Anyone else having issues connecting to most Mullvad servers right now? Or is it just me? #privacy #VPN

"Lawful" access via backdoors wouldn't be lawful at all if you consider that code is protected free speech. Therefore companies and individuals have the right to code programs with encryption and no back doors for law enforcement, regardless of whether they have a magic piece of paper (warrant) or not. 4th amendment issues aside this is a 1rst amendment issue. If companies such as Apple do give in and build backdoors for law enforcement, consumers need to boycott all of their products. #privacy #encryption

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Techlore (@TechloreInc) on X

"FBI Warns iPhone, Android Users—We Want ‘Lawful Access’ To All Your Encrypted Data" Every major country has toyed with breaking E2EE, do no...

According to a research paper that was published in October, a direct correlation (28% increase) can be demonstrated between large federal grants to local governments and the number of public sector employees charged with corruption in the subsequent 2 year period. They studied every known case of public official corruption from 2005-2018.

Reason.com

Research says big federal grants to local governments breed corruption

DOGE may not just save money; it may encourage honesty.

This is the way it should be everywhere. Free flow of money with zero friction is good for everyone except the criminals who refer to themselves as the government.

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Eric Wall (@ercwl) on X

kinda mindblown i went here and sent them 2983 usdt on tron i received 23,000 hong kong dollars, (which is 2960 usd). no kyc, no id that’s...

Can anyone smarter than me confirm if this is true? TLDR is that effective ring size on Monero transactions can drop to 4.2 with this attack method. All is not lost though, full chain membership proofs are coming eventually which would negate this kind of attack entirely. FCMP increases the ring size to include every transaction ever made as decoys which would exponentially increase Monero's privacy. https://x.com/xenumonero/status/1893048853575631287 #monero #privacy #research $XMR #opsec

The number of different coins and tokens has increased exponentially over the last few years. There are over 11 million listings on coinmarketcap versus around 5000 in 2019. Very few of these have any real world utility and useage beyond speculation, Monero is one of them. Despite being delisted from most major exchanges, it maintains value due to it's constant and increasing organic demand. I literally feel safer holding Monero in cold storage than I would holding dollars in a bank account, the dollar based financial system is a house of cards and I don't trust it. $XMR #monero #privacy

I haven't confirmed this but if true it's very concerning. It may be a good time to look into degoogled pixels if you are an IPhone user.

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Inevitable West (@Inevitablewest) on X

🚨BREAKING: Apple surrenders to the Labour government and removes highest level data security tool for Apple users The government now has access...

Warpcast, the most popular client for the Farcaster social media network that's built on Ethereum rails, just instituted a policy in which if you live in the United States and earn more than $600 in Warpcast's USDC rewards program (rewards are based on how much engagement your posts are getting), you now have to dox yourself and file a 1099 IRS form. You can at least opt out of the rewards if you don't want to dox yourself. Will mobile Nostr clients have to do something similar one day IF they want to be in the app store? This new Warpcast policy is likely related to the IRS's new $600 rule (takes effect in 2026) which requires digital payment apps such as Venmo, Paypal, and Cashapp to generate 1099k forms for any customer that does more than 600 dollars in cumulative transactions. This rule shifts the burden of proof from the IRS to the taxpayer, as even if you don't actually owe any taxes you now have to prove it for every single transaction. This is draconian, invasive, mass financial survelliance. I am not a tax expert but I am assuming that you can now imagine such lovely situations as this: -You make some money at your 9-5 -You pay income tax on that -Then you use your remaining earnings to buy a computer for 1500 bucks -You get taxed again via sales tax and tariffs -Eventually you decide to upgrade and sell your now used computer at a loss for $800, receiving the payment via Paypal. -Congratulations! you just triggered the automatic tax reporting requirement for having more than $600 in total transactions! -It's now up to you to find your receipt and prove you lost money when you resold your computer or you will be taxed a third time! It's dumb shit like this that demonstrates how important it is for us to use $BTC and $XMR to create resilient alternative systems and circular economies outside of state control. Also people should consider doing more bartering to help deny the State tax revenue, if I get paid in eggs can you tax me on it? The $600 threshold is so ridiculously low, it just shows how greedy and desperate the state has become to suck every dollar out of every taxpayer. The threshold before this new law was $5,000. It's not like they're going to spend the extra revenue on anything good. They're going to spend it on killing people, mass imprisonment, mass surveillance, and funding more extortion and tax slavery.

