You are right, only actions matter.
I get it, the user interface of a degoogled phone may be the same. That's not my concern.
But is it "easy" to make the switch?
Well, perhaps I'm missing something, I'd love to be wrong, but it seems to me that Graphene OS or Calyx OS works on Pixel phones only, and I don't have a phone like this right now, and they are unavailable where I live, at least not easily available and a cost to buy one if not trivial to me.
Is there an OS that will work on wide range of devices? I have a phone that is 3 years old, running Android 11 today.
I got Alby extension to work on mobile on Firefox.
I even sent some sats to Alby wallet and sent some zaps from it via Primal and Snort via Alby extension.
That worked. It's actually incredible to see how I can use the same identity in different apps.
I logged in to Listr using Alby. Another success.
But I don't know how to copy someone's list still...
I tried, I found Derek, but I don't know how to copy his list...
The main project hasn't received a meaningful update since 2022.
One of the more active forks however is Helium314's:
https://github.com/Helium314/openboard
There are some changes from the main openboard project listed on the main page.
Thank you, very promising, on a first glance.
They say this is still a beta, and do fdroid release yet. I guess I'll wait a bit more.
Ultimately, yes.
But, for a long time the truth may be shadowed by a falsehood, unfortunately.
And, your point presupposes, and I agree, that the objective, absolute truth actually exists and is knowable.
I got this from Ayn Rand.
Great to hear
Looking forward to having Strike in Europe
I hope EU regulations will not make it impossible or unprofitable for you
Thank you, great, I will try when I'm at my PC.
From the phone, Listr requires a sign-in with extension and I don't have any working extension on mobile.
I'm not even sure if there is any.
Another question... in my quest to gradually migrate to a freedom tech...
"Open board", an open source keyboard for Android, that will hopefully not spy on me and not send everything I type to Google...
https://github.com/openboard-team/openboard
What do you think?
Trustworthy?
Worth installing?
(I'm not ready to move to Graphene or Calyx)
(You could argue that as long as I use stock Android, Google anyway controls my device and may soy on me anyway)
nostr:npub14slk4lshtylkrqg9z0dvng09gn58h88frvnax7uga3v0h25szj4qzjt5d6
nostr:npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424
Your thoughts?
Thank you.
I see that you are following 1300 npubs 😃
Do you know if there is a way, in Amethyst or any other Nostr app, to automatically start following everyone who someone else is following?
Like, if I wanted to copy your following list...
Great question.
To really answer it, I think we would have to precisely define what do we mean by the "peak as species".
And for sure it can have many vectors, like number of people not in poverty globally, number of deaths due to violence, number, or percentage of, people globally living in relatively and reasonably free countries, technical innovations, philosophical innovations like in ethics... so many ways to look at this.
I struggle with this assessment myself.
Per many official statistics, we live in a better world now than 30 years ago.
On many, many other fronts, it feels worse to me, and getting worse.
But we have hope. Bitcoin and freedom tech.
At the end, at the root, I think there is what ideas and philosophy people have.
And it's not impossible that it is priced in
We simply don't know
I'm careful not to be overly optimistic
I don't count in getting rich overnight just because they approve the ETF
After all, indeed, there have been ways for investors to invest in Bitcoin, or at least get a price exposure, already
We will see
Of course I hope for the best, but I don't count on it
Do you trust and recommend the "uBlock Origin" Firefox extension?
Open source
Extension signed by Mozilla
Looks safe, right?
But still, technically it can read all my data on all websites...
Thoughts?
nostr:npub14slk4lshtylkrqg9z0dvng09gn58h88frvnax7uga3v0h25szj4qzjt5d6
so, you're a new nostrich that's graduated out of #introductions and now you're looking to learn a bit more about relays. did you know that you can run your own relay? this mediumly simple task allows you to harness the true power of nostr by putting you in charge of your social graph.
what exactly does that mean? it just means that you'll be able to control your social data - your notes, your contacts, your events, all of it. this prevents you from being rugged or censored. this puts you in control. pretty cool, eh?
you have several options and i'll list a few of them here for you:
if you're a bitcoiner, you may be running a "node" at home. if this is the case, then you already have some of the tools available to you. umbrel, mynode, and start9 all offer one click to install solutions for nostr relays.
umbrel: https://w3.do/ScRzQT2U
mynode: https://w3.do/1yPlc3RX
start9: https://w3.do/-GL2ifVz
if you don't have a node or aren't running one of the above platforms, you can get started by installing these operating systems on existing hardware - from used computers, to used laptops, to newly built machines or even raspberry pis.
if you have dedicated hardware and you're a bit on the tech savvy side, you can go a tiny bit deeper and manually install your nostr relay. you can choose between several relay implementations here, such as nostream or strfry.
nostream: https://w3.do/1E07DCyf
strfry: https://w3.do/7kKoYwtl
if you don't have dedicated hardware at home and you're a bit tech savvy, then you'll surely know that you can also buy a virtual server on a cloud provider's infrastructure. the options of providers here are nearly endless.
if all of this seems like a different language for you and seems over your head, but you still want to run a personal relay for yourself, your family, or your local community, have no fear, a solution still exists for you. you can visit a dedicated relay provider and purchase a relay with just a few clicks of a mouse button.
Relaying: https://w3.do/FqvChHmV
do you have to run a relay? no! you do not! this is a task that isn't for everyone. this is only for those that want to be sovereign over their own social data.
if you have any questions, feel free to ask here and either myself or another knowledgeable nostrich will help out.
