Doxing Yourself to (Not) Save Privacy Developers
The petition to pardon Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill is performative theater that asks privacy advocates to compromise the exact principles these developers are being prosecuted for defending. Rodriguez got five years and Hill got four years for building a Bitcoin wallet that prioritized financial privacy, charged with unlicensed money transmission under 18 USC 1960.
This video breaks down why the petition strategy fundamentally fails. Federal prosecutors don't care about petition signatures they care about conviction rates and career advancement. I couldn't find a single verified example of a Change.org petition, by itself, resulting in a presidential pardon. Ross Ulbricht's pardon took years of coalition building and direct lobbying before Trump acted in January 2025. The Samourai petition launched after Rodriguez and Hill already pleaded guilty in July 2025, with a manufactured 30-day deadline designed to create false urgency.
The security failures are even worse. GiveSendGo got hacked twice in 2022 the second breach leaked 5 gigabytes of data including 1,400 unredacted passport and driver's license images from every campaign in the platform's history. Change.org lets petition creators download your name, city, and postal code even if you select "private signature." Both platforms hand information to law enforcement when requested and log IP addresses. When you sign the petition, Change.org offers a donation link that keeps 100% of the money for their own advertising budget none goes to legal defense.
