cryptocurrency

Hijacking Bitcoin is an eye-opening book by one of the most prominent Bitcoin entrepreneurs and evangelists, Roger Ver.

Roger gave me permission to use excerpts from the book, and while I originally planned to create a shorter version, the content of the book is so well-structured that as I worked, I kept adding more.

Roger Ver presents a compelling case for how Bitcoin was captured, with its original vision distorted and its disruptive potential diminished.

Hijacking Bitcoin is undoubtetly a valuable read for anyone interested in cryptocurrencies and the underlying technology.

You can find Roger Ver's book on: www.hijackingbitcoin.com/

Petition (important): https://www.change.org/p/roger-ver-a-cryptocurrency-pioneer-deserving-justice-and-freedom

Please share this with anyone who still thinks the LN is a workable solution. This video will elegantly dismantle any idea that LN is somehow a good solution.

The real Bitcoin is gaining ground on the impostor in usage.

https://coin.dance/

They already confirmed in X they are not interested in their words "shitcoins"

https://x.com/ProtonWallet/status/1816108710386647344?t=wficclYhRqEg8ggT28g8CA&s=19

The validation for Idena is tomorrow. Participating in the validation will earn you the right mine iDNA which doesn't require any specialized hardware or purchasing any token.

Idena is a proof-of-personhood blockchain enabling digital democracies (one human = one vote) in a privacy preserving way (no biometrics and no KYC required).

You can create an account at https://app.idena.io/ and join a network of 1,800+ participants.

The FIT21 bill (H.R. 4763) was just passed by the House. I still have to do more research on it but my current sentiment is that it’s a win for crypto.

My understanding of the bill:

• It will prevent FTX-style robberies by regulating CEXs as brokers.
• It sets a definition for what a decentralized digital asset is.
• It makes DeFi, validators/miners out of reach of the SEC or CFTC.
• It guarantees the right to self-custody.
• It introduces the concept of investment contracts for digital assets.

I think the biggest changes we can expect from this bill is that some less decentralized blockchains are going to either get rid of some of their tokens supply either by selling or burning them so they aren’t considered a security.

I’m not sure what the implications of the investment contract provision will be. The dems are claiming that it will lead to the collapse of the financial system.

IMO, this bill is the win for:

• Digital assets that meet the decentralization test
• The DeFi ecosystem
• Validators/Miners
• Self-custody
• Keeping devs and innovation in the US 🇺🇸

It is a loss for:

• SBF-style fraudsters
• Potentially TradeFi although I’m unclear on that one

The bill doesn't mention anything about privacy or mixing technology but it's probably good for those since the right to self-custody is made clear.

The bill: https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules118.house.gov/files/RCP_H4763_xml%20%28003%29.pdf

Insightful interview of Steven Nerayoff (one of the Ethereum founder) by Aaron Day. Some information are so insane that I had to double check their veracity and while I still have to do more in-depth research, I wasn’t able to poke holes in Nerayoff’s story. Definitely worth a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/live/DJ4tw6XNJVs

cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/3145550

Tari XTM is the new PoW asics-resistant Privacy coin by Fluffypony. This is the link for the Airdrop game. Live since May 14, 2024.

Merge-Mining XMR has already been implemented. All you have to do is enter your Monero address with the miner.

we're integrating it into the bitcoin.com wallet

less than a month later he's arrested, likely unrelated but it makes you think

You can talk about bitcoin in any bitcoin specific spaces on the internet. You ever noticed that? You can talk about Austrian economics, you can talk about price, you can talk about influencers, you can talk about hardware wallets, but if you try to ever go into technical details about bitcoin to discuss their strengths and weaknesses you get called a shitcoin shill big blocker trying to ruin it's decentralization and probably also get banned. This is in every bitcoin specific space, the subreddit, stacker.news, bitcointalk, everywhere. You can't actually discuss bitcoin with bitcoin people.

And this is a problem. It means that no technical innovation whatsoever can happen on bitcoin. It means that they're like a herd of buffalo headed for a cliff at full speed.

