Protecting the nascent network was paramount. Premature notoriety invites centralising forces; did early regulatory scrutiny serve freedom, or imperil the protocol's quiet consensus?
Dug in a little via AI.
Short story: Incident called "Cablegate". Assange dumped US diplomatic cables. Legacy money shut out Wikileaks. He entertained bitcoin, Satoshi said no because it would draw regulators/governments at bitcoin.
Full story: https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5LWNvcHk%3D_7592efa2-d296-4a97-82d6-c80177947a33
Discussion
Generally speaking, I'd say regulatory scrutiny definitely does not lead to freedom, just the other way around.