Thread by @davidzmorris

So, I spent some time looking into @coinbase's latest acquisition, Neutrino. What I found, just by reading existing reporting, is insanely dark, and could/deserves to become a massive scandal for Coinbase. Thread. /1
breakermag.com/coinbases-newe…

Neutrino's leadership is nearly identical to the leadership of Hacking Team, a long-running spyware firm. Hacking Team sold spyware to authoritarian regimes in roughly a dozen countries, including Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, and Bahrain. /2

In Sudan, the U.N. accused Hacking Team of violating international weapons sanctions. In Saudi Arabia, Hacking Team worked with an agency that was later implicated in the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. /3

This may not have been merely a matter of selling to the highest bidder. Hacking Team's CEO regularly signed his emails with the Italian Fascist slogan “Boi chi Molla,” a phrase that equates dissent with betrayal. /4

We know some of this because in 2015, Hacking Team itself got fucking owned, by a heroic ACTUAL hacker we only know as Phineas Fisher. They released 400GB of internal documents. /5
motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/…

Fisher, apparently an Italian anti-fascist, later described Hacking Team as "acting on the margins in pursuit of their love for authority and law and order." /6

These, it seems, are not people who share any part of the ethos of the cryptosphere - not a love of freedom, not a skepticism of governments, not even a simple desire for privacy. Yet @coinbase has rewarded them financially - and made them the stewards of customer information. /7

You should make your own decisions. For my part, I agree with the advice of @pierre_rochard: “Sell your bitcoins on Coinbase, buy a jetpack and GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE”. /end

I have been reminded this last was @francispouliot_ , not Pierre. Give me the bronze, couldn't stick the landing.

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