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**Amir Taaki is an anarchist coder who's been around the bitcoin scene for years.**

In the past, he's been an extremely passionate advocate for cryptocurrency and transaction privacy - I'm sure there's are plenty of OG bitcoiners on Steemit that have probably met the man in person at a conference or at least some of his media appearances before.

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQzcyEvKYhsxCkqGbyXbWtNjVYTktEzKmXRqW6iTxHShP/image.png)</center>

He was getting a decent amount of <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/silicon-roundabouts-not-for-him-meet-super-hacker-master-coder-and-bitcoin-boy-amir-taaki-in-his-9093228.html">mainstream media attention</a> around the <a href="https://www.darkwallet.is/">Dark Wallet</a> project , but then a little over a year ago the forbes "future billionaire" dissapeared from his usual haunts.

 I saw a reddit thread asking if anyone knew where he was , and some vague rumours on bitcointalk that he "went to fight isis" but nothing concrete to really explain what happened.

Then, a few months ago someone on <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/i-fought-isis-with-kurds-in-syria-this-is-what-it-was-like/">reddit</a> spotted this familiar sounding character in a thetower.org article "<a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/i-fought-isis-with-kurds-in-syria-this-is-what-it-was-like/">I Fought ISIS with the Kurds In Syria. This Is What It Was Like</a>" :

> One of the ideologues I met was an **anarchist hacktivist from London**. Every night, we would fall asleep listening to his *utopian ideas* of revolution. Another fighter told me that he had seen the hacktivist in the customs line at Sulaymaniyah airport. He was pulled aside and one of his bags was opened to reveal that **it was full of Guy Fawkes masks**, a symbol of the hacktivist group Anonymous. This hipster had bizarre romantic ideas of turning the YPG into an Anonymous army. 

**After so long "off the grid" - I really didn't expect to see Amir turn up in my newsfeed today in these two interviews :**

- <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39417937">Bitcoin entrepreneur Amir Taaki quizzed over fighting in Syria</a> (bbc)
- <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/03/anarchist-bitcoin-coder-found-fighting-isis-syria/">How an Anarchist Bitcoin Coder Found Himself Fighting ISIS in Syria</a> (wired.com)

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYCTtgNKD3a8as8BLE8UAeti4HNqp3SMk1XZRRQe4Qesc/image.png)</center>

**TLDR:** Yup, he really went to Syria. Direct combat wasn't the plan, but it happened - and luckily his worst injury was from falling in a trench. He's actually been back since May last year, but has been harassed by local police constantly since he landed.

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQma221dPjP8kiBsg7MdMpFyiZ47bQWfmzeM7uju6mSFgDQ/image.png)</center>

**I'm just happy to hear he's home safe.** *Now we just need to get him on Steemit* ;)

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