Truckers protesting against Covid-19 restrictions in Ottawa over the last couple of weeks has resulted in numerous demonstrators having their bank accounts frozen, as well as Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act to include crypto transactions.
As the Canadian government ramps up its efforts to derail the flow of funds to the demonstrators, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sent Nunchuk a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet a Mareva Injunction, ordering it to freeze and disclose information about the assets involved in the Freedom Convoy 2022 campaign.
In an official response to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Nunchuk replied that it is a “self-custodial, collaborative multi-sig Bitcoin wallet” and that it is a “software provider, not a custodial financial intermediary.”
Nunchuk’s team added: “We do not collect any user identification information beyond email addresses. We also do not hold any keys. Therefore, we cannot ‘freeze’ our users’ assets. We cannot ‘prevent’ them from being moved. We do not have knowledge of ‘the existence, nature, value, and location’ of our users’ assets. This is by design.”
Difficulty with banning crypto
In general, the official response from the start-up after being ordered to freeze and disclose information on assets implicated in the protests highlights the problems of censoring and enforcing cryptocurrency bans.
Anonymity is one of the most compelling arguments in favor of Bitcoin, and the validity of this assertion was put to the test last week when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Canada’s national police force issued an order requiring all FINTRAC-regulated organizations in Canada to stop interacting with 34 cryptocurrency wallets linked to the Trucker’s Freedom Convoy.
In particular, crypto became one of the critical ways of contributing to the truckers following GoFundMe’s decision not to distribute $9 million raised on its platform.
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