Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of the privacy coin Monero (XMR), also known as Fluffypony, faces extradition to South Africa months after his arrest by U.S. authorities. In a Thursday court filing for the Middle District of Tennessee, Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern ordered Spagni to surrender to U.S. Marshals on July 5 for extradition to South Africa. He will reportedly face 378 charges related to allegations of fraud and forgery between 2009 and 2011 at a company called Cape Cookies. U.S. authorities arrested Spagni in Nashville in July 2021 at the request of the South African government, holding him in …

If mainstream finance does not adopt new technologies, such as those seen in blockchain and crypto, they will fall behind, according to a few experts’ comments at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos Switzerland. Answering a question on comparing this year’s event to last year’s, Monero’s former lead maintainer Riccardo Spagni noted the same presence of “old school” bank and regulatory personalities. Spagni, also known as Fluffypony, told Cointelegraph in a Jan. 21 interview: “I think by a lot of events like this one and some of the other blockchain events, we’re starting to show them that if they …

Privacy-focused altcoin Monero (XMR) will see arguably its best-known advocate step down as the project’s lead maintainer in an upcoming reshuffle. In a blog post on Dec. 16, representatives confirmed that Riccardo Spagni, known as fluffypony in cryptocurrency circles, will in the future serve as a backup maintainer. His replacement will be fellow developer Snipa. Spagni moves to backup “Fluffypony has served the Monero project well over its five years of existence, and he will continue to remain active in the community as a maintainer,” the blog post read. Regarding the choice of Snipa as a replacement, the post added: …

Monero (XMR) core developer Riccardo “Fluffypony'” Spagni has said he expects regulatory arbitrage to become an increasingly prevalent and impactful phenomenon in the crypto space in coming years. Spagni made his remarks during a panel at the annual “Innovate Finance” event, hosted by digital assets liquidity provider E8 Partners in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 25. Spagni began by dismissing the notion that “the very existence of crypto is going to cause governments to topple [...] [as an] obviously ludicrous [...] pipe dream” — underscoring that decentralized finance will not immediately wrest military and political might from the world powers’ hands. …