BITCOIN SEASON 2: Comply or Die: Privacy or Palantir
Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm found guilty of operating unlicensed money transmitter. Meanwhile, Peter Thiel's fund raises $353M for surveillance-friendly stablecoin sidechain. Privacy devs criminalized while compliant chains get funded.
Aug 9, 2025
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"Comply or Die" reality hitting crypto developers. Roman Storm of Tornado Cash was found guilty of operating an unlicensed money transmitter, while Samurai Wallet devs took plea deals. Meanwhile, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund raised $353M for Plasma - a fully compliant, surveillance-friendly stablecoin sidechain. We explore the stark contrast between privacy developers facing prison time and establishment players launching token sales with regulatory blessing.
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**Notes:**
• Roman Storm faces up to 5 years in prison
• Samurai devs face $6.3M in fines each
• Plasma raised $353M in oversubscribed round
• Only 10% of Plasma tokens for public sale
• 25% token allocation goes to investors
• Legal defense funds were crowdfunded
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:20 Is Peter Theil the Antichrist?
03:25 Tornadocash
18:39 Peter Theil goes ICO baby!
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👋Bitcoin Season 2 is produced Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin. Follow us on Twitter and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech!
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