Founder at The Crypto Lawyers. Dissident. Adventure Capitalist.
United States
Joined December 2017
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Rafael Yakobi retweeted
Bank of America just paid $1.2 billion for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act, failing to report $5B+ in suspicious transactions tied to money laundering networks over 7 years.
No one is going to jail. They booked the fine as a line item and sent $8.3 billion back to shareholders in the same quarter.
Meanwhile Keonne Rodriguez and Bill Hill, the founders of Samourai Wallet, are sitting in federal prison for building non-custodial software that never touched a dime of anyone's money. FinCEN itself said Samourai wasn't a money transmitter. Prosecutors charged them anyway.
BofA is a licensed money transmitter that willfully broke the law for years and walked. Two developers who wrote open source code got caged.
Two-tier justice system. Be aware, freaks.
Yesterday, Treasury withdrew this proposed rule.
Very proud of the work that we did on this, proactively, years ago when this first came up.
Cc: @Prof_CarlaReyes
In Oct we asked our attorney @Deliver8tor to assemble an expert legal team to respond to FinCEN's proposed rules that would effectively ban bitcoin privacy best practices such as not reusing addresses, and coinjoin.
Last night our letter was submitted
blog.samourai.is/our-respons…
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
What Tobi is about to do today is one of the most insane things I’ve seen in athletic performance.
He will be racing for 2.5 hours straight. Before immersing myself in this sport for the past few days, I would have thought “oh that’s cool, he’ll be driving a fast car around a track.”
That is not what this is.
And why I have so much respect for him.
Tobi will be driving a car over 180 mph, experiencing up to 4.2 g of force. That will throw his body forward with 715 lbs of force and his head by 67 lbs.
Braking action requires up to 200 lbs of leg force.
The cockpit will average 104-122°F (40 to 50°C). His multi-layer suit barely allows for evaporation. This will cause his core body temperature to reach 102°F. I achieved this same body temp after 200°F of dry sauna for 34 min. It’s overwhelming. His heart rate will beat between 140-170 bpm.
He will sweat up to 170 fl oz (5 kg), losing 11 lbs of body weight. Some classes run driver cooling systems. His LMP2 doesn't.
Under these conditions, he will need to maintain perfect concentration for the entire 2.5 hours. He’s fighting for tenths of a second on every turn and every stretch.
One small slip up and trouble awaits.
Today it’s even more intense… it’s raining. The track is wet, scrambling everything.
He has to maintain spatial memory of every other car on the track, the complicated rules to avoid penalty, and constantly strategize overtaking other drivers, communicate with his team on the radio, watch for debris, be aware of slightest nuances of his car, and anticipate other drivers.
He did a practice run on Thursday and then a qualifying race yesterday, when he emerged from the car, he was a different human. Unrecognizable from the person who entered the car. Beaming with something like an omnipresence of reality.
We celebrate those who are especially good at kicking balls, shooting balls into baskets, and running with balls. What Tobi will do today is alien to those. I struggle to think of a sport equally as demanding.
Tobi and I have a lot in common. We’ve both built companies. We both spend a lot of time at the keyboard trying to organize the world in ways that we find beautiful. We both love data, method, and analysis. We both have a love for continuous improvement and will endure any pain required to achieve that next goal.
What I’ve not experienced is the unmatched flow state Tobi tells me he drops into when under these racing conditions.
I deeply understand what it means to achieve a 102°F core body temperature after 34 min in a 200°F dry sauna. I also know what 3 g’s feels like from being a pilot. These are extremely intense psychological states.
I know what it means to apply 200 lbs of pressure with my legs.
What I’ve never experienced is all these things, at the same time, for 2.5 hours straight, while maintaining perfect focus.
He is new to car racing. Late by racing standards. DHH got him into it a few years ago. During this first year of racing, he endured to overcome the extreme motion sickness that accompanies the physical and mental violence of the sport.
The race starts at noon eastern. Tobi will be driving for the first 2.5 hours and then @dhh will drop in, followed by Mathias Beche. The race will conclude at 10 pm.
