The Canadian liberal government’s attempt to freeze the funds of the Freedom Convoy protesters is getting a big pushback by one crypto wallet.
After using the Terrorist Financing Act just last week, Canadian police started clamping down on finances connected to the Freedom Convoy protests.
As part of Canada’s push, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police sent a message to cryptocurrency exchanges saying they should “cease any transactions” with a list of 34 crypto addresses. Meanwhile, an Ontario Superior Court Judge signed a Mareva injunction to freeze the crypto assets in over 120 crypto addresses.
Nunchuk is a crypto-wallet that safety stores cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The company was ordered in this injunction to freeze the assets that the Canadian government thinks are connected to the Freedom Convoy protests and disclose the user’s information.
But the company would not do so.
Not only did the company hit the Canadian officials with a scorching response, but the firm also highlighted the order shows the Canadian government does not know how crypto works.
“Nunchuk is a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet. We are a software company, not a financial intermediary,” the reply began. “Our software costs nothing. It allows people to eliminate points of failure and keep their bitcoin safe, while preserving privacy.”
Because the crypto company doesn’t “collect any user ID information beyond the email addresses” or “keep any keys” connected to the real crypto assets of its users, Nunchuk said it cannot, therefore, freeze anyone’s assets or prevent those assets from being transferred by Nunchuk users, nor does the company know the location of its users’ assets.
“This is on purpose,” Nunchuk says. “Please research how private keys and self-custody works. When the Canadian dollar is finally worthless, we will also be here to serve you, too.”
Because of the tech used by many cryptos is decentralized, government orders the freezing or seizing many cryptocurrency assets are, as Nunchuk says, pointless.
“It is not possible to freeze an ethereum or bitcoin address and make it useless to the owner,” Bitcoin.com says. “The only way is force or threats of death or prison and ultimately getting a crypto owner’s private keys. This is why fundraisers, such as the BTC fund that brought in 21 bitcoin, use multi-signature controls.”
