Two Ghosts of Cryptography: Why Nicolas van Saberhagen Is Even More Phantom Than Satoshi Nakamoto ➡️Satoshi Nakamoto Published the Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31, 2008, through the mailing list [cryptography@metzdowd.com] He(?) remained publicly active for over two years: 500+ posts on Bitcointalk.org under the username “satoshi,” dozens of private emails with developers such as Gavin Andresen, Hal Finney, and Mike Hearn, and direct commits to Bitcoin’s original code repository. His last known communication was in April 2011—an email to Gavin Andresen. After that, he vanished, leaving behind an enormous technical and historical footprint. ➡️Nicolas van Saberhagen The anonymous creator of the CryptoNote protocol, which forms the basis for the design of the #Monero blockchain, published two versions of his(?) whitepaper: * Version 1: December 2012 * Version 2: October 2013 Unlike Satoshi, he showed no public activity whatsoever afterward: no forum posts, no emails, no GitHub commits. His(?) identity and activity remain entirely unknown. There are rumors of a distorted-voice Skype call in 2015, but no verifiable recording or transcript has ever surfaced. While Satoshi continued developing Bitcoin for years after releasing his paper, van Saberhagen disappeared immediately after publishing, as if he had dropped his cryptographic scrolls and dissolved into the network. Bonus / a curious detail: the pseudonym “Nicolas van Saberhagen” may be a cryptic reference—combining Nicolas Flamel (the medieval alchemist) and Fred Saberhagen (author of Dracula novels). It could loosely translate as “the alchemist who knows.” There’s no proof this was intentional, but it fits the legend of someone who clearly never wanted to be found.

Wasabi vs Samourai: The Breaking Point of Anonymity ᶜᵃⁿ ᵖʳⁱᵛᵃᶜʸ ᵉᵛᵉʳ ᵇᵉ “ˡᵉᵍᵃˡˡʸ ᵃᵖᵖʳᵒᵛᵉᵈ”? Since 2022, Wasabi Wallet (zkSNACKs Ltd.) has enforced blacklisting of certain “tainted” UTXOs —funds linked to hacks or suspicious activity— in its main CoinJoin coordinator. It was a voluntary move, meant to protect the project and gain “regulatory clarity,” though not prompted by any explicit legal threat at first. Samourai Wallet fired back, arguing that CoinJoin coordinators “only pass data, not money,” and that submitting to blacklists posed a risk of censorship, likening it to a slippery slope toward full regulatory surrender. They reaffirmed their uncensorable philosophy — no blacklists, no moral filters over money. After the arrest of Samourai’s founders in April 2024, zkSNACKs blocked U.S. IPs and announced the shutdown of its CoinJoin service by June. It now emphasizes that it only provides non-custodial software, distancing itself from any direct coin-mixing operation. The result: a "chilling effect" that pushed Wasabi off the DOJ’s radar — and left the community facing an old question in a new disguise: Can privacy ever be “legally approved”?

Two Sides of the Same Coin Crypto-anarchists were the ones who pushed the more radical political theory behind cryptography and its applications in secure communications, digital money, and online #privacy. Cypherpunks were the engineers and craftsmen who built them. Monerists are on both sides of the same coin. #monerist #agorist #Monero #SovereignIndividual

Some privacy wallets have evolved: now you can access your anonymous funds on your favorite privacy blockchain... with your fingerprint. 🤨 Perfect, biometric security at the service of genetic traceability 😏

Payment methods. Properties of Sovereign Money. ─DEFINITIONS FIAT: you accept it because the state imposes it. ─GOING TO ZERO USDT: tokenized dollar with surveillance, possible freezes, built-in censorship. ─COVERED CBDC BITCOIN: good invention, but to function as p2p money it needs a “centralized” layer 2. ─ASSETS IN TREASURY ZCASH: traceability and luxury privacy... if you activate it. ─CONDITIONAL PRIVACY MONERO: voluntary, fungible money, processed in L1, uncensored, and with privacy by default. ─SOVEREIGN MONEY

#Monero Fun fact Many people know that Monero means “money” in Esperanto, but what is the plural form? It is Moneroj. BitMonero was the original name of the project when it was launched in April 2014 based on the CryptoNote protocol. It was proposed in 2014 by a user on the Bitcointalk forum with the pseudonym “thankful_for_today.” He chose the “Monero” part for the reason I mentioned earlier: it means “money” in Esperanto. The community didn't like the prefix “Bit” (from Bitcoin). A few days later, the project forked and was simply renamed Monero.

