Chainalysis uses the fee structure to analyze monero transactions. I thought using the fees hardcoded into monero-gui should be fine, but x0.2 does not show up at all, x200 is less used than x100 (even though not available in the gui, but x200 is).

I guess these fee multipliers are used by other wallets a lot.

Is x1 the safest to use? Is the gitter in between caused by "automatic" transaction priority? Would it increase privacy to sync fee structures between different clients?

Very insightful interview from Whitney Webb (last part of the show). We are already starting to see the same pattern that we’ve seen with Trump’s first term where Trump surrounds himself with deep state figures to advance the surveillance state agenda. At which point liberty-minded Trump supporters will start questioning the role played by Trump?

https://www.youtube.com/live/8BqVnOu1WBs

Hey everyone,

Von der Leyen just secured a second term as EC President, and I'm beyond frustrated. Let's break this down:

1. Privacy nightmare:

• Pushing for Chat Control: Goodbye, digital privacy! This move threatens to undermine end-to- end encryption, making our private conversations vulnerable.

• eID System: This essentially paves the way for mass surveillance, linking our digital identity to nearly every online activity.

• Data Retention Revival: Trying to bring back data retention ignores the EU Court of Justice's stance on its incompatibility with fundamental rights.

• Europol's Mass Data Collection: Europol gets a free pass to collect massive amounts of data without sufficient oversight. This is a dangerous precedent.

• AI Act and Biometric Surveillance: Supporting biometric mass surveillance within the framework of AI regulation is a direct path to an Orwellian society.

2. Corruption allegations:

• Shady Pfizer Vaccine Deal: A €35 billion deal with Pfizer, shrouded in secrecy. Why are we not demanding transparency here?

• Refusing to Disclose Texts with Pfizer CEO: Transparency shouldn't be optional, especially in public health matters.

• EU Courts vs. Von der Leyen: EU courts have called her out for breaking the law. Why is this not a bigger deal?

• Piepergate: The controversy surrounding the EU Envoy is troubling and raises questions about integrity and accountability.

We deserve a leader who champions our rights as non-negotiable and upholds transparency as a fundamental duty, not one who treats our freedoms as expendable and accountability as an inconvenience.

What are your thoughts on this?

What will another five years of Von der Leyen bring us?

Sources:

Privacy:

European Digital Identity

Is eID Building Trust or Invading Privacy?

Heise Article about data retention (German)

Europol's Data Retention Critique

EDRi on the AI Act

Von der Leyen Rejects Criticism on Biometric Surveillance

Corruption:

PfizerGate Vaccine Scandal

EU's Top Court Rules Against the Commission

Politico on PfizerGate

Patrick Breyer on Digital Age Misunderstandings

Corporate Europe on Piepergate

We're happy to announce that BusKill is presenting at DEF CON 32.

What: Open Hardware Design for BusKill Cord When: 2024-08-10 12:00 - 13:45 Where: W303 – Third Floor – LVCC West Hall

| [!BusKill goes to DEF CON 32 (Engage)](https://www.buskill.in/defcon32/) | |:--:| | BusKill is presenting at DEF CON 32 |

via @Goldfishlaser@lemmy.ml

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

| [!What is BusKill? (Explainer Video)](https://www.buskill.in/#demo) | |:--:| | Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4 |

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

What is DEF CON?

DEF CON is a yearly hacker conference in Las Vegas, USA.

| [!DEF CON Documentary](https://www.buskill.in/defcon32/) | |:--:| | Watch the DEF CON Documentary for more info youtube.com/watch?v=3ctQOmjQyYg |

What is BusKill presenting at DEF CON?

I (goldfishlaser) will be presenting Open Hardware Design for BusKill Cord in a Demo Lab at DEF CON 32.

