Profile: 789e4172...
What a joke!
Elon depends on the government (subsidies, grants, tax breaks, tax credits, environmental credits, funding, contracts, laws,...) for the survival of his businesses.
Cutting ultra process foods and high alcohol consumption, and going on a severally restricted diet will generally results in weight loss.
Increasing dietary proteins and exercise will generally results in a muscle mass increase.
It has nothing to do with a carnivore diet.
Humans have been leaving on a plan based diet for thousands of years with variable amounts of meat consumption based on various factors like availability.
If we live in a cold climate where plants don't grow for most of the year, it is obvious that our diet will be primarily made of meat.
But when we live in a warm climate that allows for an abundant variety of plants to grow we eat more plants than meat.
Humans had no evolutionary pressure to develop razor sharp teeth or claws thanks to our ability to eat a wide variety of plants. Our tool crafting abilities and ability to strategize allowed us to improve our plant production capabilities and to supplement our alimentation with meat.
The takeaway is that we are perfectly adapted to live on an plan base diet. So eat plenty of legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, grains, mushrooms, herbs, and spices. Supplement with dairy products, meats, and fishes as you like.
Keep calm and HODL #Bitcoin.
Everyone seems to be overreacting to the Samourai arrests, the FBI PSA, and Phoenix leaving the US. Here's my attempt to break it down.
Samourai
You have to unpack all of the different elements. Could this be a state attack on self-custody and privacy? Maybe. Probably not.
There are a few components here that need to be evaluated on their own.
1⃣ Samourai was a self-custodial wallet
2⃣ Samourai was a mixer
3⃣ Samourai was providing normal people with privacy
4⃣ Samourai were knowingly marketing the service to criminals and flaunting that fact
Reading the charges, it seems like #4 is pretty cut and dry for this case. Their getting arrested for #4, doesn't automatically mean #1, #2, #3 are under siege as well. If Samourai was a taco stand laundering money and bragging about it, I'm sure they would be taken down too.
They may be accused of running a money transmitter now, but that may or may not stick. We'll find out in the trial.
All that said, we should always be vigilant to attempts to erode privacy and the ability to self-custody. It just does not seem that this fight is *that* fight.
FBI PSA
Seems pretty normal that the FBI would advise people to use compliant services, and the entire announcement seems to revolve around potential disruptions due to Samourai being taken down, and potentially others in the future. Given they took action, they have to post some bulletin about it.
Remember that when people lose funds or have funds stolen from them, they do go to the FBI for help. From their point of view, the best thing for people to do is use compliant services where they can potentially help.
The announcement concludes saying that services that purposely break the law will be investigated - so again we go back to #4 above. This is nothing new, and self-custody is not being criminalized.
Phoenix Leaving
As nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m said, it's feels completely unnecessary. Phoenix obviously is not a MSB and they are not doing anything illegal. In my view, their exit from the US app stores is a complete overreaction.
Keep Calm
Could "they" come after wallets, developers, mixers, nodes, LSPs, sidechains, eCash, VPNs, encryption, etc? It's totally possible. But if you're not breaking the law, you have nothing to worry about.
To my knowledge, there is still rule of law in the US, property rights are still protected, and privacy is enshrined in the Bill of Rights (nostr:npub1trr5r2nrpsk6xkjk5a7p6pfcryyt6yzsflwjmz6r7uj7lfkjxxtq78hdpu).
It would be very difficult to change the law or stretch it to incriminate these things because it's all just information and software, which is speech. Some will try. But as they are trying, #Bitcoin is becoming more and more mainstream and integral to the world's financial system.
#Bitcoin is freedom technology and it will continue on.
Go outside this weekend and think about why you're here.
In it's press release the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, doesn't say anything about self custody wallet, mixer, privacy, or marketing to criminals.
Samourai co-founders were charged "with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. These charges arise from the defendants’ development, marketing, and operation of a cryptocurrency mixer that executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering transactions from illegal dark web markets, such as Silk Road and Hydra Market; a web-server intrusion; a spearphishing scheme; and schemes to defraud multiple decentralized finance protocols."
It's about money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting business.
'You made shit about nostr and the fbi ended up using your twitter DMs against you, just glorious, with Nostr it wouldn't have happened."
Why wouldn't it happened with nostr? Notes are public.
Now that the FBI has seized the servers, we should assume they have conjoins history.
Covering your face when going to conferences won't prevent law enforcement from finding out your real identity. Opsec theater.
Bitcoin is not a business. Their are no representative promoting it for criminal activities.
Samourai is a business. There are people running that business. Those people are identifiable. They promoted their services to avoid sanctions to Russian oligarchs. The US is engaged in a proxi war with Russia.
They knew their service was used for criminal activities, why make it worste by welcoming Russian oligarchs looking to circumvent senctiond.
To use your expression, they fucked themselves over.
No different agencies have different classifications for Bitcoin.
FinCEN views Bitcoin as a currency.
The CFTC regards Bitcoin as a commodity.
The SEC considers Bitcoin as a security.
The IRS determine that Bitcoin is a property.
It doesn't mention self-custody wallets.
But by facilitating coinjoins, they were facilitating the transfer of money between the coinjoin participants.
Node operators routing lighting payments are also money transmitting businesses.
Regardless, as an unlicenced money transmitting business, they had to do it.
Sure, regulations are an artificial creation. But we are still living by them and they are sanctions if we don't. They influence how we live our life. Every aspect of our life is regulated. So they are very much a reality.
PS: Don't forget to report your Bitcoin transactions to the IRS?
Legal structures are dictating the technological landscape. It would be very different without regulations.
Technology facilitate financial surveillance and reduces costs overtime. They are very smart people working on both.
As for the copyright issues: people have migrated from the physical media to streaming services. Napster didn't last long. Torrent, is it still a thing? Haven't heart about it in decades.
Most economical activities involve at least one register business. Businesses have no incentive to ignore regulations.
There will be casualties like Tornado Cash devs, Bitcoin Fog user and Samourai founders, and like with copyright, new technologies and businesses will emerge, and they will be regulated.
Samourai though regulations didn't apply to them and that they had insulated themselves from regulations but Samourai "slammed into reality" a few day ago.
It's not about "fucking your own population", it's about common sense.
If you are already a target by the nature of your service, don't make it worse by telling people they can avoid sanctions with it.
Don't be surprised if the DOJ looks into you after you invite Russian oligarchs to avoid sanctions by using your service.
You don't go on podcasts, or to conferences, and you don't post incriminating evidence on social media!
Welcoming Russian oligarchs to circumvent sanctions, not a smart move.
Financial surveillance and taxes are not going away. Samourai "slammed into reality" a few day ago.
zksnacks is now prohibiting US citizens from using its coinjoin coordinator.
https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/zksnacks-now-blocking-u-s-residents-and-citizens/
Logical move. Stay safe.
BREAKING: zkSNACKs Coordinator is Now Blocking US Residents and Citizens
"In light of recent announcements by U.S. authorities, zkSNACKs is now strictly prohibiting U.S. users from using its services. An IP address blocking for U.S. residents is effective on wasabiwallet.io, api.wasabiwallet.io and zksnacks.com."
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/zksnacks-is-now-blocking-u-s-residents-and-citizens/
That was expected.
Welcoming Russian oligarchs,smart move!
