Short, concise and precise, pretty much gold standard for a title… everyone accusing of clickbait, what?
- yes, he is going to prison for building a privacy tool, I’m sorry that you have read actual clickbait titles before, but he was not charged with money laundering, he wasn’t even charged of being involved with any money laundering scheme, the sole reason he was arrested was for building a tool that can be used for illegal activity. Let’s hope they don’t go after the Tor Project and Tails OS with such claims too.
- yes, OP could have made a short description in the post like saying who, what tool, what charge, etc.
Clearly the government does not like people seeing this absolute diabolical misrepresentation of law and a absolute miscarriage of so called “justice”.
This guy made a tool that makes it harder to TRACK crypto transactions. That’s it. Thats all. They never had the money. They didnt do anything with the money. They just make it hard for anyone else to track your money. This whole case was fucked up beyond all recognition.
The video is really about the general right to privacy and covers that charge. The prosecution was so badly done it that even a fucking congressman piped into the case adding “its like charging Microsoft with conspiracy to commit money laundering because some criminals used Windows/Excel to keep their ledgers” Real FUBAR shit
Tldr: Two guys made a non custodial service that makes it harder to track crypto. And they tried to fuck them cause it makes their jobs hard.
Story title is clickbait. Read this (short) Wikipedia article to get a quick summary
tl;dr the privacy tool in question mixes cryptocurrency funds with other users funds and hence the US government alleged this was a money laundering service
How is that clickbait, that’s exactly what happened?
The title could have given more context. I’m not saying there is anything false or misleading, but as written the title is clickbait since you have to click through to get the key facts such as “Privacy app author convicted of facilitating money laundering for Samouri Wallet”
That’s just an excuse, no different from “encryption enables pedophilia” or “hands enable domestic violence”. Any tool can be used for illegal activity
Totally agree. And a short summary would go a long way towards making up for the clickbait title
I agree that OP could have post a summary with the video, but clickbait would be “He built a privacy tool, and you won’t believe what happened next” or something that doesn’t inform of the content of the video. Here it’s pretty clear, he built a privacy tool and was arrested for it, all the info is contained in the title.
Click bait is anything that is designed to bait people into clicking a link. Virtually every headline and content title on the internet is click bait to some level.
Malicious click bait is when headlines either outright lie, or imply things that aren’t accurate to the content.
The phrasing of this title implies that the creation of a privacy tool is what the creator got arrested for, which is in fact inaccurate to the content, as the reason wasn’t creating the tool, the reason was using the tool for money laundering.
So imo it’s 100% fair to call this title malicious clickbait
The phrasing of this title implies that the creation of a privacy tool is what the creator got arrested for
That’s LITERALLY what happened.
No, he wasn’t accused of using it for money laundering at all, he was actually accused of “conspiracy” to money laundering, claiming that his tool facilitates it, HOWEVER, the prosecution itself knew their charges had absolutely no legal basis and kept it a secret, and when the defense made a motion to dismiss it was denied by the judge without even being heard and the judge gave no reason for it (I guess being on record that the trial is a farce wouldn’t look good). In front of an openly hostile judge and a trial that has no intention of following laws, legal costs in the millions piling up, he made a deal for 5 years in prison instead of the 25 they were going to give him.
Again, he wasn’t even charged with money laundering, he was arrested for creating a tool that can be used for that. The title is telling the truth - therefore, it’s not malicious.
I wouldn’t say that not going with an overly descriptive title classifies a bait. You can always add more context but that’s what the actual article/video is for, a title is just a brief general description to catch the readers attention. Something like “Interview with Keonne Rodriguez, the founder of Samurai Wallet - a privacy focused bitcoin wallet who’s going to prison after being compelled to pleading guilty to running an unlicenced money transmitting business.” is very descriptive but doesn’t make a great title IMO. It’s like saying that “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is a readbait because calling it “A Wizard Orphan and a Magic Rock” would give more context.
They’re deliberately withholding basic details of the story so that you have to click the video to get them. That’s clickbait.
What details are being withheld? His name, the tool’s name, the crime, the sentence? What title would be more informative?
Samurai wallet dev sentenced to 5 years
Is that better? Only if you already know what samurai wallet is.
Keonne Rodriguez pleads guilty to conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business?
Only if you know who Keonne Rodriguez is and that conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business carries a prison sentence of up to 5 years.
A privacy tool dev sentenced to 5 years for a conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business?
Is this any better? I don’t think so. It still doesn’t tell you anything about the actual case. You can’t condense an hour long video into a single sentence beyond the basic premise, and trying to do so risks glossing over important details and misinforming the viewer. Also, it’s not the titles job to give you details about the story, just a basic overview of what the story is about.
What details are being withheld? His name, the tool’s name, the crime, the sentence? What title would be more informative?
…yeah? That’s absolutely much more informative
Samurai wallet dev sentenced to 5 years
Is that better? Only if you already know what samurai wallet is.
Correct again. I mean it’s infinitely better than the current one where it doesn’t matter if you do know what Samourai is. Also replace Samourai with “crypto” and baby you got a stew goin’.
You can’t condense an hour long video into a single sentence beyond the basic premise
You don’t have to. You just try to make it as information dense as possible. That’s the entire point of a title. It’s not supposed to be just a bunch of random filler words. You’ve just provided several great examples yourself.
If you don’t know what samurai wallet is then that title would be less informative. Replacing samurai with crypto can only mislead the reader into thinking that the issue was the crypto and not the privacy part. It also doesn’t tell you anything about why he’s being imprisoned, while with “He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison.” it’s implied why (because he built a privacy tool).
The title is click bait because it falsely implies that the privacy part of the tool is why the creator is being penalised, rather than the money laundering part.
It’s a bit like writing a headline about a drunk driver killing a family of four and making the headline “He bought a red car. Now he’s going to jail”
He is being penalized because of the privacy part, the prosecution argued that the sole purpose of and the intent behind the samurai wallet was money laundering (which he’s not actually being charged for nor was he ever. He was charged with a conspiracy to commit money laundering until that particular charge was dropped as a part of a plea deal) because he knew that it can be used by criminals. So he’s essentially being prosecuted for writing code that other people allegedly used to commit crimes, an equivalent of tor devs and relay operators being charged with a conspiracy to distribute CSAM and facilitate trade of illegal substances. He never held or controlled any funds yet he’s been charged for running an unlicensed money transmitting business despite finCEN explicitly stating that what he was doing did not qualify as transmitting money.
I can’t explain this nearly as well as the video does so please just watch if you have the time, it’s really interesting and there’s a lot of crazy, outrageous legal fuckery that the prosecution pulled. It’s worth a watch.
What clickbait title did you read to believe he took part in any money laundering? He isn’t even being accused of that.
deleted by creator
Fuck cryptobros
They all should be jailed
