Truthcoin.Info

Free Samourai: Plan + $30,000 Prize

Paul Sztorc
7 July 2026

The Samourai devs have still not been freed. So we must try harder!

Overview

Below is a plan which may help. Plus, we1 plan to give away $30,000 to help make it succeed.

Here are our advantages:

  1. The Samourai [so-called] “crimes” are weak. Most people believe that software developers should not be locked up with murders, thieves, and trouble-makers. The Samourai devs already have widespread support among Bitcoiners.
  2. Crypto has a large voting block: 50+ million American voters. Many of these are “up for grabs” – because they are stubborn libertarians and independents. Midterms are coming – and Trump will want a popular mandate (so that he can continue to govern by executive order).
  3. The pardon itself would cost Trump very little, politically. Trump has already pardoned CZ and Ross Ulbricht – as well as Jan 6 rioters, etc. So, the political marginal cost is near-zero and is probably negative. (This implies that the bottleneck is Trump’s time and attention and awareness of the case.)
  4. We can probably team up with other beleaguered folk in need of pardon – this maximizes the size of our coalition, while keeping the cost to Trump low.
  5. Many of these pardons would lead (indirectly) to financial benefit. Mostly in the form of fines that no longer need to be paid.

And here is our strategy:

  1. Prepare – lay the groundwork for a successful pardon.
  2. Pitch – make our case… to Trump’s supporters.
  3. Iterate & Endure – test our preparations against reality, refine them, and keep trying!

Step One

First we must build a data room (a folder of pdfs) containing:

  1. A one page executive summary.
  2. The actual document that Trump must sign, to do the pardon.
  3. A memo of Trump’s public angle – Trump’s talking points.
      • Exactly what he can announce – (we should draft some tweets, for Trump).
      • How Trump should respond if a reporter asks.
  4. A full political breakdown – which groups benefit?
      • Which groups are humiliated (vs respected)?
      • Who appears strong (vs powerless) as a result (eg Elizabeth Warren).
      • This section must list key Congressional races this cycle… with a breakdown of how many “crypto voters” hang in the balance of each race.
      • We should include all ‘Stand With Crypto’ talking points in this section.
  5. Details of what we can offer.
      • Can we offer Trump a photo op? Who would attend? Which libertarian leaders, and crypto CEOs? Brian Armstrong? Jeremy Kauffman?
      • Can we offer money? Can we raise any? Will our allies later donate to Trump? Or to his SuperPACs?
      • Retweets and eternal gratitude? Favorable podcast coverage?
  6. A memo of Trump’s private angle – a list of stuff Trump wants, but probably can’t admit to wanting.
      • Has Trump feuded with the SDNY? (or Elizabeth Warren, etc)?
      • We must understand everyone’s political career – their hopes, their dreams, how they get promoted, etc.
      • We must be catalog everyone’s past disagreements with Trump – and their potential future disagreements.
  7. A full exhaustive legal analysis of the facts of the case.
      • First, the analysis must come clean – list all the bad things that our boys have done. We must make the document bulletproof – it has to be trustworthy. Any tiny little exaggeration will harm our credibility. We must put the white house staffers at ease – that all of the opposition research has carefully been done (by us). That they can rely on us to give them the truth. In other words – in this first section, we must be harder on the crypto prisoners than anyone – we must be a true Devil’s advocate.
      • However, in part two, we present the strongest three arguments in support of Samouari. Ie, that prison is a miscarriage of justice in this case. Probably, at least one argument should blame the inept Biden government – perhaps, another should blame inept Democratic politicians writing inscrutable laws.
      • Part 3, we include a long list of all the other arguments in support of our position.
      • Part 4, we have a bunch of propaganda – photos of the prisoners, with their families. We emphasize (for example) that one defendant is a 66-year old resident of Portugal, and the other is a 36-year old Appalachian high-school dropout. We contrast this with the SDNY, and their annual budget of $X00 million. We argue that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
  8. A bold re-framing of the argument.
      • This case is not about “money laundering” at all – it is about technological progress.
      • Blockchains have many advantages – but their transaction record must be public. Hence a new challenge, for inventors.
      • Inventors and explorers are often under-appreciated. Socrates, Galileo, and Jesus were all “prosecuted” by the governments of their day.
      • The constitution guarantees our right to privacy. Corrupt politicians are in violation of the Constitution. Trump’s pardon would restore law and order, and protect our rights.
      • Code is speech. If we ban typing, then where does that road take us? What would Steve Jobs say? Or Marc Andreessen? Won’t elite coding skills just leave the country? Do we really want software to go offshore, to China and Russia? Do we want it to go underground? Why would we do that to ourselves?
    • Technology wins wars (ie, Alan Turing, Manhattan Project), and it makes societies rich. Tech is what separates the USA from stagnant Europe – and the 3rd world. Reject poverty! In America we back our coders and inventors!