If you think that the crypto space is recent and started with Bitcoin, you are missing part of its history, and to better understand its fundamentals, you need to read it. In this article, I will make a brief review of the history of the crypto space, and I will leave you with material so that you can deepen your knowledge, if that is what you want. Spoiler alert: Throughout this article, you will see that the historical consistency of those who formed the cryptographic space, in the pursuit of privacy and individual sovereignty, is far removed from the speculative nature of today's cryptographic industry and, in my opinion, is a product of mass adoption and its “hasty and thoughtless” implementation. The Basics of Cryptoeconomics. Its History and Origin. The Cypherpunks. https://medium.com/coinmonks/the-basics-of-cryptoeconomics-its-history-and-origin-ba55223d53a7

Let's analyze this news using my OpenSource L3 protocol, explained in one of my articles. Signals of #Technocracy #Agenda2030 #AI "Trump says a tariff dividend of 'at least' $2,000 will be paid to most Americans" Layer 1 — Surface (the visible) Announcement: a $2,000 one-time payment funded by tariffs. Framing: “national prosperity,” record stock market and 401(k)s. Narrative: the State “distributes profits” like an efficient corporation. Layer 2 — Depth (the implicit) Fiscal engineering: not a classic subsidy; it’s a cash-out of tariff income to legitimize protectionism and sustain consumption. Governance by KPI: efficiency of revenue replaces social-justice logic. Cultural rehearsal: citizens as passive shareholders, normalizing programmable disbursements (CBDCs). Hidden trade-offs: regressive effects of tariffs, sectoral inflation, and potential trade retaliation. Layer 3 — Hidden Structure (the intentional) State-as-corporation + AI: legitimacy shifts from political deliberation to system performance (data, models, KPIs). Path to UBI/CBDC: periodic “system dividends” leading to behavioral conditioning (geofencing, expiration, compliance). Frictionless politics: automated budget allocation bypasses public debate — rule by dashboard. Power alignment: finance, big tech, and state bureaucracy converge around stability and traceability; dissent becomes “inefficient.” Concise takeaway The “dividend” acts as a pilot for technocracy: efficiency first, programmability next, algorithmic governance of income after that. The question isn’t whether money exists — it’s who programs its conditions. Key risks —Politically conditioned income. —Loss of financial privacy and fungibility. —Regulatory capture and technological lock-in.

Business Insider

Trump says a tariff dividend of 'at least' $2,000 will be paid to most Americans

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said the payments would be for all but "high income people."

The Paradox of the “Rebels” Who Fear Real Privacy I still can’t quite grasp how some people claim to defend #privacy and individual sovereignty, yet flinch when they hear #Monero. It’s like listening to a vegetarian preaching ethics while flipping steaks on the grill. Then you see them talking about decentralization with tokens that require KYC, or about freedom while using wallets that report their activity. But of course, Monero is dangerous, they say. Most are normies disguised as rebels without a cause, shouting against the system from their favorite exchange. Sure, you can criticize Monero — nothing is perfect, everything is improvable, evolvable. But what truly matters is the philosophy behind it, steady for over a decade, powered by a strong, growing community convinced this is the path to resist the technocracy rising ahead. Meanwhile, those “rebels”, who are only seeking profits in fiat currency, keep asking for permission to be free 😏

