As we say in our motivations: "I am the all-powerful state. I can do whatever I want to my citizens. I can surveil, I can seize. I can imprison, I can threaten. I can make their lives so awful that cryptocurrency is the least of their concerns." (3/13)

Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

#SmartCustody Adversary — Nation-State Actor

Of the possible ways to lose your digital assets to a government, having them wielding their power as NATION-STATE ACTOR is probably the scariest. (1/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:08 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

Because what are you going to do? You're just a person, and they are a country, part of the international community. You are subject to their laws and jurisdiction, and an identity without national citizenship continues to be a huge challenge to human rights. (2/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:08 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

As we say in our motivations: "I am the all-powerful state. I can do whatever I want to my citizens. I can surveil, I can seize. I can imprison, I can threaten. I can make their lives so awful that cryptocurrency is the least of their concerns." (3/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:09 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

But we also state: "I am hopefully bound by laws and morality: if my citizens obey the rules and don’t interact with criminals, and if I am truly a law-abiding nation, then they have nothing to worry about. I just want to keep my nation and its people safe." (4/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:09 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

#SmartCustody is about making risks concrete through their anthropomorphization as adversaries and using that insight to determine if the risks affect you. I don't think most people are likely to have their digital assets taken by a nation-state. (5/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:09 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

Because the bottom line is, as our motivation suggests, a nation-state can do a lot worse to you than seize digital assets if it wants, and probably do much more easily than focus on seizing your digital assets. (6/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:10 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

But with that said, I might also be very cautious about which nations I accessed my cryptocurrency from, because some nation-states are certainly more lawful than others, and my experiences in the USA and first world might be different from others elsewhere. (7/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:10 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

And we've certainly seen situations where NATION-STATE ACTORS started scooping up funds almost as a side effect, such as when Argentina seized pension accounts, India banned large bills, and many examples of locking transfer of bank funds during currency devaluations. (8/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:10 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

The distinction between the government LEGAL FORFEITURE adversary we discussed yesterday, is that LEGAL FORFEITURE targets you as an individual, whereas with today's NATION-STATE ACTOR adversary you are more of a bystander or a particular class of citizen or resident. (9/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:10 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

This distinction become blurry when when talk about non-nation-state governments actors, such as regions and cities. For instance, I gave the example of California seizing safety deposit boxes that were unused (by a very flaky definition of "unused"). (10/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:11 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

So, be careful, but also we use this adversary as an example of how you might look at a really scary problem in #SmartCustody and determine that it's not actually one you need to worry about, or it is not worth your effort to try to mitigate. (11/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:11 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

And this is the last of my two “Loss by Government” adversaries, following up on my look at LEGAL FORFEITURE yesterday (and presumably making this adversary form of illegal forfeiture). (12/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:11 PM

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Christopher Allen

@ChristopherA

Have your own stories of Nation-States impacting digital assets? Your own solutions? Let us know! And please consider supporting #SmartCustody. We're working on V2, with multi-sigs and other expansions: https://smartcustody.btcpay.blockchaincommons.com/ (13/13)

7/2/2020, 2:04:11 PM

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