It's criminal to evade sanctions for a reason. As a Russian can tell you that oligarchs being able to convert dirty money into cool western lifestyle is probably the what keeps this thieving and oppressing regime going. If they were cut off from this, the regime would fall because very few insane people would associate with Putin for reasons other than personal gain. But they are not cut off cold turkey and they still have avenues where sanctions are not applied, like crypto, so they have time to sort things out.

Note that it's not illegal to provide humanitarian aid or help in other ways. It's not even illegal AFAIK to transact, as long as you make sure you are not involving anything or anyone sanctioned. (But I'm not a lawyer)

> Economic sanctions are a political act...

I can see why someone would choose to "disregard" (violate/evade) sanctions if they disagree, and I can see why someone would want to make what is effectively a sanctions-proof company. I just think if you're building a system ideally suited for, say, sanctions-busting or money-laundering or whatever, that you should consider the risk of colliding with the world of laws.

Yeah, people with blank look over the word sanctions totally made ethical and moral decision of disagreeing with those sanctions because they are wrong /s

That being said, I don't even think it is better. When you make active decisions to, say, help Russian goverment, you are not exactly coming off better then someone clueless doing the same.

I don't necessarily agree...

I want widespread crypto, because I want to have the autonomy to initiate transfers myself, transparency of my accounts, easier back office, less payment middlemen, etc.

Yet I would like a state managed crypto (e-euro?) so that a fraudulous transfer, stolen wallet, etc can be canceled.

- We're in 2022 and I still can't have an API with my bank to analyze my purchases, I have to parse PDF monthly reports.

- I still can't automate my savings without a third party robo advisor than requires me giving my account credentials.

- I can't easily make FX swaps without a third party broker with 2 days wire transfers in/out.

- I can't swap without a brokerage margin account.

etc.

Centralized crypto? yes please, it's still better than the current state of affairs.

Not everyone lives in Europe or the US with fancy worldwide smart banking. Here in HK, banks are from the 90s. Crypto centralized would level the banking experience to the current century.

Depends what you mean by "hire," and I suppose part of the point of a DAO is to make that ambiguous. But if you have a full-time photographer who turns out to be in North Korea, it might be inconvenient, and I say that with no ill-will towards North Korean photographers!

That's close to what I'm going for, but maybe not a big enough threat.

I'd argue that the status quo is that if you have enough money you can do whatever you want. It's sometimes inconvenient. Sometimes you have to have a clever accountant on staff. But you can get it done.

Anonymous money is more of the same, except you can fire that accountant. So tornado cash was an optimization of the current status quo.

I'm talking about a threat to that status quo. The kind of coordination technology that would let us turn our backs on money so that everybody on wallstreet had to go find real ways to contribute because the people who make the things they want just laugh at their silly dollars.

souvlaki is not a pseudonymous person or group famous for laying the foundations of the modern world with a 'project where the team does not even put their identity & reputation at risk'

bourbaki and satoshi are