Is the code a law? It is possible that Canada will finally deliver a judgment on this highly controversial concept in a $ 16 million precedent trial. At the center of this case is a teenager accused of stealing funds from the DeFi platform and refusing to return the money.
Code is law – the belief that true freedom can only be found in a world where computer code sets rules that cannot be changed and that supersede any existing legal norms. Proponents of this idea believe that the advantages of decentralized systems far outweigh the disadvantages, and government involvement is an obstacle.
Dr. Craig Wright has repeatedly refuted this belief. According to the creator of Bitcoin, this concept is fatally flawed, and those who believe in it are the same people who thought that Bitcoin and blockchain represented the possibility of a world without government.
This concept is being prosecuted in Canada. It all started when 19-year-old Andian “Andy” Medzhedovich allegedly used Indexed Finance, the DeFi platform, through flash loans and went into hiding with $ 16 million. After his identity was revealed, he continued to defend his point of view “the code is the law” and refused to return the stolen money.
Andy promised to fight to the death with Indexed Finance and said he would not return the money.
Indexed went to court in Ontario, which ordered Medzhedovich to appear in person at a meeting on December 21 last year to respond to the charges. Indexed said the trial was related to a funds freeze that prevents Medzhedovich from sending stolen digital currencies to mixers or cold wallets. The DeFi platform asked the court to order funds to be transferred to a third-party vault pending the finalization of the case.
Medzhedovich is on trial, and now the court has issued a warrant for his arrest – this is the first time the authorities will prosecute a DeFi hacker.
And while this is a clear case of theft, which is a crime in any case, there are anarchists who adhere to the “code is law” argument and believe that it is within its right for a teenager to refuse to appear in court.
Indexed’s founders have also been criticized by some in the digital currency community, who believe that this case could set a precedent for future digital currency cases and would not be in favor of the “code is law” argument. In their opinion, it is more important to protect the opinion that digital currencies are out of regulation than to return the teenager the millions of dollars he stole.
Casey Hewitt, a lawyer, is one of them.
“I fully understand their position, but giving the government a reason to expand a law like 18 USC 1030 is not a good thing. Limiting the consequences will be important because in the next case, the behavior may not be so obviously wrong,” she tweeted …
The criticism reached Indexed, and one of its founders, Dillon Kellar, even had to defend his company’s actions despite being a victim. He told one publication that while his company would rather not go the current legal path, it is only a matter of time before another incident occurs and the “code is law” argument will be challenged.
He concluded by saying, “I think Andean will either get tired and go to court, hand over the assets to the custodian, or get caught by the Canadian police.”
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