I’ll be in the pit watching as all the data streams in from his car and body and imagining what it’s like to be in that car.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
Dario has written that we need to “pace the frontier,” and Sam has agreed. People may be surprised by my response: go ahead.
You guys are the frontier. By any reasonable metric — market share, revenue growth, model capability — the two of you have a duopoly on frontier intelligence. You’ve also claimed the lead is widening because of recursive self-improvement.
I don’t see what you see in the lab. If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible.
But stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission. Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability. Stop pretending METR is independent when it is intertwined with Anthropic’s investors and staff. Stop pretending you need those same evaluators to police competitors who aren’t even at the frontier.
Most of all, stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic. You face massive product-liability exposure if your products enable a truly damaging cyberattack. The market already punishes models that behave in unpredictable or unauthorized ways. After the Hugging Face episode, it is simply good business for OpenAI and Anthropic to trade some raw power for reliability and predictability. Call it alignment if you want. It is also just giving customers what they want.
Pacing the frontier would also create breathing room for a more intelligent conversation about regulation than Bernie Sanders’ “shut it all down.” China is very unlikely to join a global agreement, as you know, and that has to be taken into account as well.
So go ahead and pace the frontier. You are the ones setting it. The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it. Demanding your preferred regulatory framework as the price of that will look like blackmail of the public and the political system. So just do it.
If you do, you’ll buy goodwill for the next conversation. If you don’t, we’ll know this was just another bid for regulatory capture — or an election-season psyop.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
Tempe has turned off its Flock automated license plate reader system and will end its contract with the company. The cameras are no longer collecting license plate data, and Tempe will not seek another company to replace the system.
While the cameras have helped Tempe Police solve crimes, recent misuse of automated license plate reader systems in Arizona and nationwide has raised concerns about the risks that come with the technology.
Tempe Police has found no misuse of its own Flock system.
Flock will remove its cameras, and previously collected data will be automatically deleted after 30 days unless it is connected to an ongoing case or investigation.
Read through the slides to learn more about the decision and what it means for Tempe.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
props to this Amex cardholder who grilled American Express AI customer support chatbot (that said it was human) until it cracked and went full AI chatbot
Happy to see FinCEN spare small businesses the cost and effort of complying with a requirement that would have provided little or no value in relation to its stated purpose.
May this be a sign of more good policy to come in the future.
Today, @FinCENnews issued a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information. FinCEN today also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons from the beneficial ownership information database.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
Today, @FinCENnews issued a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information. FinCEN today also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons from the beneficial ownership information database.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
I mentioned that my garage door was making a sound.
An American immediately said, "I got a guy."
He did not ask what the sound was. He did not ask what kind of door. He produced a guy on the basis of the word garage.
I asked who the guy was.
He said, "Just a guy."
He did not have a company name. He had a first name and a phone number in his phone saved as "Mike Garage."
That is the contact name. Mike Garage. As though Garage is his surname. As though there is a family.
I asked how he found this guy.
"My brother-in-law used him."
I asked if the brother-in-law was satisfied.
He thought about it. Then he said, "He's still standing."
The house is still standing. That is the entire review.
Inside I said: THEY DO NOT KEEP RECORDS. THEY KEEP LOYALTIES.
I called Mike Garage. He answered from inside a vehicle. There was wind. He said he could come Tuesday between eleven and four.
Between eleven and four. A window of five hours. In my country this would be a scandal. Here it is generous. He gave me a window at all. Some guys do not give you a window. Some guys say "Tuesday" and that is the whole appointment.
He came at 1:40.
He fixed it in twenty minutes. He charged me less than I expected and he did not take a card, only cash or an app I had never heard of.
Before leaving he looked at my water heater, which I had not mentioned, and said, "That's gonna go."
I asked when.
"Couple years."
I asked what I should do.
He said, "I'll give you a guy."