What: Open Hardware Design for BusKill Cord When: Sat Aug 10 12PM – 1:45PM Where: W303 – Third Floor – LVCC West Hall

Who: Melanie Allen (goldfishlaser) More info

Talk Description

BusKill is a Dead Man Switch triggered when a magnetic breakaway is tripped, severing a USB connection. I’ve written OpenSCAD code that creates a 3D printable file for plastic parts needed to create the magnetic breakaway. Should anyone need to adjust this design for variations of components, the code is parameterized allowing for easy customization. To assemble a BusKill Dead Man Switch cord you will need:

1. a usb-a extension cord,
2. a usb hard drive capable of being attached to a carabiner,
3. a carabiner,
4. the plastic pieces in this file,
5. a usb female port,
6. a usb male,
7. 4 magnets,
8. 4 pogo pins,
9. 4 pogo receptors,
10. wire,
11. 8 screws,
12. and BusKill software.

| [!Image of the Golden BusKill decoupler with the case off](https://www.buskill.in/defcon32/) | |:--:| | Golden DIY BusKill Print |

Full BOM, glossary, and assembly instructions are included in the github repository. The room holds approx. 70 attendees seated. I’ll be delivering 3 x 30 min presentations – with some tailoring to what sort of audience I get each time.

Meet Me @ DEF CON

If you'd like to find me and chat, I'm also planning to attend:

• ATL Meetup (DCG Atlanta Friday: 16:00 – 19:00 \| 236),
• Hacker Kareoke (Friday and Sat 20:00-21:00 \| 222),
• Goth Night (Friday: 21:00 – 02:00 \| 322-324),
• QueerCon Mixer (Saturday: 16:00-18:00 \| Chillout 2),
• EFF Trivia (Saturday: 17:30-21:30 \| 307-308), and
• Jack Rysider’s Masquerade (Saturday: 21:00 – 01:00 \| 325-327)

I hope to print many fun trinkets for my new friends, including some BusKill keychains.

| [!Image shows a collection of 3D-printed bottle openers and whistles that say "BusKill"](https://www.buskill.in/defcon32/) | |:--:| | Come to my presentation @ DEF CON for some free BusKill swag |

By attending DEF CON, I hope to make connections and find collaborators. I hope during the demo labs to find people who will bring fresh ideas to the project to make it more effective.

This post contains a canary message that's cryptographically signed by the official BusKill PGP release key

| [!BusKill Canary #008](https://www.buskill.in/canary-008/) | |:--:| | The BusKill project just published their Warrant Canary #008 |

For more information about BusKill canaries, see:

• <https://buskill.in/canary>

``` -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512

Status: All good Release: 2024-06-11 Period: 2024-06-01 to 2024-12-31 Expiry: 2025-01-31

Statements ==========

The BusKill Team who have digitally signed this file [1] state the following:

1. The date of issue of this canary is June 11, 2024.

2. The current BusKill Signing Key (2020.07) is

   E0AF FF57 DC00 FBE0 5635 8761 4AE2 1E19 36CE 786A

3. We positively confirm, to the best of our knowledge, that the integrity of our systems are sound: all our infrastructure is in our control, we have not been compromised or suffered a data breach, we have not disclosed any private keys, we have not introduced any backdoors, and we have not been forced to modify our system to allow access or information leakage to a third party in any way.

4. We plan to publish the next of these canary statements before the Expiry date listed above. Special note should be taken if no new canary is published by that time or if the list of statements changes without plausible explanation.

Special announcements =====================

None.

Disclaimers and notes =====================

This canary scheme is not infallible. Although signing the declaration makes it very difficult for a third party to produce arbitrary declarations, it does not prevent them from using force or other means, like blackmail or compromising the signers' laptops, to coerce us to produce false declarations.

The news feeds quoted below (Proof of freshness) serves to demonstrate that this canary could not have been created prior to the date stated. It shows that a series of canaries was not created in advance.

This declaration is merely a best effort and is provided without any guarantee or warranty. It is not legally binding in any way to anybody. None of the signers should be ever held legally responsible for any of the statements made here.

Proof of freshness ==================

04 Jun 24 14:10:16 UTC

Source: DER SPIEGEL - International (https://www.spiegel.de/international/index.rss) Fortress Europe: Migrants Abandoned on the Edge of the Sahara Israel-Gaza-Krieg: Menschenrechtler Aryeh Neier über Schuldfrage und Strafverfolgung (Kopie)

Source: NYT > World News (https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml) Middle East Crisis: Israeli Airstrikes Kill Iranian General in Syria Live Updates: India’s Election Results Suggest a Setback for Modi

Source: BBC News - World (https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/world/rss.xml) Shock for India's Modi as opposition set to slash majority Gaza ceasefire plan turns into deadly game of survival

Source: Bitcoin Blockchain (https://blockchain.info/q/latesthash) 000000000000000000014cd79802b29c1dcd7fc6debee1e3968cfc216b59bf16

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

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To view all past canaries, see:

• <https://www.buskill.in/category/Canary/>

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

| [!What is BusKill? (Explainer Video)](https://www.buskill.in/#demo) | |:--:| | Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4 |

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

> “It is completely absurd to inflict mass surveillance on the general public under the premise of fighting theft.”

> It comes at a cost to the privacy and civil liberties of the people of Britain.

I was kind of blown away to what length the developers go to ensure your communication is as safe/secure as possible (while still delivering a very useable app).

This is an interesting article for anyone trying to navigate the banking system and KYC rules that not only affect crypto but also the ACH fiat money transfer system.

2:21 – • Andrew Tate's Privacy & Freedom Lessons

4:32 - • Why You Should Fear Cybercrime

7:48 - • Paul Rosenberg: Of Anarchy and Abolition

11:58 - • Standard Notes: Model Privacy Software

18:32 - • Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons with Carey Parker

27:20 - • All About Linux w/ The Linux Experiment

33:03 - • Leaving Humanity: The Technocratic Worldview with Joe Doran

40:08 - • Intro to Monero: With Seth for Privacy

45:24 - • Samourai Wallet: Waging War on Fiat

49:21 - • Sparrow Wallet with Craig Raw

52:27 - • Tor Part I: History and Basic Features

56:30 - • What is Private Email? Andrew Milich from Skiff

58:17 - • Jayant Bhandari: The Empire Strikes Back

59:55 - • “An Unencrypted Hard Drive on Wheels:” Car Privacy with Andrea Amico

1:02:26 - • James Wesley, Rawles: Private Guns, Economic Collapse, and Survival

1:07:05 - • Bitcoin Privacy Reignited with BitcoinQnA

1:12:02 - • The Politics of Bitcoin (Zelko & Samourai Wallet)

Zero click “Triangulation” compromises Macs, iPods, iPads, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches at the hardware level.

edit: iPhone is the particular device focused on for the exploit documentation here, but the hardware vulnerability exists in all of the above.

> The right time to start protecting your digital privacy is before your trip […] The simplest and most reliable precaution against border searches is to reduce the amount of information that you carry across the border.

[!image](https://monero.town/pictrs/image/21c08bef-3967-4445-b9d2-9f0354ac14b7.webp "Click to Enlarge") *** > Sometimes law enforcement officials achieve so-called “consent” by being vague […] You can try to dispel this ambiguity by inquiring whether border agents are asking you or ordering you […] If an agent says it is a request only, you might politely but firmly decline to comply with the request. > > If you are a U.S. citizen, border agents cannot stop you from entering the country, even if you refuse to unlock your device, provide your device password, or disclose your social media information. However, agents may escalate the encounter if you refuse. > > If you elect to comply with a border agent’s order to unlock your device, provide your password, or disclose your social media information, you can inform the agent that you are complying under protest and that you do not consent. *** > It is possible that if you unlock your device, and agents then search your device, a court will rule that you consented to the search. […] As noted in Part 1, the best way to avoid an inadvertent “consent” to search is to decline to unlock your device, provide the device password, or provide any social media information. > > Technically, you don’t even need to admit that you know the password. > > If you believe that border agents violated your digital rights at the border, please contact EFF at borders@eff.org. *** See also:

