Bitcoin Companies' Response to Canada's Request to Freeze Protester Accounts Is Pure Gold

We’ve seen a lot of troubling civil liberties questions regarding the Freedom Convoy, particularly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. Among the most concerning: banning of protests at the whim of the government, conscripted labor — the government telling tow truck workers that they would be forced to work for the government against the Convoy — and even the freezing of bank accounts for the grievous sin of being involved in a protest against government mandates.

As we reported, you even had Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland laughing about seizing accounts. She is asked not just about the protesters’ accounts being seized but about the accounts of the people who donated to the protesters. She doesn’t give a clear answer about whether the donors’ accounts would also be affected.

Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland: "The names of both individuals and entities as well as crypto wallets have been shared by the RCMP with financial institutions and accounts have been frozen and more accounts will be frozen." pic.twitter.com/iA69DbRJl1

— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) February 17, 2022

Ottawa Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell, the interim police chief, also said that it’s not over if they manage to clear out the protest in Ottawa; they’re still going to try to go after protesters’ finances for the crime of dissent.

When asked about intel gathering on protesters, Ottawa Police Chief says they will be coming after protesters for months to come.

“If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges. Absolutely.” pic.twitter.com/cr4lCoLfoZ

— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) February 19, 2022

This is not supposed to be what happens in an alleged free society, as Tucker Carlson notes, and if they get away with it there, you know where they will be trying this next.

Bitcoin is a beautiful technology that allows individuals the world over to take control of their money. An important step of realizing this control is holding your own keys.

Get your bitcoin off exchanges and into wallets you control. pic.twitter.com/Bp3dGvWaUf

— Marty Bent (@MartyBent) February 19, 2022

But while banks like the TD Bank crumbled like a cheap suit, bitcoin companies gave some great responses to requests from the government to adhere with the new orders under the Emergencies Act.

Bitcoin wallet company Nunchuk announced that they’d gotten a request to freeze accounts from the government, “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.” But Nunchuk explained to the clueless government that they don’t hold any money like a custodial financial institution, they don’t collect user information apart from emails, and they don’t hold the keys to any of the wallets — that it’s all private to the user, by design.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice asked self-custody wallet provider @nunchuk_io to disclose user information and freeze user’s bitcoin.

This was the team’s response. pic.twitter.com/uyW9OWs1LS

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) February 19, 2022

“Please look up how self custody and private keys work,” the company chided the government. “When the Canadian dollar becomes worthless, we will be here to serve you too.” Now, that’s gold. They even learned a lesson from this experience with the government, and now will be making it even more private by not even holding the email information in future updates.

Speaking of which, we will add a non-email login option and make it a priority in our roadmap.

— nunchuk_io (@nunchuk_io) February 19, 2022

Edge wallet had an even more direct response to the fascistic request from the government.

In the wake of ongoing turmoil taking place in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has requested, via the Emergencies Act, that various financial services companies freeze accounts of those linked to protesters occupying the region, as well as those providing funding to the protests, but not present physically.

Regardless of whether the protests resonate with individuals or not, financial seizure is an unprecedented action that must be taken seriously. It’s with great consideration that we would like to share our official response to the request that Canadian users’ Edge accounts be frozen:

They finished with this meme.