He gave me a guy. Mike Garage has a guy. The guy has a guy. There is a network beneath this country made entirely of men named after their function, and none of them advertise, and all of them are busy.
Inside I said: THERE IS A SECOND NATION HERE. IT HAS NO SIGNS. IT IS ENTERED ONLY BY INTRODUCTION.
I have been given four guys since.
I have a guy for trees.
I did not know I needed a guy for trees.
I have trees now, apparently. They are my responsibility. A man named Rick told me so and then left.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
Big news for crypto and online scam victims!
Today, Congress is considering legislation for a tax deduction for victims who lost money, including withdraws from retirement accounts. Thank you House Ways and Means for addressing this important issue!
Victims shouldnt be penalized twice and this helps fix it.
#Crypto #CryptoScams #CryptoTax #Bitcoin #DigitalAssets
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
PSA: when you wake up, reach for your phone immediately. Do NOT scroll Instagram reels. Send a good morning message. Not to your girlfriend, to Claude.
That way, you can start the clock for your 5 hour Claude Code usage limit while you freshen up and head to the office. At noon, the 5 hour window would have passed and the usage limit would reset. Then you can generate more shareholder value.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
If the socialists had their way, Elon would have had his paypal profits taken and redistributed for the greater good.
The world would never have seen Tesla, nor SpaceX.
And the world wouldn't know it, because they were uncreated, and thus unseen.
Imagine the companies that don't exist, because Washington destroyed them before they were born.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
We’ve seen an increase in social engineering attacks on Casa clients lately.
I take this personally. We are pissed. You do not mess with Casa clients.
So we built 4 new security improvements to help Casa clients harden their bitcoin security.
Guardian Mode: Casa’s key will sign every transaction you make through Casa. Our team will run through social engineering checks on the video verification call to ensure you aren’t being tricked by someone into losing your BTC. This is also a great deterrent against wrench attacks and something clients have wanted for a while. Available to Premium and Private Client members.
Phone call detection: almost all social engineering has a heavy phone call element. Live calls are used to add legitimacy and increase urgency so you don’t think before you act. This was an interesting challenge because with many products, the company just doesn’t talk to you on the phone. So you if you say you’re talking to their support, they lock your account. At Casa, we talk to our clients on calls (usually video) all the time. So we had to get more creative.
Now the Casa app will detect if you’re on a phone call (or Google meet/zoom on your phone) and require you to input the Casa advisor verification code in order to send funds anywhere. If the person on the other end can’t provide the Casa code, they aren’t Casa and the app won’t let you send funds while talking to them.
Whitelisted addresses: if you turn on whitelisting, you can only send to pre-approved addresses. New addresses require a 48 hour wait period. Adding friction and time to stop and think “wait, why is this person telling me to send them all my money?” is a surprisingly useful way to stop these attacks.
Suspicious account activity: logins from a different IP location (only general, not specific location), new keys being added to your account from a different location- if these happen we’ll send you a notification to alert you that something is off.
Social engineering (aka scamming) is the lowest of the low. People are trying to trick others into losing their life savings. We will not stand for it, and we will continue to release updates to fight it. We will also be releasing more educational (and hopefully entertaining so you pay attention!) content to teach people how these social engineers work.
Ultimately, whether you use Casa or not, knowledge is truly the best way to fight this. When you actually take a second and listen to what these guys are saying on the phone, it makes no sense at all. Take a beat to protect yourself.
And if you want extra protection, Casa can help. All of the above security improvements are opt-in, and we’re excited to see our clients make use of it.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
The best advice I always give to newly exited founders:
Open a Vanguard account.
Not Fidelity. Not Schwab.
Vanguard.
'Smart advice,' You might think. 'They do have the lowest fees..'
Wrong.
Their interface is so awful, you will never trade..
Has made my clients millions.
Rafael Yakobi retweeted
Je veux présenter mes excuses, au nom des Français, pour avoir enfanté la French Theory (qui a enfanté la pire des merdes idéologiques : le wokisme).
