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257 points greyface- | 1 comments | 16 May 25 12:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.322s | source
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perihelions ◴[16 May 25 13:18 UTC] No.44005150[source]▶
Hold up, doesn't this turn SciHub into a vehicle for transferring currency to its Russian ownership, and therefore to the Russian state? Is that not a feature of this cryptocoin?

Obligatory "I love SciHub and what it's accomplished for millions of people". But whatever Elbakyan's person character, she is still a citizen of a country that's at war.

edit: I'm not accusing Elbakyan's character or ideals in any way. Modern Russia is a state that functions like a mafia, that shakes down and extorts anyone with a whiff of money on them. Elbakyan lives in Russia—is subject to immense criminal pressure. It's a neutral observation that any windfall profits from a major coin-minting end up not funding servers, but funding the Russian army. Only a naïf could dispute that.

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karaterobot ◴[16 May 25 14:30 UTC] No.44005964[source]▶
> I'm not accusing Elbakyan's character or ideals in any way.

It really seems like you are though. The linked page says the transaction is between the article requester and the article contributor, and that she's not taking any money, even to support the platform. So, it seems like you're saying she's lying about that.

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1. perihelions ◴[16 May 25 17:08 UTC] No.44007718[source]▶
If the FSB is leaning on her to do things under threat of violence, it's not a reflection on her ideals. I've emphasized this distinction as clearly as I possibly could. You cannot say "no" to goons with baseballs bats—read up on why Pavel Durov "quit" VK, and fled Russia [0].

Russia is not a free country where you can, just, idealistically handle large amounts of cryptocurrency as you please. It's literally a mafia state! They take what they want! Foreign currency, and in particular cryptocurrency, is a priority for that war regime right now. Huge targets on the backs of anyone associated with things like this.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/technology/once-celebrate... ("Once Celebrated in Russia, Programmer Pavel Durov Chooses Exile (nytimes.com)" (2014))

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8686868

> "When a SWAT team appeared at Pavel Durov’s door in St. Petersburg, he started thinking about his future in Russia."

> "He was home alone, and he peered at them through a monitor."

> "“They had guns and they looked very serious,” said Mr. Durov, once Russia’s biggest celebrity entrepreneur. “They seemed to want to break the door.”"