That wouldn't be a problem if bitcoin was perfect. But it isn't. There's a huge, huge problem in bitcoin that I wrote a post about here https://njump.me/nevent1qqs8pzrkesjnfcws3whvjya0l9n68dx8q7sg69lhyc7dyusahe4x3rgpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqzyrwjq464d7y2vn9v6p6aqpl3heyql9yuj87k6rzdtya6endj4277yqcyqqqqqqgsjee5u that I began to understand when I saw multiple people complaining that they have DCA UTXOs that are too small to spend right now because of fees. I understand the mechanics of bitcoin pretty well, so I thought through it and came to those conclusions and of course, the believer that I am, wanted to have a conversation about it because it is a very big deal, either I'm wrong and need to be corrected by someone or it means that bitcoin is going to fail.

They're going head first into a crisis and you can't even have a conversation about it. And I just hope they don't take us all down with them. I am no longer bullish on bitcoin long term, only in the mid term like one, maybe two more halvings, and if those of us that really believe in this peer to peer electronic cash thing actually want to see it succeed we need to position ourselves to not go down with the ship, to be the fixed version of bitcoin when it happens.

Monero already has a head start on that, but the problem I referenced also applies to Monero if and when it becomes widely adopted. It really is scary to realize that these networks have a design constraint that prevents them from ever being widely used, unless it is fixed the entire thing is going to suddenly go up in flames and the freedom money revolution will be over. Again, if I'm wrong about that I welcome discussion because I really, really don't want to be right about it.

[The linked article has a lot of ads. You may want to disable JS.]

This case, alongside the proceedings against the TornadoCash developers, highlights how digital service providers and software developers are being increasingly targeted by law enforcement for offering products and services with potential for misuse despite not being directly involved in said misuse.

The Tornado Cash mixer, an Ethereum-based tool designed to conceal cryptocurrency transactions, has been in legal trouble. The founders of Tornado Cash, Roman Storm, and Roman Semenov, have been indicted on charges including money laundering and potentially face up to 20 years in prison.

[...]

The sanctions imposed by OFAC freeze any assets held in Tornado Cash and prohibit transactions to or from the service. However, effectively shutting down the service is challenging. Despite the ban, Tornado Cash continues to be used, with reports of it being leveraged for laundering unlawfully acquired crypto assets.

Those kinds of lawsuits set precedents dangerous for those involved with offering services and developing software meant to ensure privacy, anonymity, and permissionlessness — the core tenets of the cypherpunk movement that Bitcoin (BTC) was born in. Many in the crypto community raise concerns that it may lead to prosecutions against encrypted messaging services, privacy-centric cryptocurrencies, such as Monero (XMR), and web hosting services that do not snoop on their customers.

This kind of pressure may render the development of a cryptocurrency ecosystem free from control as originally envisioned much harder in a world where political dissidents, journalists, and many other vulnerable categories rely on them.

The Tornado Cash incident occurred in August, 2022, just around Monero HF. In Tornado Cash Civil Decision Limits the Reach of the Treasury Department’s Actions while Skirting a Full First Amendment Analysis dated August 25, 2023, EFF says: “A District Court recently considered a civil claim that the Treasury Department overstepped when it listed Tornado Cash on the U.S. sanctions list. This claim took some steps, if not enough, to address EFF’s concerns about coders rights.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1167727

PayPal is Introducing a new crypto currency and you’ll be able to buy, sell, hold, and transfer it in the app. 1 USD : 1 PYUSD on PayPal

Did anyone from here created a chat space on WireMin for Monero fans?

This article (with a lot of ads) describes Monero rather positively. -The Brazilian government expects to preserve the fiat legal expectations on its digital version including the ability to freeze accounts -The use of privacy coins is expected to remain high despite the government’s launch of CBDC to counter digital assets.

privacy-centric digital assets – like Monero, Dash, and Zcash – have been slammed for enabling illegal activities including terrorism, drug and firearm trafficking. Nonetheless, there is a genuine need for privacy-centric digital assets to enable transactions for people who want to protect their personal details from big data exploitations.

The Brazilian public who feel not to use digital Real will always have an option of using privacy-centric crypto assets like Monero (XMR)

See also: https://nitter.net/vinibarbosabr/status/1679458067883098116

CONFIRMED! The Central Bank of Brazil will be able to freeze accounts and arrest values even in the final version of #RealDigital (Brazilian #CBDC).

I would like to hear thoughts about this especially from ordinary Brazilians...

PS (July 21, 2023) Currently Brazilian Real (BRL) is the 4th most popular currency on Bisq - offers by currency (#1 is XMR, #2 is EUR, #3 is USD). I wonder if Haveno is going to support BRL?