• https://www.eff.org/document/eff-border-search-pocket-guide
• https://www.eff.org/issues/border-searches
• https://monero.town/post/402125 Fifth Circuit says law enforcement doesn’t need warrants to search phones at the border

> The fact that the issue was discovered by Google TAG suggests it was exploited by a nation-state actor or by a surveillance firm. > > As usual, Google did not publish details about the attacks exploiting the flaw in the wild.

See also: https://www.cert.europa.eu/publications/security-advisories/2023-100/ > This vulnerability also affects Chromium-based web browser such as Microsoft Edge [3], Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi.

>privacy has nothing to do with having something to hide. Instead, privacy means protecting the human being that you are, all the personal details that make you, you. What you care about, what you love, what you hate, what you are curious about, what makes you laugh, what you fear. And most importantly, choosing when you decide to share that information and who you share it with.

>it is possible to build technology used by millions of people with privacy at the heart. We build technology to advance that right in order to help users reclaim their agency in digital spaces.

(But by default, Tor Browser is not shipped with uBlock Origin.)

PS: ONION LINK http://pzhdfe7jraknpj2qgu5cz2u3i4deuyfwmonvzu5i3nyw4t4bmg7o5pad.onion/tor-in-2023/index.html

NOTE: This is about the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination after a search warrant for someone’s cell phone is procured; not about digital privacy in general at the U.S. Border (a warrantless search).

See also: https://monero.town/post/1134494 EFF to Supreme Court: Fifth Amendment Protects People from Being Forced to Enter or Hand Over Cell Phone Passcodes to the Police

>Now before the House, HR 6570 proposes to reauthorize Section 702 for three years — but with reforms including requiring all US intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before conducting a US person query.

>a competing bill, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023 (HR 6611), doesn't include a warrant requirement — and, in fact, includes language that many worry could be used to force private US companies into assisting in government-directed surveillance

> House Intelligence Committee bill would also expand the definition of an electronic communication service provider include a broader range of providers, including those who “provide hardware through which people communicate on the Internet.”

See also: Tell Congress: They Must Defeat HPSCI’s Horrific Surveillance Bill | EFF Action Center

> Bis zum Jahr 2030 will die EU allen Bürger:innen eine „European Digital Identity Wallet“ (ID-Wallet) zur Verfügung stellen. Sie soll on- wie offline bei Verwaltungsgängen und Bankgeschäften, aber auch bei Arztbesuchen, Alterskontrollen oder beim Internetshopping zum Einsatz kommen.

(By 2030, the EU wants to provide all citizens with a “European Digital Identity Wallet” (ID wallet). It is intended to be used online and offline for administrative procedures and banking as well as medical visits, age verification, and internet shopping.)

The article (in German) is mostly about eIDAS 45\ Cf. https://monero.town/post/1018961 Last Chance to fix eIDAS: Secret EU law threatens Internet security

(There are many English articles about it; see e.g.\ https://mullvad.net/en/blog/eu-digital-identity-framework-eidas-another-kind-of-chat-control )

Though not the main topic of the article, this “ID wallet” thing sounds disturbing. (EU politicians calls a normal wallet “unhosted wallet” and don’t like it very much.)

>Many countries use censorship systems to block access to human rights resources

>.onion sites are particularly useful at maximizing internet users' privacy and anonymity because they never leave the Tor network.

While technically I2P might be better, it’s good news that a recognized human rights organization has adopted an onion, because that will improve the “shady” image of Tor, esp. hidden services (aka darknet), as in “privacy technology is good, not for criminals, but for you, for everyone. Using Tor is normal, and Monero is a great tool.”

Retroshare establish encrypted connections between you and your friends to create a network of computers, and provides various distributed services on top of it: forums, channels, chat, mail... Retroshare is fully decentralized, and designed to provide maximum security and anonymity to its users beyond direct friends. Retroshare is entirely free and open-source software. It is available on Android, Linux, MacOS and Windows. There are no hidden costs, no ads and no terms of service.

> law enforcement has been using […] systems since 2015, in utmost secrecy. The software in question […] can track a person across a network of cameras, for instance, by the color of their sweater

> Any policeman […] can request to use [it]

> The potential use of facial recognition worries within the institution itself. […] In France, facial recognition is only authorized in rare exceptions

> This massive installation was carried out outside the legal framework provided by a European directive and the French Data Protection Act

The National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL), a French administrative regulatory body, started an investigation against the French Minister of the Interior [1][2]. The Minister, Gérald Darmanin ordered an investigation [2].

