MERS uh so there you have it strike in
Europe and will continue to expand uh
moving on to Zeus rolls out Community
sponsors um also there were some other
new updates so I want to cover those as
well but uh 0.9.0 alpha want to become a
community sponsor you can check out the
sponsor board here um and you can help
with their development but version
0.9.0 added watch only accounts you can
import xubs you can now use Hardware
wallets with Zeus which is awesome cold
card Q seed signer passport foundation
and more you can batch Channel opens
batch onchain transactions close
channels to external addresses improve
payment path views more features will be
released through the closed Alpha
program which we saw above Zeus is
putting in the work I got to say Evan is
is killing it so awesome for Zeus uh
let’s keep moving El Salvador’s Cho
wallet source code and VPN access was
leaked
good I guess like open source is the way
to go anyways so like I I feel like this
was an you know I again good of to block
the hackers release the stolen
information to the public uh to punish
the Salvadoran government for refusing
to engage with them it’s unclear what
the hackers want to discuss with El
Salvador officials uh this time I am
bringing you the code that is inside the
Bitcoin cha wallet ATMs in El Salvador
remember that it is a government wallet
and as you know we do not sell we
publish everything free for you uh and
this from whoever the Cyber intelligent
CV said an oppose the files reportedly
contain simits of the wallet’s code and
VPN credentials associated with shivo
wallet’s ATM network uh the group
recently disclosed the personal data of
props approximately 5.1 million
Salvadorans in a seever in a separate
exploit see that’s super shitty the
doxing stuff is shitty the open you know
open sourcing code I think that is is uh
desirable but the doxing of individuals
[ __ ] those guys um okay moving on
blockstream green desktop version 2.0.4
for passphrase login and more so they’ve
added uh bip 39 passphrase logins
external bip 21 payment support and
support for message signing with
software wallets and more that’s cool uh
Aqua wallet this is a a big one the one
gripe that I had sending lightning
transactions from lightning wallet was
it didn’t work with Ln URL and it didn’t
work with lightning addresses well with
the newest version great lightning
addresses and n URL pay uh Ln URL
withdraw will be supported in future
versions uh they also added support for
bip 21 those are the unified QR codes
that are both onchain and lightning so
It’ll ask you which one you want um also
added automatic refund and claim
transactions to submarine swaps using
native rust Library uh usdt is still a
default asset but is removable in
settings so if you don’t use tether you
can take that away from your main screen
um improved wallet restore workflow uh
added support for aqua to Aqua lightning
payments so if you tried to pay uh
another Aqua user via lightning it would
give you a bit of an error because in
the back end it was using bolts so you
were like kind of paying bolts through
bolts um and they added for those of you
that wanted the security addition you
can add Biometrics for authentication uh
so if somebody gets into your phone and
gets through your lock screen and gets
to Aqua wallet there can still be an
additional
biometric so good I guess uh brains full
Lightning payments now available for all
users lightning payments are here get
ready for the having uh with instant
daily payouts with no minimums or fees
so if you’re mining with brains you can
now withdraw via lightning this is super
uh desirable for those of you maybe just
running little space heaters and things
like that at home hey now you can get
little little trickles of SATs and you
don’t have to wait for those larger
thresholds for onchain transactions uh
and then
finally tomorrow keep an eye out I will
be dropping a tutorial in the realm of
privacy in and around Fetti the fety app
fedt uh this is with
tradeoffs instant free and near
perfectly private Bitcoin transactions
again with tradeoffs you have to watch
the video to kind of get more in depth
in that but if you’re curious go ahead
head over to fy. XYZ Builders and they
have all the links for the apps or you
can just search Fetti within your app
store download it or install the APK
file from the website either way I’ll be
touching that on that a bunch more um
very interesting for Community custody
and for better privacy and for
day-to-day cash transactions with
spending money um and with that we’re
going to start to round up the show I
also did want to throw one thing out
there uh as of last Friday we announced
we officially launched my new company uh
with my co-founder Mike um and uh we are
launching Bitcoin Mentor so this is um a
company that I think is important and it
is for those of you or people that you
know that uh perhaps they’re going
through the tutorials everything’s hunky
dory but you kind of hit a wall and you
need a little bit more oneon-one uh help
with your Learning Journey well I’ve
been doing this one-on-one with people
for quite some time but there are only
so many hours in the day and it’s
honestly got to the point where I just I
don’t have additional time to do more
and so the solution for me was to
aggregate a team of mentors uh that I
have personally vetted and personally um
trained and we’re putting together uh
basically various learning tracks and
ways that you can book either alak cart
sessions or that you can book actual
full learning tracks that lead you
towards being a self- sovereign
bitcoiner or towards using an assisted
multi6 setup with nunchuck as a backend
um there’s a whole bunch of different
things and of course we’re going to
cover plenty of other options um I’m
very happy the people and the team that
we put together uh I think are
absolutely killer and again we’re going
to cover all tons of things wallet
configuration Storage Solutions
collaborative custody in Legacy and
inheritance planning nodes mining
privacy layer to
all kinds of stuff so if you or anybody
else uh you know is in danger of taking
a custodi option like an ETF and you
don’t want them to get rugged and you
say that you can do self- custody you
can always send them our way and uh and
our team will make sure that they are
self- sovereign as possible so that’s
just over at Bitcoin
mentor. um I link that in the show notes
down below and feel free to share that I
also pinned it on uh on my Twitter
profile and I’m going to integrate it
with my website as well BTC
sessions.com on the show so that you
guys can get familiar with them um
because they’re really awesome people
they’re really amazing teachers and I’m
very happy to be working with all of
these individuals um just incredible
Educators out there that were just kind
of like hiding in the wings waiting to
be discovered and uh and uh side note
I’ll say that we had three 350
applicants we’re launching with 16 so we
really whittel it down um so so they’re
super awesome uh if you can give that a
share and make people aware that would
be amazing this is a new Venture for me
and I’m just very excited to try to
scale Bitcoin education uh as best I can
and uh hopefully be able to bestow uh
some of the stuff that I do upon many
more people than I would be able to
reach as an individual so anyways guys
thank you for uh helping me with that
and being so supportive all along the
way uh with that I’m going to round out
everybody in the chat thank you for
being here again lightning goats I got
to give you a shout out uh I love seeing
you in the notifications now uh Shifu
Alejandro contagion everybody that’s in
there Sean uh again everybody good to
see you thank you for being here Diana
narell I it’s always great to see you
guys and uh see your comments throughout
the show really really appreciate it
anyways going to round out I’m getting
rambly here so have a wonderful day or
evening of course like subscribe share
all those things important uh sponsors
are down below with that I’m out I’ll
see you guys next time for your daily
[Music]
session hled by Bitcoin
[Music]

Tune into “Simply Sessions” this April 25th, 2024, as we delve into today’s top Bitcoin news. We’ll spotlight the arrest of Samourai Wallet’s founders, explore Elizabeth Warren’s Bitcoin tax proposal, and discuss the IMF’s acknowledgment of Bitcoin for cross-border payments. Join us for these important updates and more!
——————————————

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