When given the choice between: absolutely provable mathematical scarcity and probabilistic privacy, or absolutely provable privacy and probabilistic scarcity... I will choose provable scarcity every time. 21 million!

Monero isn't a shitcoin or a scam, its just fundamentally flawed.

Base layer needs to be optimized for hardness then use layers to achieve privacy.

Monero doing it backwards.

As far as I know, it has a dynamic block size, which is detrimental to decentralization because it can delay node validation.

ASIC-resistance is the most foolish part of monero.

It’s better to have your wealth in nearly anything other than government backed paper. So even if you actively hate cryptocurrencies or something buy gold and silver, if you hate gold and silver, buy canned foods and ammo. Buy a mix of all them even if you like them all. Everyone needs to abandon this nonsense paper backed by nothing BS. There isn’t an excuse at this point. You have options you just aren’t using them.

#bitcoin #monero #gold #silver #ammo

So alot of the “argument against dero seems to be that its to good to be true which is what i thought and it actually isnt its quite crazy if you get into it and the community is picking up fast alot is getting done (dex, nft marketplace, mobile wallet ect. All done by community. Also like 5 months ago the foundation opened up alot more to community pull req which has been great, my main cons with dero are the premine which from what I’ve observed over the course of a year is that they have been very good about dishing it out to the community when it is deserved and the website and whitepaper situation is abysmal i cant defend that but you just gotta get into it yourself try interacting with a few things its quiet the surprise

And there's a reason monero has been losing value against Bitcoin basically since inception. It traded soundness for privacy. Bad tradeoff.

The signal among the noise

Ethereum

Bcash

#Bitcoin ✅

Litecoin

Worldcoin

Monero

Tron

Instagram

Twitter/X

Snapchat

#Nostr ✅

Tick Tock

Mastodon

Choose wisely

Speaking of SimpleX, in my life this app was a total failure.

I convinced someone getting an alternative to WhatsApp, so we could talk to each other, since I don't support WhatsApp.

What's happened is, that the person installed SimpleX & uninstalled it within 24 hours, because it drained tons of battery compared to how the person was used to battery drain.

Basically, I lost one opportunity, because SimpleX was no sufficient alternative.

I think I even reported the issue & then realised, this was a huge problem, which was going on for a long while & they still hadn't fixed it by then.

So, again, not sure why SimpleX is so hyped. In my experience it sucked ass. Do people actually use it outside, without constantly charging the phone? :D

Temporary phone number means, that you have no ownership of it & it is inherently insecure. Having a phone number is already bad enough, but not having & using a temporary one is really bad. Every following Code/PIN will be sent to a phone number literally anyone could use at that moment. So, if there's account recovery via phone number possible, which most services definitely offer, you basically offer anyone the possibility to steal your account with potentially compromising data.

To me, temporary phone numbers are absolutely useless, except you need a throwaway phone number for a lottery or some other bullshit you'll never use anyway. For a private(!) messenger I would never use a phone number. Let alone a temporary one, anyone can have access to, at some point.

Yes, I think you're right about everything you say.

But if you can't convince the people you talk with to switch over it is kind of moot. That is why I was trying to figure out the most practical way of going about using Signal for this scenaro. What is the point of gettig SimpleX if you have no one to use it with (I still use SimpleX where I can for any communities on there)

But again I agree 100% with everything you say.

Second thing is, why use a service with a phone number, if you have so many easier alternatives available?

You talk about VPNs, Tor, Bitcoin, etc... Why make life so hard?

There are so many instant messengers, which don't require shit.

For example, XMPP is dead easy to set up. Have already set it up for several people with no technical knowledge at all (you can be lucky, if they find the on/off button on a device) & it works without any hassle.

Now, enable OMEMO & you get free encryption without any effort. You usually don't even need to press a button, because it's usually enabled by default.

There are tons of XMPP servers, which don't care about your account, at all. & even in some weird scenario, where they do, you can switch accounts within minutes, by just choosing an alternative server.

Simple & way less difficult & time-consuming than your Signal journey over three oceans. :P

Thanks!!

Spending off chain with LN is plenty private for almost all use cases, most data leaked is on the receiving side. It isn't difficult to manage this simply through segregation and compartmentalization, of everything, not just your transactions and coin of choice. More data is exposed through your phones, IP addresses, browsers, etc. than is exposed with off chain transactions. Spending from a phone registered in your name, an IP service paid with by a CC, while in the home address registered ass your legal address makes your privacy with even Monero an illusion.

In the end, ONLY good Op Sec, treating secrecy as secuity in ALL things can lead to Anonymity, which matters more than data privacy. It is Control, not Title that matters, these practices must be carried over into the paper and physical realms too. Smart money use registered LLC, Corporate, and Trustee agents as special purpose vehicles for Titling real assets, the same as smart Bitcoiners do with Blue Wallet, Sparrow, and Cold Card.

Yes, I agree the phone number requirement is not ideal, and there are better alternatives like SimpleX that are technically superior. But say your friends and family all use Signal: As a hypothetical, what would be the best way to go about using Signal for them?

"There are no burner numbers."

I just provided a few links above to grab a temp phone number to use to verify Signal, almost no account info required, using a fake email, and you can pay with coinjoined Bitcoin or Monero. Anyone in the world can use it. If done correctly behind tor, or at least a good VPN, it seems like it would be pretty anonymous. And once you set a Signal pin for that phone number no one should be able to use that phone number again to register on Signal. In theory at least.

So, the way I understand it, Signal is very private cryptographically, just not anonymous because of the phone number requirement. But they seem to help obfuscate who is messaging who using another cryptographic technique they call "sealed sender" to break up the connection graph. But this is just my understanding I don't know if it is correct and am not an expert on this stuff. That's why I asked if you or anyone else could give me some insight.

I would stay away from all services requiring a phone number, because this system is already broken & it won't come back. There are also luckily plenty of alternatives to Instant Messengers, which require phone numbers, like Signal.

For example, you say "burner number", so you might hail from the USA or some other country with similar laws.

If you are in the EU, you are screwed.

There are no burner numbers.

The only way to get a "burner" number is to get someone else to register the number. However, even then you're screwed, because the number will deactivate once you stop wasting money on that phone number. So, once you pay cash into the number, they already can track who's the actual user of the phone number now.

Or if you let someone else cash in, they can ask at least two people to expose you. First, the number seller, second the one who cashed in.

Therefore, numbers in the EU for example are already entirely broken & unfixable, because no government will make them less controllable & more free, ever.

Which is why using a burner number is not an international option, if you don't want to exclude a big part of an entire continent.

I was referring to physical vendors (P2P). For gift cards I’d rather buy one from Walmart in cash.

I would love to know as well. I am getting curous about Monero now for its privacy features.