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Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, who grew up in Canada, expressed his support for the “Freedom Convoys” in Canada. Speaking with crypto news authority Coindesk at the ETHDenver conference on Friday, Buterin called the government’s reaction to the trucker protests heavy-handed and a good illustration of why cryptocurrencies exist. He said:
“If the government is not willing to follow the laws … [and] give people a chance to defend themselves…and they just want to talk to the banks and basically cut out people’s financial livelihoods without due process, that is an example of the sort of thing that decentralized technology is there to make more difficult.”
Buterin acknowledged there are laws in place:
“If the truckers are blocking the roads and that’s breaking the economy, fine, blocking the roads is illegal and there are laws against that.”
Nevertheless, he added:
“It’s not about being lawless. In some ways, it’s about bringing rule of law back. Governments and police can still act lawfully and pursue suspects “as they always have” without conscripting financial middlemen.”
The Ethereum founder concluded:
“This concept of going after intermediaries and using intermediaries to bypass all that, it is dangerous. “Having decentralized alternatives to an intermediary is a good way to limit the damage.”
Buterin’s remarks come after Justin Trudeau’s government invoked an emergency law authorizing banks and other financial service providers to freeze or suspend bank accounts and wallet addresses associated with the protest.
Kraken’s CEO Jesse Powell took to Twitter and warned people about the need for exchange like his to comply with regulations.