Vitalik Buterin: Canadian authorities’ actions illustrate why cryptocurrencies are needed.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin did not approve the protesters’ actions in Canada, but noted that government measures clearly illustrate why cryptocurrencies exist. In an interview CoinDesk, he called decentralized systems \”a return to the rule of law\”.

“If truckers block roads and this undermines the economy, fine; road blockages are illegal, and there are laws for that. […] If the government does not want to follow the laws and give people a chance to defend themselves, this is an example of how decentralized technologies are meant to complicate their work. […] This is not about anarchy. In a sense, it is a return to the rule of law,” he said.

In his words, cryptocurrency is not a radical technology — it is meant to restore justice. Buterin stressed that police and government can act within the law, and the practice of using financial intermediaries to pursue suspects runs counter to the letter of the law.

Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act (1988), which gives the government broad powers to restore order and allows banks to freeze the personal accounts of anyone linked to or supporting the demonstrations without a court order.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the aforementioned law extends to \”crowdfunding platforms and providers of payment services, … all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies\”.

On February 19, the non-custodial wallet Nunchuk announced that the Ontario Superior Court issued a Mareva Injunction (or freezing injunction) ordering the company to freeze and disclose information about the assets involved in the movement. (Mareva Injunction)

Yesterday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sent us a Mareva Injunction, ordering us to freeze and disclose information about the assets involved in the #FreedomConvoy2022 movement.

Here is our official response. pic.twitter.com/iuxliXhN5y

— nunchuk_io (@nunchuk_io) February 19, 2022

In its response to the court, the company stressed that it does not provide custodial services, being the developer of software that is distributed free of charge. In Nunchuk advised authorities to study how non-custodial wallets and private keys work.

“We do not collect any user identifying data, apart from email addresses. We also do not store their [private] keys. Therefore we cannot “freeze” users’ assets, cannot prevent their movement, and have no information about their origin, nature, amount of funds, or location. That is by design,” says Nunchuk in a letter.

In the comments, one user noted that, according to Nunchuk’s conditions of use, the company “reserves the right to access, read, store and disclose any information if reasonably believed necessary to satisfy legal requirements, orders or government requests”.

@PaulChampLaw, see this:

You are required by law if you operate in Canada, & since you granted “worldwide” access and use…You should learn about FINTRAC. Similar expanded KYC laws coming to you soon. BTW, you omitted/lied, you can freeze accounts, so do it. From nunchuk[.]io: pic.twitter.com/ZltZW7Iujv

— 🇨🇦Scott — Born 321.59 ppm♻️ (@ScottinVictoria) February 19, 2022

Earlier, the Ontario Superior Court ordered the freezing of assets across more than 120 different addresses and to block transactions with the assets stored there. Among the \”platforms and digital asset exchanges\” named were Bull Bitcoin, TallyCoin, BitBuy, Shakepay, Satoshi Portal, Bylls, Binance Smart Chain, PancakeSwap and Nunchuk.

Recall that the heads of cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Binance warned that if authorities order the freezing of customer assets without a court order, they would have to comply. They recommended using non-custodial wallets and decentralized platforms.