BITCOIN SEASON 2: Comply or Die: Privacy or Palantir
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm found guilty of operating unlicensed money transmitter. Meanwhile, Peter Thiel's fund raises $353M for surveillance-friendly stablecoin sidechain. Privacy devs criminalized while compliant chains get funded.
"Comply or Die" reality hitting crypto developers. Roman Storm of Tornado Cash was found guilty of operating an unlicensed money transmitter, while Samurai Wallet devs took plea deals. Meanwhile, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund raised $353M for Plasma - a fully compliant, surveillance-friendly stablecoin sidechain. We explore the stark contrast between privacy developers facing prison time and establishment players launching token sales with regulatory blessing.
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**Notes:**
• Roman Storm faces up to 5 years in prison
• Samurai devs face $6.3M in fines each
• Plasma raised $353M in oversubscribed round
• Only 10% of Plasma tokens for public sale
• 25% token allocation goes to investors
• Legal defense funds were crowdfunded
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:20 Is Peter Theil the Antichrist?
03:25 Tornadocash
18:39 Peter Theil goes ICO baby!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm pleads guilty and is Peter Thiel the Antichrist? |
| 0:06.2 | I don't think even he knows as he launches a purpose-built Bitcoin side chain for stable coins. |
| 0:13.1 | Let's kick it off. |
| 0:20.4 | It just seems to me that when you tell me a story about the Antichrist coming to power |
| 0:26.7 | and using the fear of technological change to sort of impose order on the world, |
| 0:32.4 | I feel like that Antichrist would maybe be using the tools that you were that you were building right like |
| 0:39.8 | wouldn't the antichrist be like great you know we're not going to have any more technological |
| 0:44.0 | progress but i really like what palantir has done so far right isn't that if isn't that a concern |
| 0:50.0 | wouldn't that be the you know the irony of history would be that the man publicly worrying about the Antichrist accidentally hastens his or her arrival? |
| 1:03.7 | There are all, look, there are all these different scenario. I obviously don't think that that's what I'm doing. |
| 1:10.3 | I mean, to be clear, I don't think that's, I don't think that's what what I'm doing. I mean, to be clear, I don't think |
| 1:12.3 | that's, I don't think that's what you're doing either. I'm just interested in how you get to a world |
| 1:17.6 | willing to submit to permanent authoritarian rule. And that's Peter Thiel. Obviously, he backs up |
| 1:24.9 | against the wall, but like, I don't think for the antichrist. |
| 1:28.6 | I'm just wondering, |
| 1:29.5 | and in what scenario do you, |
| 1:31.9 | do you, |
| 1:32.9 | um, |
| 1:33.3 | do you rape the privacy and autonomy of every single living America? |
| 1:38.6 | I'm just curious what that looks like. |
| 1:41.3 | Peers more, |
| 1:42.2 | I mean, |
... |
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