🕊️
so your response is to completely avoid answering the question. thanks for the info.
No, but it's part of due diligence and makes them look stupid when you write an article about it
Lying in bed, eating a block of cheese, sending emails to senators 💅
The incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is widely celebrated as leading the way for the "most pro-crypto treasury in history".
Here's the first and so far only time Bessent brings up 'digital currencies' in his ongoing confirmation hearing – in conjunction with terrorist financing.
If someone who publicly holds the positions that internet privacy is bad, US citizens don't deserve a lawyer when accused of terrorism, the NSA surveilling all communications is a good thing, and that free speech should be limited – all of which are issues directly touching on your financial privacy – endorses a candidate as a "home run" for secretary of treasury, does that signal to you that this a candidate that would be favorable to protect your constitutional rights? Or would this rather signal to you that this is an individual that may share said positions?
Incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is introduced in his Senate confirmation hearing by infamous warhawk Lindsey Graham, who says of Bessent that his nomination is a "home run" for America.
Bessent says that if confirmed, he will use his position to invoke sanctions that strengthen US national security and protect the US Dollar as the world reserve currency.
You guys aren't ready for what's coming.
Some of you may have missed it, but there's a new Bitcoin Bill in town – this time in Oklahoma.
While room temperature IQ bros are busy lobbying for the federal government to buy bitcoin, Oklahoma member of the Senate Dusty Deevers introduced the Bitcoin Freedom Act that actually works to protect Bitcoin and its users from Government overreach.
Not only does the Bill formalize for merchants to accept bitcoin as payment – it also exempts non-custodial services from requiring money transmitter licenses and protects their operators from Bank Secrecy Act applications.
The Bitcoin Freedom Act "ensures that participation is entirely voluntary, respecting free-market principles and empowering employees, employers, and businesses to choose the payment options that work best for them."
Fuck the snake Lummis and her lobby bros selling you their NGU schemes as some pseudo-game theoretic 5D chess moves to protect your privacy. *This* is legislation that Bitcoin needs.
hmmmm interesting, what do i do about this
I want to talk about something that some people may find offensive, and that I can’t talk about on Twitter to not get shadow banned as I have to rely on reach for my work.
The first time I attended Chaos Computer Congress was over 15 years ago. It had the best parties in town, and we would sneak in for the nightlife.
As I rekindled my interest in politics, computers and the internet, I became more aligned with the CCC’s mission: hacking the planet to hold power to account.
While I was already disappointed with some of the CCC’s policies – particularly on things like COVID and Bitcoin – this year was the first time that I seriously lost hope for and trust in the CCC as an institution – starting with its opening speech.
The CCC’s opening speech sets the theme for the event. This year, it was dedicated to the global rise of fascism. Speakers talked about Germany’s protests against the far-right AFD, about Donald Trump, LGBTQ and abortions, and pro-democracy protests in countries like Georgia.
But not a single word was lost to the genocide in Palestine.
Checking the CCC’s schedule, I merely found a single talk on Palestine, which explicitly made clear that it did not take a stance on whether Israel was right or wrong in its operations.
There were still a lot of great talks at the congress, and many assemblies showed their solidarity, but this complete lack of mention is what really stood out for me.
To understand what a hackers congress has to do with genocide, we need to take an uncomfortable look at Nazi Germany.
What enabled the Holocaust 80 years ago was not just a bunch of bloodthirsty eugenicist maniacs high on ungodly amounts of speed and their fascist ideologies. It was the streamlining of exploitation and murder to never before seen efficiency, with the help of new, more efficient technologies.
It is these same advancements in technology that are fueling the genocide in Palestine today. It’s surveillance on an unprecedented scale, evermore invasive spyware, AI enabled targeting and automated drone warfare.
You can think of Palestine what you want, but this technology is being exported from Palestine to the rest of the world today.
It’s facial recognition systems and license plate scanners that Israel uses to enforce apartheid that you’ll soon see scanning your biometrics for your next flight on holidays, or your car on your next trip to work.
It’s spyware companies that test their products to soon sell them to governments around the world targeting activists, journalists and opposition.
It’s psychological warfare utilizing dating sites like Grindr to social engineer Palestinians into spying on their peers and extort their sexual preferences.
Just last month, the a16z portfolio company Skydio, which is a major Israeli military contractor, was caught providing its surveillance drones to Yale University to monitor and track student protestors.
Some of you may find this topic uncomfortable as it may not align with your political views.
But the reality remains that the genocide in Palestine is a testing ground for never before seen surveillance tech that will soon be used on you. And the world’s most renowned hackers are silent.
The UN just approved the UN Cybercrime Treaty, a drastic global surveillance law that gives UN member states the ability to freeze assets in other countries
I'm too tired to explain, so here's an overview 👇 longer post coming next week
Zap so I can hire help
https://www.therage.co/un-cybercrime-convention-bank-secrecy/
Last week, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Cybercrime Convention – a global treaty to formalize the cooperation of law enforcement agencies between UN member states, that officially voids bank secrecy laws.
Here's what this means for you:
When other countries want to access your financial information for law enforcement investigations, they currently have two primary methods to rely on.
First, there's information sharing via the Egmont Group: a global consortium of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), which allow countries to request financial data for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing investigations from other FIUs. A similar program already exists within the UN, called goAML – a database to share financial information.
