Ross is now free. I predict that this will be the only good thing to come out of this administration in the grand scheme of things. The reasons behind this pardon were purely political, but regardless, I am incredibly happy that Ross will be reunited with his family and loved ones. Even if we accept all the charges against Mr. Ross, both those who were actually charged and those who were not, Mr. Ross definitely served time in prison.
The actual murders and rapists are only a fraction of the sentences given to Ross, even after committing multiple crimes in some cases. His sentence was entirely political and completely out of proportion to the charges brought against him. There was one reason why the severity was so high. It was to set an example.
He is not the only example the government has tried to create since 2013. The Samurai Wallet team is currently under house arrest awaiting trial for hosting the backend of a 100% self-custodial service. Roman Sterlingoff is in jail for running a centralized mixer, with no evidence other than a flawed blockchain heuristic. In the Tornado Cash case, developers are working on cases and prison sentences in multiple jurisdictions.
All of this goes far beyond what happened to Ross in terms of legal standing. While the Ross verdict was highly disproportionate, the legal basis for these other lawsuits itself does not exist. They charged them anyway. Some of them were convicted anyway. Anyway, these people are sitting in prison just like Ross.
The government has no intention of stopping its pretense. It doesn't matter whether Trump is reaping the benefits of the unregulated financial extraction possible in this area, it doesn't matter whether Wall Street and DC see the value available to them, none of that matters. isn't it.
Nothing changes when these power brokers and strongmen realize that they can create rifts and siphon money from the economy that is being built here. That doesn't make them fans of privacy. That does not make them supporters of true sovereignty of the individual. it won't make you a fan of them actually A free market that does not prioritize corporate profits.
You need tools to actually facilitate all of this, and building them means you become a potential target.
If you actually care about these things, you'll know this isn't over yet. It is amazing that a man who was wrongly imprisoned was released. He gets to see his parents, wife and friends again. This is a truly valuable achievement.
But this is not the end. It's not a far off story. The music played, people exchanged chairs, and then it stopped again. But the same game is still being played, and we cannot abandon it.
