I'm just happy to finally see a practical use case for Blockchain technology.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/06/moner...
Onion services provide authentication and NAT traversal while maintaining security and anonymity. Just because you aren't using that functionality doesn't mean it doesn't have a use.
How do you intend to have a clearnet application that can stand up to the same threat model that SecureDrop does?
Get this, I've never used either of these services before. And the even crazier part is that if I did, they wouldn't know what I'm giving my friends money for anyways. And lastly, just use cash if your decision making is being opressed by the surveillance capitalism. Monero serves no purpose that hasn't already been fullfilled by a non-dubious measure
> How do you intend to have a clearnet application that can stand up to the same threat model that SecureDrop does?
I don't know, ask Stripe maybe how they haven't gotten any customer data stolen yet with their massive threat profile while not using Tor in any capacity
Stripe's threat modeling is nothing like SecureDrop's. Stripe has plenty of identifying information that they would be forced to surrender upon subpoena that SecureDrop simply wouldn't be able to furnish because it never has that information to begin with. How is this not apparent? Comparing the two reeks of bad faith.
This is morally equivalent to:
- "just send a letter through the post if you don't like EU's chat control"
- "just read the newspaper if you don't like Google's Federated Learning of Cohorts"
I'd like to believe we can get the benefits of 21st century tech without giving up our privacy to get it. Thanks to Monero that belief is a reality. You're welcome to stick with cash and the pony express if you like, but it's not a great look painting everyone who disagrees with your values as a criminal.
So was Encrochat
I haven't bought much with Monero, but I always offer it because I adore the premise. I personally think its great, one of the few truly valuable cryptocurrencies.
"You could say exactly the same thing about any form of encryption..."
That seems very untrue. I like my credit card details to be encrypted when I send them for the exact opposite of assisting cybercrime.
> You could say exactly the same thing about any form of encryption.
Maybe YOU could, and maybe you'd even be telling the truth, if you're going to this site over http and and not https.
But lets hope for our sake, we never get there.
Literally does not understand crypto.
Well, that's the point.
Take your favorite payment provider (PayPal, Stripe, whichever bank provides your Visa/MasterCard, etc.), and look at their terms of service. Enumerate all the prohibited usages. From that list, delete illegal activities, of course.
The remaining items on the list are your practical examples of use cases. It's roughly the set of things that are legal, but that big corporations have decided you can't do because they're morally questionable or financially risky.
Stripe has an excellent list of examples (https://stripe.com/legal/restricted-businesses). Here is a selection:
* Pornography and other mature audience content (including literature, imagery and other media) depicting nudity or explicit sexual acts
* Online dating services
* Bankruptcy attorneys and bail bonds
* Sports forecasting or odds making with a monetary or material prize
* Charity sweepstakes and raffles for the explicit purpose of fundraising
* Unauthorized sale of brand name or designer products or services
And so on. All these are legal, but in a cashless society without decentralized currency, they might as well be illegal because no centralized payment processor will allow them.
But hey, Bitcoin can also be used for CSAM, unlike VPNs, Tor, or cash, which is why the HN cognoscenti condemns it.
You could be careful to not leak your wallet address of course, but if we'd truly be a cashless society without decentralized currency you'd want to buy your groceries with it too, or order computer parts. What prevents these shops you buy from from having a security issue and leaking your wallet address? You could have a separate wallet per shop, but you need to get money into it somehow which can be traced as well(because it's the blockchain).
Note: I'm not an expert on blockchain/crypto, there might be ways to mitigate this, I'm just legit curious as to how this would be solved in a world like this.
Answer #1: relax, they already know everything about you. With every interaction in society, you leave some combination of name, email, address, purchase history, security-camera footage, license-plate footage, IP address, cell-tower history, credit-card number, Venmo likes, etc. The history of a unit of digital currency certainly helps fill in gaps. But whoever "they" are to you, they already know.
Answer #2: No single tool is a one-size-fits-all answer to privacy. TCP/IP needs TLS for transport-layer privacy, DNSSEC and TLS certs for authenticity, VPNs and Tor for protection against traffic analysis, throwaway accounts to segregate one's personal workstreams, and so on. The privacy of the internet results from an ever-evolving collection of tools.
Bitcoin is TCP/IP for money. It's a pipe that allows transfer of value from one place to another -- that's it. It doesn't provide anonymity, but unlike centralized payment-processing systems, it allows the creation of tools on top of it that could provide a practical level of anonymity. A Bitcoin mixer, for example, is comparable to a VPN.
Note that if VPNs or TLS were invented today, rather than decades ago, the Hive Mind would be demonizing them as tools for criminals and/or the kind of person none of us admits to being (purchasers of porn, etc.). We take a lot of internet privacy tools for granted, mostly because we're accustomed to them, but also because they were grandfathered before September 2001.
Straw man much?
AFAIK there’s nothing competitive with sending an international payment of any amount in half a second for a tiny fraction of a cent in fees.
For example, Visa recently expanded their pilot of USDC settlement to include Solana, citing its speed and low fees: https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.rele...
They refer to it as “modernizing cross-border money movement” and I think that summarises the potential pretty well!
[0] https://news.rublex.io/gridless-uses-mining/ [1] https://africancrypto.com/gridless-enables-cheap-renewable-e...