We’ll have to wait and see if they are actually convicted of a crime.
Does it even matter? For those individuals, of course but not for Bitcoin.
What this act achieves is scaring every programmer out there from even contributing to anything privacy related since they now know the anti-privacy dictatorship can traumatize them and their families like this. Not to mention all the huge legal fees these "programmers" have to pay.
Speaking of traumatizing families and legal fees, lets not forget this is not a new thing in USA. Lest we forget arrest of
BurtW basically just because he was a bitcoin user...
To be honest with you the world leaders are afraid of cryptocurrency they feel is a way of bringing down the value of there currency, so for a programmer it is advised to build a decentralized cryptocurrency just like Bitcoin in other to be in a save side.
The creator of Bitcoin is no were to be found no trace of him but what he created is growing bigger and stronger by the day and the reason behind it is that he built a decentralized cryptocurrency.
And believe me he would have been jailed if not that he disappeared.
They're not afraid of cryptocurrency or anything, what they're doing is showing everyone that they're still the dictators of the world and they can do whatever they think is right. They want to show us that there is no point in trying to fight them or think that we can escape their control. This is what I said before, we will never be able to fight the government if they really want to act against decentralization. Constantly spreading claims that bitcoin can help us fight them is completely harmful to us, it never benefits them if they actually take action.
Satoshi made the decision to stay anonymous at the right time and it has kept him safe so far. But I think if bitcoin was created in 2024 maybe things would be different, I don't think he could escape the government's hunt if he appeared again.