Everything should be built around the following messages:

To Trump:

  • If you sign this pardon, it will help you win supporters – and votes.
  • The pardon is morally correct. It will help you look good.
  • Critics of our pardon, are poorly uninformed. And if they looked into it more, then they would see that it is a good pardon.

To the Trump staffers:

  • We have already researched every angle of this, for you.
  • Our document is trustworthy and accurate. It reports the good and the bad – all of it. Every sentence is true and relevant. And nothing has been exaggerated – nor omitted.
  • Trump will be very happy, that you brought this to his attention. You won’t regret this!

Step Two

Next, we must grab Trump’s attention.

How?

A. Supporters

Well – we don’t go straight to Trump. That’s too hard!

Instead, we go to Trump supporters. We make exactly the same case to them, that we made (above) to the hypothetical staffers: this pardon will help Trump win. It will help Trump govern – it will help Trump become more popular. It will make Trump’s enemies less popular.

If they agree with us, then they’ll spread the word! Purely out of selfishness.

Eventually, enough Republicans will know that it is a winning issue – and it will be a done deal!

We will assemble the press conference and get it done.

B. Opposition Party

In a two-party system, the best way to grab the Ruling Party’s attention, is to also make entreaties to the rival opposition party (ie, the Democrats).

So, we have to shop this idea to the Democratic Party, and democratic candidates as well. If they offer us a better deal, then we will reciprocate [by making this known to crypto voters].

Steps Three + Four

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We are unlikely to succeed immediately. We will face discouragement.

Nonetheless, we persist. We:

  1. Figure our why our pitch isn’t working.
  2. Modify it.
  3. Test again.

If we miss the 2026 midterms (in four months), then the next window of opportunity will not be until the 2028 election season.

Helpful Info

Teaming Up

Arguably, we should combine pardon requests with these other 4 individuals. (And perhaps others, as well!)

This allows us to combine supporters. We may have access to more resources (more donations, better photo op), even though for Trump it is the same single signature. Thus, we make our deal more attractive to him.

Pardons will sometimes cancel fines (or even, refund fines already paid). So, the more pardons we stable into our request, the more financial support we can justify contributing, overall.

You Can Help

We need:

  1. People for the photo op – Brian Armstrong, Jesse Powell – anyone from academia – celebrities, media personalities. Anyone willing to volunteer for the photo op.
  2. Coordination with existing organizations – Stand With Crypto, Bitcoin Policy Institute, Coin Center, FreeSamourai.com, FreeRoss.org – ideally we can get the text of the pardon, and other “inside” info.

Spread the word! You can either get these things for us – or you can help us reach those people who can!

Win Prize Money

Unfortunately, I’m short on time at the moment.

But we need:

  1. [now] Someone to help assemble the data room (ie, a large PDF report) – and associated research.
  2. [in 6-8 weeks] Someone to help us with outreach, to Trump supporters.

Phase 1 – Build the PDF

First, we hold three contests to build “the PDF”.

  • First place: $8000
  • 2nd + 3rd place: $1000 each
  • 4th and below? Nothing, sadly.

The first contest ends in two weeks – 9 AM Tuesday July 21st, EST. Please deliver a large professionally-formatted PDF. It must be fancy enough to persuade White House staffers. Whoever presents the best report, wins. Winner judged solely by me. Please submit it to @psztorc on Telegram or @truthcoin on X/Twitter. Ideally, send also an editable [Word / Markdown / Dropbox Folder / Github Repository].

After the first period is over, I will:

  1. Name the top 3 winners.
  2. Provide feedback.
  3. And we will iterate again.

After the first iteration ($10,000), we follow up with two half-prize iterations ($5000 each). Each of these will last just one week – but they will not start until after I publicize the results of Contest #1.

With $20k spent, we have a remaining budget of $10,000.

Phase 2 – Distribute and Promote

This $10k will be split into 5x prizes of $2000 each.

Each week, I will award the $2000 prize to whomever (in my judgment) did the most to bring attention to the Samourai case.

Conclusion

Will this actually work? Who knows.

But – I am not impressed with the efforts so far. I can’t tell who is working on what, or how it might help.

Please guilt your friends into volunteering for our “photo op” [or whatever we end up offering]!

Footnotes

  1. Thanks to sponsorship from a (wealthier) friend. You may contact me to donate, as well. ↩

Links

©2026 Truthcoin