Amir Taaki, an early Bitcoin Core contributor and privacy-focused developer, reported on X that he was questioned for six hours by Singaporean police before being deported from the country. The British-Iranian programmer stated that authorities interrogated him about his work on DarkFi, a crypto privacy protocol he currently develops. Taaki characterized the action as part of an "extralegal glow regime" striking from the shadows, alleging that while friends have faced charges like money laundering, no concrete evidence exists against him personally.

This incident follows a pattern of similar actions over the past year, during which Taaki claims to have been deported from Argentina and Mexico and detained in Serbia and Japan. He noted that officials typically cite random checks without providing specific reasons for detention or questioning. Taaki asserted that he believes he is on a sanctions list but cannot identify which country imposed it. His history with authorities dates back to 2016 when he traveled to Syria to fight alongside the Kurdish People’s Protection Units against the Islamic State group, a period he described in a 2017 BBC interview as lasting three and a half months. Taaki is known for writing the first implementations of CoinJoin and stealth addresses, creating libbitcoin, founding the UK’s first Bitcoin exchange, and authoring BIP 0001.