Unpopular opinion: Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is no hero. Kraken and all other exchanges should not be complicit in oppressing Canadians.
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Kraken CEO Jesse Powell recently Tweeted a brutally honest thread on Twitter, essentially telling customers that Kraken will comply with any and all of Canada’s requests of freezing and seizing the finances of protesters.
Link to Kraken CEO’s statements: [https://decrypt.co/93243/kraken-cannot-protect-you-from-canadian-government-freezing-crypto-ceo](https://decrypt.co/93243/kraken-cannot-protect-you-from-canadian-government-freezing-crypto-ceo)
I actually think exchanges like Kraken are morally wrong for complying. At what point do you draw the line? If the Canadian government asked Kraken to kill the protestors, do you think Kraken would murder their customers to remain regulatory compliant? At what point does Kraken stand for it’s values and say “no, we will not comply” to the state?
Instead of Canada itself fighting the war, Canada is essentially mandating the private sector companies to be the proxy force fighting the protestors for them. This type of private sector proxy-war happens all over the world, it’s not exclusive to what’s happening in Canada. For example, Google and Facebook are the biggest enablers of China’s social credit system. Google and Facebook provide surveillance and tools to China so they can hunt down and murder dissidents of the regime. Private companies who comply with oppressive regimes to oppress citizens are just as responsible as the state in my book. They could say no and fight for their values, but they don’t.
Money talks. Kraken doesn’t want to piss off the government because they are looking at hefty fines. Kraken is holding their hands up and saying “guys sorry our hands are tied, what can we do… dont blame us” but that is a dishonest response, Kraken could fight this but it would be a hit to their bottom line. There is no amount of money that should ever justify a private company oppressing people.
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