COPA coming to Samourai’s defence is what I expect to see announced next. This is a historic case that will determine the future of Bitcoin.
The high stakes Samourai case is no different to Bernstein v. United States, and requires a final, definitive answer to the fundamental (already answered) question, “What is the true nature of all cryptographic operations taking place in computers?”.
And Bitcoin is simply math being performed in computers, and it is literally nothing more than that. The same arguments for Bernstein, and Phil Zimmerman’s case (http://www.skypoint.com/members/gimonca/philzima.html) apply to Samourai, and the same defences should work if The Constitution hasn’t changed. And it hasn’t.
If COPA do not rise to this challenge and defend the underdog, then the floodgates will be opened for the missapplication of money laws to all Bitcoin operations no matter what they are.
At the fundamental level, Bitcoin is speech. This is not “Semantics”; this is a plain statement of fact, established in law.
Everything you do in Bitcoin is protected speech. If you believe that this event applies only to “mixing”, you are mistaken.
The simple act of “moving” Bitcoin from one address you are known to control and are registered with, to another address that is an “unregistered Bitcoin address” could be construed as a criminal act in the future if COPA don’t kill this.
And I hope they kill it. With fire.
@opencryptoorg
