He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison.

WARNING: This video contains flashing lights and visual effects that may trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

You might think privacy is optional. Something you can worry about later. But right now there is a major war against privacy being waged. If governments can arrest the people who build privacy tools, then when the day finally comes where you might need them, those tools will not exist anymore.

I had the pleasure and heartache of interviewing Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, an open-source, non-custodial privacy wallet, who goes to prison this week because of the privacy tool he created.

The whole case against him was based on the idea that privacy itself is criminal. This is his story.

00:00 A Chilling Conversation
00:35 The War on Privacy
01:35 The Privacy Developer
14:45 The Privacy Wallet
20:08 The Arrest
24:12 The Charges
38:24 The Judge
40:43 The Deal
47:12 The Final Knife Twist
51:28 The War on Privacy Developers
56:04 How We Win the War

If you care about a future where privacy is still possible, you need to start paying attention now, because Keonne isn't the only privacy developer being targeted. This is happening all over the world, and we need to stand up for the people building the tools that protect us all.

Extra special thanks to Keonne Rodriguez for spending precious moments of his remaining freedom to give this interview.
If you want to help, go to https://billandkeonne.org/