The Samourai people tweeted this last June:
Welcome new Russian oligarch Samourai Wallet users
Obviously, this was not a tactful statement. It got singled out in the DOJ press release about the developers' arrest. It is likely that statements like these may have played a role in their current discomfort.
Matt Corallo on TFTC recently said this:
Censorship resistance is the value proposition.
This is a far more palatable version of the same statement. Censorship resistance means Russian oligarchs can use Bitcoin.
So my question is this: did Samourai make a mistake of semantics or is this the inevitable end of Bitcoin?
Some people seem to think what got them in trouble was their implementation (centralized coordinator) or accepting fees for a service or their loudmouth bombastic social media presence.
To me, however, the problem here is that the central idea of bitcoin (censorship resistant money) is already illegal as far as most governments are concerned. They're just trying to figure out how they can stop it.
If Bitcoin lives up to its promise (money you can send to anyone anywhere anytime and no one can stop you) is it inevitable that we all become outlaws?