Imagine receiving a transfer to your bank account or some crypto in your exchange wallet as payment for work, or even from an unknown contact with no clear reason—maybe as a gift or an airdrop, common in the crypto industry. It seems like good luck. But in a world where most systems are designed so every transaction leaves a trail, that incoming money could be "dirty"—linked to previous illegal activities such as drug trafficking or fraud—without you even knowing it. In this article, I explain how a transparent money system presents a greater risk than non-fungibility itself. When money—physical, digital, or tokenized (cryptocurrencies)—can be marked, it creates risks even for honest citizens. We’ll explore the potential economic and criminal risks. My article: Beyond Non-Fungibility: The Invisible Risk of Traceability https://medium.com/@liberlion/beyond-non-fungibility-the-invisible-risk-of-traceability-d103e8fab614

This guy is always bringing up information that only matters to him and two other nerds! He must be one of those people who brings water to parties to drink, saying it's healthier! 😝😂 View quoted note →

Monero and the Battle for Decentralization: from CryptoNight to RandomX In 2013, the CryptoNote protocol introduced CryptoNight, an algorithm built to democratize mining: anyone could mine with a regular CPU or GPU, avoiding the ASIC dominance that centralized Bitcoin’s hash power. #Monero adopted it in 2014, but by 2017–2018, manufacturers like Bitmain had developed ASICs capable of breaking that balance. The community fought back with regular hard forks and variants such as CryptoNightV7 and CryptoNightR, defending decentralization through constant adaptation. The real breakthrough came in 2019 with RandomX, designed by the community (led by tevador and hyc). This new algorithm uses random code execution and memory-intensive operations, making ASIC development economically unfeasible. As of 2025, Monero remains CPU-friendly, proving that #privacy and #Decentralization aren’t slogans — they’re coded into the protocol itself.

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AI now synthesizes, describes, predicts, and decides—functions that shape democracy itself. As these systems surpass human limits, their influence on how democracy works becomes inevitable. Signals of #Technocracy #Agenda2030 #AI

CoinTelegraph, the media outlet aligned with the crypto lobby, makes its role clear: It hits #Monero, saying it's stagnating, when the YTD of XMR is 85% and that of BTC is 6% 😏 Then it talks about how Zcash 💩 avoids compliance issues ☠️

Cointelegraph

Zcash Leads Privacy Token Rally as Market Cap Surges

Zcash heads a privacy coin breakout, climbing over 60% this week as traders pivot from mainstream crypto to surveillance-resistant assets.

Total connectivity was the bait; total surveillance, the trap. It's not an eye watching - it's a system anticipating. Modern surveillance doesn't wait; it predicts. The network is not neutral; it's an infrastructure of power. Power is no longer measured in votes or armies but in submarine cables, data centers, and satellites. Whoever owns the hardware owns reality. The supposed "decentralization" is a logical illusion hiding an unprecedented physical and political concentration. Data isn't the new oil; it's the new sovereign. Whoever accumulates it, rules. Defense begins by seeing the cage. It's not about fleeing technology or living like an Amish - it's about recognizing its nature. Being offline, even briefly, isn't a luxury; it's resistance. It's the only space where independent, reflective thought can breathe without algorithms modulating its oxygen. Autonomy isn't granted - it's built. A new chapter of my book has been published: 'Understanding The Information Age. The Sovereign Individual.' ─Chapter 2: Computing and Networks https://liberlion.medium.com/understanding-the-information-age-the-sovereign-individual-chapter-2-4ed41db0d302

What I said more than two years ago is more relevant than ever, and its importance is increasing. #Technocracy Agenda2030 #AI View quoted note →

This isn't just happening in Germany. It's an orchestrated plan. #Technocracy Agenda2030 View quoted note →

It’s going to be entertaining to watch the Zcashers — self-proclaimed champions of “permissioned privacy” — twist themselves into knots justifying on-chain KYC when the EEC orders it to please their VC backers and lure institutional money. They always wanted to be Bitcoin, just.. ..with a fake secret. Think it won’t happen? Grab front-row seats and plenty of popcorn —this show’s going to be good.

While most people are still amused by the left vs right show, the real battle in the 21st century is #privacy vs. surveillance—and yes, I left out ‘freedom’ on purpose: without privacy, you’re not even playing. Technocratic governments have already bought front-row seats.