[jpkoning]

As the article points out, Sci-Hub relies on bitcoin for international donations but the majority of its donations come via Yandex.Money, a Russian version of PayPal. I guess that means that most of its donations come from Russians and other CIS nationals with access to Yandex.Money.

[mudlus]

Some things that are good for Russia, or terrorists, are good for everyone.

One of those is free and open scientific research.

Bitcoin was designed for just this kind of purpose.

[StavrosK]

Why are "Russia" and "terrorists" mentioned in the same breath?

[lecarore]

I think I understand the meaning of the comment (some things that are good for terrorists, like an untraceable currency or messaging app) are good for everyone. Then to be fair Russia has a very relaxed view on copyright (just having a look at VK or yandex music.. it's just full of pirated Western content) and Russian activists are often the first adopters of privacy apps. Ну да, он это не так хорошо сказал.

[metrokoi]

It's interesting that Russia, which is seen as semi- or outright Fascist by many Americans, is much more free than the U.S. is. At least in terms of information freedom and surveillance. The further removed an individual is from the seat of world power, the less necessary it is for every aspect of their lives to be controlled.

[catsdanxe]

Your internet is way more censored that ours and Putin is planning on making his own great firewall.

>Putin Signs 'Russian Internet Law' To Disconnect Russia From The World Wide Web

[metrokoi]

Who's internet? I'm not from Russia.

[a1369209993]

Because jpkoning mentioned Russians and terrorists are the usual excuse used to pretend that secure (ie not amenable to blackballing) banking infrastructure is a bad thing, when in fact it's

> good for everyone.

with the exception of repressive govenments that want to shut down things like Sci-Hub.

[hedora]

The leaders of those governments will eventually figure out how to launder their bribes through bitcoin (if they haven’t already), and then it’ll be good for the oppressive governments too.

[catalogia]

I read that as wry.

[pishpash]

Isn't it great to be in a multipolar world? The greatest threat to human progress is a monopoly on power.