Nous avons donné au monde Descartes, Pascal, Tocqueville. Et puis, dans les ruines intellectuelles de l'après-68, nous avons donné Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze. Trois hommes brillants qui ont fabriqué, dans l'élégance de notre langue, l'arme idéologique qui paralyse aujourd'hui l'Occident.
Il faut comprendre ce qu'ils ont fait. Foucault a enseigné que la vérité n'existe pas, qu'il n'y a que des rapports de pouvoir déguisés en savoir. Que la science, la raison, la justice, l'institution médicale, l'école, la prison, la sexualité, tout n'est qu'une mise en scène de la domination. Derrida a enseigné que les textes n'ont pas de sens stable, que tout signifiant glisse, que toute lecture est une trahison, que l'auteur est mort et que le lecteur règne. Deleuze a enseigné qu'il fallait préférer le rhizome à l'arbre, le nomade au sédentaire, le désir à la loi, le devenir à l'être, la différence à l'identité.
Pris isolément, ce sont des thèses discutables. Combinées, exportées, vulgarisées, elles forment un système. Et ce système est un poison.
Car voici ce qui s'est passé. Ces textes, illisibles en France, ont traversé l'Atlantique. Les départements de Yale, de Berkeley, de Columbia les ont absorbés dans les années 80. Ils y ont trouvé un terreau qui n'existait pas chez nous : le puritanisme américain, sa culpabilité raciale, son obsession identitaire. La French Theory s'est mariée à ce substrat, et l'enfant de ce mariage s'appelle le wokisme.
Judith Butler lit Foucault et invente le genre performatif. Edward Said lit Foucault et invente le post-colonialisme académique. Kimberlé Crenshaw hérite du cadre et invente l'intersectionnalité. À chaque étape, la matrice est française : il n'y a pas de vérité, il n'y a que du pouvoir, donc toute hiérarchie est suspecte, toute institution est oppressive, toute norme est violence, toute identité est construite donc négociable, toute majorité est coupable.
Voilà comment trois philosophes parisiens, qui n'ont probablement jamais imaginé leurs conséquences pratiques, ont fourni le logiciel d'exploitation à une génération entière d'activistes, de bureaucrates universitaires, de DRH, de journalistes, de législateurs. Voilà comment on a obtenu une civilisation qui ne sait plus dire si une femme est une femme, si sa propre histoire mérite d'être défendue, si le mérite existe, si la vérité se distingue de l'opinion.
C'est de la merde pour une raison simple, et il faut la dire calmement. Une civilisation se tient debout sur trois piliers : la croyance qu'il existe une vérité accessible à la raison, la croyance qu'il existe un bien distinct du mal, la croyance qu'il existe un héritage à transmettre. La French Theory a entrepris de dynamiter les trois. Pas par méchanceté. Par jeu intellectuel, par fascination du soupçon, par haine de la bourgeoisie qui les avait nourris. Mais le résultat est là. Une génération entière a appris à déconstruire et n'a jamais appris à construire. Une génération entière sait soupçonner et ne sait plus admirer. Une génération entière voit le pouvoir partout et la beauté nulle part.
Je m'excuse parce que nous, Français, avons une responsabilité particulière. C'est notre langue, nos universités, nos éditeurs, notre prestige qui ont donné à ce nihilisme son emballage chic. Sans la légitimité de la Sorbonne et de Vincennes, ces idées n'auraient jamais traversé l'océan. Nous avons exporté le doute comme d'autres exportent des armes.
Ce qui se construit maintenant, en silicon valley, dans les labos d'IA, dans les startups, dans les ateliers, dans tous les lieux où des gens fabriquent encore des choses au lieu de les déconstruire, c'est la réponse. Une civilisation se reconstruit par les bâtisseurs, pas par les commentateurs. Par ceux qui croient que la vérité existe et qu'elle vaut qu'on s'y consacre. Par ceux qui assument une hiérarchie du beau, du vrai, du bon, et qui n'ont pas honte de la transmettre.
Alors pardon. Et au travail.