4 ms·

No mention of the claimed IRS / Fed gag order, interesting. (although I realize its not their main focus right now)

zrail 13y ago
If they have a gag order and they talk about it they go to jail. Probably not going to hear any official word one way or the other.
danielweber 13y ago
The gag-order is impossible to disprove. If anything in the release is bullshit, it's that. I would consider it screamingly obvious that Coinbase reports stuff to the IRS, because they want to run a business, not be crushed to death.
MichaelGG 13y ago
Well they can't mention it if they have it, but they can mention if they don't. So this would be the only way Coinbase could communicate that they are under a gag order, barring a prior warrant canary. So it's probably prudent to act as if they have acknowledged the gag order until they deny it. Although it'd be really dumb if anyone was assuming the records were private. I guess they could say "We have implemented a warrant canary at <url>" then 404, but perhaps their legal team wisely denied that one.
- mcherm 13y ago
  Yes. And while we're at it, I wanted to point out that cbcbcb (who posted the initial leak) is ALSO under a federal gag order. He/she either won't deny it (because, obviously, they can't) or WILL lie and deny it (forced to lie by the gag order). Oh, and I'm under a federal gag order too... or at least there's no way to prove that I'm not.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    Has it been shown that the USG can order an entity to lie?
    - mcherm 13y ago
      There has been speculation among legal scholars that the legal threshold for ordering someone to lie might be greater than the legal threshold for ordering someone to keep silent. This has not been tested in court (at least, not in open court) so no one knows for sure. If I received a national security letter ordering me to lie, I would have to think VERY carefully before deciding to violate it and become a test case.

zrail 13y ago

If they have a gag order and they talk about it they go to jail. Probably not going to hear any official word one way or the other.

danielweber 13y ago

The gag-order is impossible to disprove. If anything in the release is bullshit, it's that. I would consider it screamingly obvious that Coinbase reports stuff to the IRS, because they want to run a business, not be crushed to death.

MichaelGG 13y ago

Well they can't mention it if they have it, but they can mention if they don't. So this would be the only way Coinbase could communicate that they are under a gag order, barring a prior warrant canary. So it's probably prudent to act as if they have acknowledged the gag order until they deny it. Although it'd be really dumb if anyone was assuming the records were private. I guess they could say "We have implemented a warrant canary at <url>" then 404, but perhaps their legal team wisely denied that one.

mcherm 13y ago
Yes. And while we're at it, I wanted to point out that cbcbcb (who posted the initial leak) is ALSO under a federal gag order. He/she either won't deny it (because, obviously, they can't) or WILL lie and deny it (forced to lie by the gag order). Oh, and I'm under a federal gag order too... or at least there's no way to prove that I'm not.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  Has it been shown that the USG can order an entity to lie?
  - mcherm 13y ago
    There has been speculation among legal scholars that the legal threshold for ordering someone to lie might be greater than the legal threshold for ordering someone to keep silent. This has not been tested in court (at least, not in open court) so no one knows for sure. If I received a national security letter ordering me to lie, I would have to think VERY carefully before deciding to violate it and become a test case.