Exchanges and mining pools are not the blockchain itself, anyone can ban anyone from using thier services, in fact, Marathon (a large U.S miner) has been censoring transactions from U.S sanctioned addresses for a long time.

Of course they are free to do so, the protocol allows them, what worries me more is if every U.S based node bans those addresses, that will be an on-chain censorship which could potentially cripple crypto use case.

@Phill, no Putin is not under any induced stroke, he took Crimea long before covid started, he is fully aware.

So you think he needs to be removed from office? I hope you had the same thoughts about every U.S leader who bombed or invaded another country and killed millions of innocent souls.

It is funny that many of my westren friends think it is ok for NATO and the U.S to invade other countries and drop thier "domecatric" bombs on innocent souls, but Putin can not do it because his bombs are not so democratic or/and the vicitms are white people.

Russia has been bombing Syria for years, killing civilians everyday, I do not recall anyone called for Russia ban, I am most certainly against this invasion and all sort of wars, unlike many I witnessed war and lost many dear souls, but It is either we as crypto miners stand against all wars or shut out eyes on all of them, cherry picking what type of victims you want to be sad about is far from logical.