Virgil Griffith

• 1. Birmingham To Caltech

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  Virgil Griffith was born in 1983 and grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He graduated from the Alabama School of Math and Science in 2002. His academic path took him to the University of Alabama where he studied cognitive science. He transferred to Indiana University Bloomington in 2004 before returning to graduate cum laude in August 2007. In 2008, he served as a visiting researcher at the Santa Fe Institute. The journey concluded with his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2014 under Christof Koch. Funding for this research came from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Homeland Security.

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• 2. WikiScanner And Tor2web

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  On the 14th of August 2007, Griffith released WikiScanner to track Wikipedia edits back to their source IP addresses. He described his mission as creating minor public-relations disasters for organizations he disliked. This tool identified corporations or groups behind unregistered account changes. Two years later, he designed the Tor2web proxy alongside Aaron Swartz. Their collaboration aimed to bridge anonymous networks with standard web browsers. Griffith worked on the Ethereum platform starting around 2016. He stated that Ethereum enabled powerful economic vehicles yet to be understood. In 2016, he was fired from the Tor team after attempting to sell de-anonymized traffic data.

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• 3. The Pyongyang Invitation

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  Mid-2018 brought an invitation to attend a conference in Pyongyang, North Korea. American businessman Christopher Emms facilitated Griffith's entry into the country. North Korean political activist Alejandro Cao de Benós also helped arrange the trip. Griffith had been denied special validation by the US State Department. The eight foreign delegates arrived only to have their passports confiscated immediately. Security staff found a home-made pornographic video on one delegate's laptop. Tours included local businesses and a language school with no connection to cryptocurrency. The actual event took place at Pyongyang's Sci-Tech Complex. Speakers received brief instructions sourced from the internet before speaking impromptu.

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• 4. FBI Investigation And Arrest

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  North Korea funded weapons programs through cybercriminal activities like the Lazarus Group since approximately 2010. U.S. persons are prohibited from exporting goods or technology to North Korea without Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control licenses. On the 28th of November 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Virgil Griffith. Agents alleged he provided highly technical information knowing it could help North Korea launder money. He discussed means for evading economic sanctions during his return to the United States. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin initiated an online campaign for Griffith's release. The United States Department Commerce subsequently imposed a ten-year export privilege ban on him.

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• 5. Guilty Plea And Prison

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  On the 28th of September 2021, Griffith pleaded guilty in court while expressing remorse. Sentencing occurred on the 12th of April 2022, resulting in sixty-three months imprisonment. Ten months counted as time served from pre-trial detention. He began incarceration at FCI Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania in July 2022. His personal page indicated a move to FCI Milan, a low security prison in Michigan. Griffith was released from prison on the 9th of April 2025. The case involved conspiring to violate laws relating to money laundering using cryptocurrency and sanctions related to North Korea.

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