Farcaster

Varun Srinivasan (@v) cast on Farcaster

We’re making a few changes to Warpcast Rewards this week: 1. If you earn > $600 and live in the US, you’ll have to fill out a 1099 to collect...

#privacy #farcaster #warpcast #IRS #bitcoin #monero

I won't shed a tear for a single federal worker that gets fired. The state is responsible for more death, theft, and general human misery than any other organization. If you work for the state, you are at least partially complicit in mass murder, mass surveillance, and organized extortion and theft on a scale bigger than the Mob could of ever dreamed of. Your checks are stolen funds. I don't care if your a janitor, don't work for an evil organization if you have any morals. But just as a side note you should probably start with firing the entire IRS, FBI, ATF, DEA, and TSA. They do the most damage. #DOGE

Apparently you can't use cakepay from @cakewallet with a VPN anymore. You now have to check a box saying your not using a VPN or a proxy in order to buy a prepaid debit card or any giftcard with $XMR. This sucks but I suppose you are going to dox your location when you use the giftcard you buy anyways. #privacy #monero #vpn #cakewallet

Coffeezilla has got the whole good cop thing down for real. He makes you feel like he's your friend so you will open up and people even know this before going on his show and still fall for it which blows my mind.

Regardless of what Trump does, says, or how many memecoins he rugs, I won't consider American truly crypto friendly until the Samourai Wallet developers are free and clear.

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CR1337 (@CR1337) on X

298 days since the arrest of the Samourai Wallet developers. Unfortunately, not many people really care, or even grasp how important this case is ...

In case you didn't catch the leaked chainalysis presentation on monero. #xmr #monero #privacy #opsec #chainalysis

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anhdres 🌿 (@anhdres) on X

Leaked video but @monero maxi h4x0r edition. 🧑‍💻

According to the leaked Chainalysis video on their attempts to trace monero transactions, one of the things that can make an $XMR transaction stand out is if the fee is higher or lower than average. You can't see amounts of a monero transaction but you can see the fee. My question is, when using the standard Monero GUI wallet, is it better for privacy to use the default fee setting labeled "automatic" or the one labeled"normal x1"? I tried finding this out but can't find a clear answer anywhere, does anyone know? I'm assuming automatic is the best choice and that's why it's the default option but I'm not sure. #monero #privacy #chainalysis

Someone forgot to tell Monero about the altcoin apocalypse we recently had. $XMR is like fuck that I'm too busy breaking out of a multi year range right now. Despite all the delistings, demand for XMR remains high because people actually use it.

All those people that just "stay humble, stack sats" wouldn't of even known we just had massive apocalyptic liquidations throughout the entire altcoin market. Bitcoin just stayed in its range and bounced off support. I dont understand people who hold alts but aren't in BTC in any meaningful sense. #bitcoin

The United States government should not spend one cent of the money it has stolen from its tax slaves on foreign aid. Helping people in need is great, stealing to do it is not. If you are going to rob the American people through an illegal tax on their income, spend it on America.

The collapse of Thorchain / $RUNE is a good reminder that you need to carefully consider the risks of any yield opportunity for your Bitcoin. Is risking your stack worth a few percent or whatever the yield was in Thorchain for BTC? I looked awhile ago and don't think it was a lot. #BTC #Thorchain #RUNE #DeFi

Great discussion on the Tom Woods show about the Ross Ulbricht pardon and why the war on drugs is a complete failure. Trump seems to think if he just uses enough force against the cartels he can stop the flow of drugs, unfortunately all this will do is lead to even more death and the drugs will not stop. The only effect that going to war with the cartels is going to have is possibly a temporary increase in prices, which would just incentivize more production. Given that Trump broadcasted his intentions to lock the border down prior to the inauguration, I guarantee the cartels moved as much product across the border as they possibly could before he took office. There is probably enough cartel dope stashed within US borders to last them until Trump leaves office. So no, I don't think designating cartels as terrorists and trying to shoot your way out of widespread drug addiction is going to work Mr. President.

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Tom Woods (@ThomasEWoods) on X

We're still hearing from some quarters a bunch of claims about @RealRossU that are without foundation, so I devoted an episode to it https://t.co/n...