Data shared via the Egmont Group is highly confidential and for investigative purposes only, i.e. not allowed to be used in court.
To legally act on the information obtained, countries have mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs), which require law enforcement agencies to cooperate with each other for example in the seizure of assets.
Under the UK-US MLAT, if the UK receives a request by the US to freeze or seize a person's assets due to a money laundering investigation, the UK is required to oblige by the US' requests, and vice-versa.
In contrast, for example, the UK currently does not have an MLAT with China. While both are parties to the UN, and some cooperation agreements for UN member states already exist, the UK may currently tell China to fuck off if it requests the seizure of assets held in the UK.
The UN Cybercrime Convention essentially functions as a UN-wide MLAT. The only prerequisite to the Convention is that the crime a country requests assistance in is also a crime in the country it requests assistance from.
With the UN's Cybercrime Convention, China, and any other UN member state, may now request other countries to freeze, seize, and forfeit assets on behalf of the requesting country – MLAT or not.
The Convention is now expected to be ratified by UN member states, and it's an absolute nightmare for the security of your funds, putting you at risk of asset seizures through authoritarian regimes – no matter what country you are in.
https://www.therage.co/un-cybercrime-convention-bank-secrecy/
Switzerland has had the travel rule since 2020. Next time try reading the article.
Me, every time the Government tells me to do something
HOW TO HACK A CONSTITUTION
Talk on the Right to Digital Integrity at #38c3 (starts at 1:36:00) 👇
https://www.youtube.com/live/dGWRYMU353Y?feature=shared&t=5706
Good point, thats not more complicated than it was before at all!
Good morning! It's January 3rd, which means its not your keys, not your coins day.
Unfortunately, this year the EU has decided to make withdrawing from exchanges a hell of a lot harder by extending FATF's Travel Rule to digital assets.
The FATF Travel Rule is not just a remarkable shitshow for your financial privacy and security – it's also a law to which authorities appear to have no data on its effectiveness to prevent financial crime.
What this means for you: If you want to withdraw funds exceeding €1.000, you'll need to prove that you own the address you are intending to withdraw to to your custodian.
It also means that exchanges are required to forward your personal information, including things like your name and address, to any custodian you are transacting with, and that an exchange may collect information on whom you are sending funds to and whom you are receiving funds from.
The Travel Rule does not just make withdrawing from exchanges harder, as custodians will need to employ third party software, employ a signing protocol like AOPP, or have you conduct a micro transaction to the custodian before making your transfer.
It also poses an incredible risk to your financial privacy and security, as your KYC info will not just be stored with a custodian you trust, but with any custodian you transact with – increasing the risks of hacks and identity theft.
In its current form, the Travel Rule has been mandatory in tradfi in the EU since 2012 – But nobody seems to know whether it actually works to prevent money laundering or not.
That's why I filed a FOIA request with German authorities last month, requesting data on all money laundering convictions in Germany since 2008.
Interestingly, the Ministry of the Interior responsible for national security and overseeing Germany's law enforcement, responded that it had no such information - instead asking me to file FOIA Requests with the German Ministry of Finance, the German Customs Authority, as well as with every public prosecutors office...
...which means that the updated Travel Rule is the extension of a law to whichs effectiveness law enforcement appears to have no data.
(FOIA Response in picture translated with ChatGPT)
Full Story:
This is a nostr appreciation post to start the new year. I don’t think any of us are ready for how this thing can change the media.
No more algorithms doesn’t just mean that you get to control what you see – it also means that journalists like me can directly interact with their readers to get real feedback on how their content is perceived, without collecting anyones data.
Lots of posts of mine do terribly on Twitter but do very well on nostr – simply because the algorithm disfavors them for using a wrong word, format or hashtag. Other posts don’t do well on either – telling me that I need to get better at explaining things. Quality feedback like this is the holy grail for any journalist because it makes us better at what we do, and it’s impossible to achieve on the manipulation sites.
And for the zaps – it’s the only mechanism I have seen that actually discourages having a paywall. People *will* and *do* spend money on content they appreciate; not because they are forced to, but because they value what other people have created. This simply doesn’t work when what you make is hidden for a payment in advance scheme that requires you to setup an account and make new passwords for every page.
Journalists, just like artists, don't create stuff because they want to get rich (maybe some do, but that's a pretty stupid strategy). We create things because its physically impossible for us not to. Knowing that someone is willing to spend their sats on your work is the best feedback you can get.
Call me crazy but nostr doesn’t just make media more free. It makes it better. Bullish on what's to come 🎆
Hi, there's companies building specialized compliance software for this, see https://sumsub.com/travel-rule/
GM again
nostr:nprofile1qqsd3fhv7rped64g77dyf9l7ndmae9mkxdz37099cc6wyzr9jytxg7cpr9mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctv9uq3wamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwdehhxarj9e3xzmny9uq32amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7tcj0d0xq there seems to be an issue on the Geyser page linked from the Rage blog. I get a 404 if I click the link to contribute. 
Hey! Strange, that seems to happen sometimes nostr:npub1kmwdmhuxvafg05dyap3qmy42jpwztrv9p0uvey3a8803ahlwtmnsnhxqk9 – works for me both via "support the rage" on the homepage as well as donation link in the last article; are you reffering to the "support the rage" link on the homepage?