Why Is Blockstream Working With Former Spies?

Blockstream is working with former national spies. The question is, why on earth would a cryptocurrency company have the need to employ former spies? 

Also read: Tie a Message to Any Location Using the BCH-Powered Member Client

Take a Journey Back in Time if You Would

On October 23, 2014, Blockstream goes public and announces funding and the formation of their company. Shortly after Blockstream was incorporated, they received $50 million in venture capital from AXA, Khosla Ventures, Horizon Ventures, etc., some of the most powerful venture firms in the world. The Blockstream board of directors are all bankers.

In the Summer of 2015, all of the primary Bitcoin communities such as /r/Bitcoin, mailing lists, Bitcoin Talk, wikis, etc., began massive censorship campaigns against any and all topics that had to do with scaling Bitcoin beyond the 1MB limit which, by the way, was temporarily added by Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2010 as a stop-gap measure to prevent spam in the early days.

In December 2015, it quickly became apparent to everyone that Bitcoin was being hot-wired for a settlement system.

As They Say, the Rest is History

So here we are today. Most of what has transpired since the launch of Blockstream remains uncontested to everyone outside of Bitcoin Core (which is why they are perceived as a cult). However, it’s a little known fact that they are working with former spies. Clearly they didn’t want anyone to know this.

Bill Scannell wearing a Dragons Den hat, source @scannell on Twitter

Enter in Bill Scannell

Bill is a former self-admitted national spy for the United States, focused on signal and human intelligence (SIGINT/HUMINT). Bill entered the world of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin sometime around 2015 (below is a tweet about Bitcoin while at Def Con).

Woah. Ryan Castellucci of @WhiteOps demos #bitcoin #Brainflayer #brainwallet cracker at #Defcon pic.twitter.com/pFc4vYu9cv

— Bill Scannell (@scannell) August 7, 2015

He has given talks about his former spy days. For example, one of his more infamous talks is on the story of a secret NSA listening post in Berlin back in the 80’s, where he worked on SIGINT/HUMINT (make sure to watch the Q&A at the end where he gets roasted by the audience). As you can see from some of his recent social media postings, he is still very much in love with SIGINT.

For those unaware, SIGINT and HUMINT still play critical roles for spy agencies across the world as a means to gather and analyze intelligence. In France’s 2012 presidential election, it was discovered through WikiLeaks that all major French political parties were targeted for infiltration by the CIA’s HUMINT and electronic SIGINT spies in the seven months leading up to the election.

In this short clip from Scannell’s Berlin talk, he is talking about being selective in his targeting and “smart spying” techniques. In another lecture, Scannell talks about using spying intelligence to control.

By the way, did you notice the symbol he used as his background for his talk? It’s a very subtle but important image to the Bitcoin Core community (Lightning Network).

What Does This Have to Do With Blockstream?

Well, what Bill Scannell and Blockstream don’t want the general public to know is that Bill works intimately with Blockstream on their own intelligence. You see, Blockstream is running it’s own program in order to push their agenda so that they can control Bitcoin and profit from it.

October 2014: Blockstream announces funding and incorporation of company. March 2015 (just six months later): Blockstream begins work on Lightning Network. pic.twitter.com/McGXEmzvJ4

— David Shares (@DavidShares) June 18, 2018

Because they have so much investment capital and need to protect it at all cost in their quest to control Bitcoin, they have employed Scannell as their consultant (agent) to run intelligence and counterintelligence operations on the Bitcoin community.

According to Scannell’s own LinkedIn profile, he runs a private consulting firm where he is focused on being a “strategist.” Ironically, he also has past work experience listed as an “Evil PR Genius.” In one LinkedIn recommendation for Scannell, the person wrote that he is a “Story-teller, fixer, maker.” Scannell has setup his own company, called Special Circumstances LLC for his private consulting.

The Anchorage Daily News wrote a piece about Scannell’s wife in 2016, regarding a local election in Alaska. In the article, they described Bill Scannell as “a ‘media strategist’ who has been known for pedaling some outrageous stories and pulling some outrageous stunts to get media attention.” One of the advertisements run by Scannell’s wife, Michelle, during the election, was a video of her opponent Mia Costello, calling her a chicken.

As it turns out, back in 2008 Scannell had his own controversy, where it came to light that he was attacking opposing groups in another local election. AlaskaReport.com wrote, “Bill Scannell, the man outed Thursday morning by Jake Metcalfe’s former campaign manager Dana Krawchuk as the person behind some nasty websites attacking Ethan Berkowitz, has resigned. Krawchuk had overheard Scannell talking about building websites specifically to attack Berkowitz.”

When Samson Mow started working for Blockstream in 2017 as the “Chief Strategy Officer“, Bill Scannell and Samson Mow began working more closely together, along side Adam Back and others. In April 2017, Scannell and Back both attended the The 21st International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security in Malta, where Scannell helped moderate a panel that Back was speaking on. Blockstream was the sponsor at the event, where others spoke as well, such as Peter Todd.

On Reddit, Bitcoin.com CEO and entrepreneur, Roger Ver, had this to say about Scannell, “This guy was with Samson when I had the debate with him in Seoul. He was clearly Samson’s handler at the event.”

Here the two (far left and far right) are buddied up at a Deconomy 2018.

Here is Bill Scannell and Blockstream CEO Adam Back attending The ICE House for a podcast on crypto markets.

Where Does This Leave Us?

Unfortunately, as it’s been said time and time again, Bitcoin Core (BTC) has been co-opted. Many don’t believe this because they are being heavily manipulated in online forums that Blockstream controls. However, these revelations help to at least shine a light on what may be happening in the ecosphere. And as time moves forward, we are becoming more aware of how deceptive and underhanded Blockstream really is.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light [the truth] can do that.”

OP-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support views, opinions or conclusions drawn in this post. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article.

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Images via Twitter.

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