Great note. Thanks. Added to bookmarks.
Are you saying that Google can see my nsec if I run Amethyst on Android?
Are you saying that Google can see the private key of any online wallet app I run on Android?
I mean, I guess, indeed, if they own the operating system, then technically this is not impossible...
But...
It can be challenging to convince people to abandon tyranny technology
One of our readers wrote the following about why should he bother switching from Google products. We will try to convince him otherwise. He said:
“I keep thinking, to what extent does it matter that Google will know my interests to show me targeted ads? I don’t care, I actually prefer to see relevant ads if I have to see ads”
First of all, you don't have to see ads. If you use uBlock Origin browser extension or Brave Browser for example you won’t see them. Another option is a DNS block on Google. Even with a regular stock android any of these options work.
Second, you assume that the advertiser will charge you a fair price regardless. Our previous article on browser fingerprints, demonstrated from numerous academic sources that many retailers will abuse their knowledge about you to charge a higher price. For example Target charged a higher price on the mobile app when shoppers were physically closer to a store, because alternatives were much less convenient. Other examples include airlines knowing you will buy tickets because you checked the flight multiple times, and then jacking it up for you. You can find this article here:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/browser-fingerprints-lead-to-price-discrimination/
He continues: “That Google will delete my account one day because they dislike something I said online? That would be bad, but by far less likely and, I can protect myself from this, I think, simply by having backups of my data and an email address in my own domain, using proton mail or alike, right?”
Yes, that’s exactly what we’re saying. Google can and will ban you for speech they dislike and by heavily using their services, you’ve become dependent on their will. This isn’t just about privacy, but it’s about power and self-sovereignty.
Now you might say, “oh well I’m not speaking out, and I’m not a controversial public influencer”. But what today may be normal speech or actions, may change in the future. For example, 10 years ago, would you have thought you might be forced to take a vaccine to enter a restaurant? Who knows what drugs future Google will require for accounts you’ve become dependent on.
He continues:
“What else can Google do to me? Denounce me to a dystopian government for being interested in Bitcoin, do that they can try to confiscate it? Sure but, first of all, hopefully extremely unlikely, and secondly, it’s “too late” already. I’m signed up in Gmail to many Bitcoin newsletters. They already know.”
If your Bitcoin can be taken, what is even the purpose of it? That sounds like a bank account, and Google can see all private keys kept on Android. So you never really own self-custody Bitcoin with Google, you only have temporary access.
It’s not unrealistic to think the government will confiscate your Bitcoin or try to do ridiculous tax hikes such as unrealized capital gains. Not only are people such as Elizabeth Warren actively pushing for this in Congress, but past precedent has shown the steps governments will take when their currency experiences heavy devaluation.
For example, in 1933 FDR confiscated Americans gold . Another example is India literally going door-to-door to confiscate cash, to force people in digital surveillance. Yet another recent example is in Nigeria, the forced CBDC program, which tried to end physical cash.
The idea that they “already know” and therefore you should never change is ridiculous. The knowledge about your past activity becomes less and less relevant, the sooner you stop surrendering all future data to a malicious surveillance firm such as Google. Bitcoin can be sent to an empty wallet on a Linux computer or DeGoogled phone and now you “don’t have it anymore” in the eyes of the empire.
There’s the old expression of the boiling frogs. That if you turn up the heat suddenly, they hop out. But if you slowly dial it up, they boil to death, not realizing there’s a way out.
Then again, you may not know about this example if Google AI is deciding everything you see.
Thank you.
You made me think.
OK, Google has never seen my private keys.
I use a cold wallet on a device that has never been online, and never will be.
So, they cannot confiscate it "just like that".
However, I have just realized, or rather, you have made me realize, the Bitcoin I buy every week , I'm sending it, every few months, from my hot wallet, a Blue Wallet app on Android, to my cold wallet.
Is there a possibility that Google knows the addresses I'm sending my Bitcoin to? By somehow monitoring, via Android, what the Blue Wallet app is doing? Or by monitoring my traffic?
If true, what can I do? If I use a Linux PC with a Sparrow wallet on it, sign a transaction offline, to send my Bitcoin to myself, from my cold wallet to the next address in the same wallet, and send my utxos to it, perhaps in a few transactions, not to consolidate them all in one go - would that work?
Then, when they come for my Bitcoin, I can say, plausible deniability, that I sent it to someone or lost my key and someone took it. And nobody will know that the address I sent it to was my own address, right? Unless they know my private key, which they cannot know.
Right?
Damn, maybe I'm paranoid, but the wallet online app on Android knows my cold wallet xpub. I added a watch-only wallet to it.
Does that mean that theoretically Google may know all my future addresses? And so the only way is to create a new wallet with a new private key?
Overall, thanks again and, yes, I think you can add me to the list of people you convinced :-)
And scared a bit.
It's a difficult topic.
I keep wondering about it, too.
Probably no self hosted solution is going to be as convenient and user friendly as big tech.
But they spy on us and can delete our accounts whenever they want or give our data to a dystopian government.
On the other end of the spectrum, self hosted next cloud on your own hardware, its a significant work, not only to install, but also maintenance, backups, upgrades, troubleshooting if an upgrade breaks it.
Are there any middle ground options?
Proton drive perhaps?
Use Google drive but upload encrypted files only, so they don't know what that is, only as a backup? (of course this will not work for sharing pictures online)
What else?
Thanks.
I wish I waited for this.
