Virgil Griffith
Virgil Griffith | |
|---|---|
Virgil Griffith, 2017 | |
| Born | March 6, 1983 Birmingham, Alabama, United States |
| Other names | Romanpoet |
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology |
| Occupation(s) | Programmer, Internet and software researcher |
| Known for | Ethereum development, Tor2web, WikiScanner |
| Conviction | Conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. § 1705) |
| Criminal penalty |
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Virgil Griffith (born 1983) is an American programmer. He worked extensively on the Ethereum cryptocurrency platform, designed the Tor2web proxy along with Aaron Swartz, and created the Wikipedia indexing tool WikiScanner. He has published papers on artificial life and integrated information theory. Griffith was arrested in 2019 and in 2021 pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate U.S. laws relating to money laundering using cryptocurrency and sanctions related to North Korea. On April 12, 2022, Griffith was sentenced to 63 months imprisonment for assisting North Korea with evading sanctions.