Ethereum Developer Resigns as Code Editor Citing Legal Concerns

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SOURCE:
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Ethereum developer Yoichi Hirai has resigned as one of the platform's code editors, citing concerns that a contentious proposal may be in violation of penal law.

Named EIP 867, the proposal defines a method to better facilitate the return of lost funds on the platform.

Speaking on GitHub, the developer wrote:

"Some EIP editors look nonchalant about legal consequences of this draft, but I have warned them, and I have no capacities to do anything more than warn them... I resign from the post of an EIP editor."

Writing his comments yesterday, Hirai said that the EIP may be in violation of a Japanese law named the "Unauthorized Creation of Electromagnetic Records," stating "I have a doubt that, if the proposal is followed in practice, the process might constitute a crime."

The law in question deals with cases of computer-based fraud, in particular, the unlawful creation of data "with the intent to bring about the improper administration of the matters of another person," a legal document states.

Software engineer Afri Schoedon asked Hirai to step down as an EIP editor via a tweet:

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Hirai tweeted his resignation, driven by an inclination towards his legal responsibility:

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More on the topic was discussed on Github: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/867#issuecomment-365541405

As well as Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/7xsjps/who_can_recover_stuck_funds_on_ethereum_yoichi/

Without regrets, Hirar took an effective medium (pun intended, lol..) to further express his true concerns, after starting up a conversation from his twitter handle with a "question":

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