Amir Taaki, a British-Iranian programmer and early Bitcoin contributor, announced on social media Tuesday that he was questioned by Singaporean police for six hours before being deported from the country. He said the questioning focused on his work.
Taaki is known for significant contributions to Bitcoin privacy technology, including writing the first implementations of CoinJoin and stealth addresses, creating libbitcoin, and founding the UK's first Bitcoin exchange. He also authored BIP 0001, which established the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal process.
Currently, Taaki is working on DarkFi, a crypto privacy protocol. He has contributed to Bitcoin Magazine in the past.
In a social media post, Taaki stated that he has faced repeated government action across multiple jurisdictions. Over the past year alone, he claims to have been deported from Argentina and Mexico, detained in Serbia, and detained in Japan. He said authorities have never provided reasons for the detentions and questioning, and that he believes he is on some kind of watchlist but cannot find information about which country sanctioned him.
Taaki attributed his troubles with authorities to his involvement years ago fighting with the Kurdish People's Protection Units in Syria. According to a 2017 BBC interview, he spent three and a half months with the military group before helping with community projects in the country. He initially faced scrutiny from British authorities following that involvement.