• [1] https://nitter.oksocial.net/CNIL/status/1724745047537488019 [French]
• [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20231121093507/https://www.ouest-france.fr/politique/gerald-darmanin/entretien-gerald-darmanin-lantisemitisme-le-signe-dune-societe-qui-ne-va-pas-tres-bien-938b76ce-856c-11ee-9632-b62f00689e79 [French] > La Cnil […] annonce l’ouverture d’une enquête contre le ministère de l’Intérieur. Elle soupçonne la police d’utiliser un logiciel de reconnaissance faciale, depuis 2015, en dehors de tout cadre légal. Qu’en est-il ?

(CNIL suspects the police are using facial recognition outside any legal framework. Comments? - Gérald Darmanin’s answer: The news is true. I ordered an investigation.)

>the White House has, for the past decade, provided more than $6 million to the program, which allows the targeting of the records of any calls that use AT&amp;T’s infrastructure

>the program takes advantage of numerous “loopholes” in federal privacy law

>the DAS program has been used to produce location information on criminal suspects and their known associates, a practice deemed unconstitutional without a warrant

(This website is a bit annoying.)

> See https://monero.town/post/968066

Onion http://rurcblzhmdk22kttfkel2zduhyu3r6to7knyc7wiorzrx5gw4c3lftad.onion/

This free email provider is not for everyone. Sometimes a Cockmail address is not accepted to register something. Sometimes, though not often, another email provider may indiscriminately block email from Cock.li. Afaik Cock.li&lt;->Proton, Cock.li&lt;->Tuta work. *** PS: Admin, Vincent Canfield @vc@shitposter.club

In celebration of Bitcoin Black Friday 2023, we're offering a 10% discount on all BusKill cables sold between Nov 18 to Dec 03.

| [!BusKill Bitcoin Black Friday Sale - Our Dead Man Switch Magnetic USB Breakaway cables are 10% off all orders paid with cryptocurrency](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023) | |:--:| | BusKill Bitcoin Black Friday Sale - Our Dead Man Switch Magnetic USB Breakaway cables are 10% off all orders paid with cryptocurrency |

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

| [!What is BusKill? (Explainer Video)](https://www.buskill.in/#demo) | |:--:| | Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4 |

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

What is Bitcoin Black Friday?

Black Friday is ~1 month before Christmas, and it's the busiest shopping day in the US. The first "Bitcoin Friday" (launched by Jon Holmquist) was Nov 9th, 2012 (at the time, one bitcoin was ~$11). The following year, the two ideas merged to become Bitcoin Black Friday.

This year, we're joining Bitcoin Black Friday by offering our products at a 10% discount if you pay with cryptocurrency.

Why should I use cryptocurrencies?

We've always accepted cryptocurrencies because:

1. They're more secure than pre-cryptocurrency payment methods
2. They're a more egalitarian system than pre-cryptocurrency finance
3. They're more environmentally friendly than pre-cryptocurrency financial systems
4. The fees are less than pre-cryptocurrency transactions
5. They allow for anonymous purchases online
6. Their transactions are censorship-resistant

Security

Before cryptocurrencies, making an online transaction was horrendously insecure and backwards.

| [!Diagram shows all the third parties that can steal your funds in a pull-based system: Merchant, Acquierer, Payment Processor, Switch, Issuer](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023) | |:--:| | "Conceptually, pull-based transactions are really not that different than giving three parties the password to your online banking service and trusting them to log in and take what they need. You have to trust the merchant, their IT supplier; the acquiring bank, their third-party processor; the card network; and your own card issuer---and everybody who works for them and has access to their systems. If a bad guy gets hold of your card details at any point in this process, they could drain your account. | | The picture shows the scope of all the entities with access to your critical card information" source |

Asymmetric cryptography has been available since the 1970s, but CNP (Card Not Present) transactions to this day still don't use public keys to sign transactions. Rather, you give your private keys (that is, your credit card number, expiry, etc) directly to the merchant and you authorize them to pull money out of your account (trusting that they take the right amount and not to loose those precious credentials).

Bitcoin flipped this around to actually make transactions secure. With bitcoin, you don't give others the keys to take money out of your account. Instead, transactions are push-based. You sign a transaction with your private keys, and those keys are shared with no-one.

Even today, pre-cryptocurrency transactions are abhorrently insecure. In the US or Europe, if someone knows your account number and bank, they can direct debit money out of your account. For the same reason, losses due to credit card theft is enormous. To quote Satoshi Nakamoto's criticism of pre-cryptocurrency transactions, "A certain percentage of fraud is accepted as unavoidable"

In fact, fraudulent transactions in the banking industry are so common that your bank will generally reimburse your account for any malicious transactions that you tell them about within 60-90 days. But if someone drains your account of all your money and you don't notice for 12 months? Too bad. All your money is gone.

| [!Graphic shows a push-based model where a consumer pushes value directly to a merchant](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023) | |:--:| | In Bitcoin, transactions are push-based. source |

Tokenization and 3DS are merely bandages on a fundamentally backwards, pull-based transaction model. But because bitcoin is push-based, it's magnitudes more secure.

Egalitarian

If you have a bank account, then you probably take a lot of things for granted. Like buying things online (with a credit card). Or getting cash when traveling abroad (from an ATM machine). Or taking out a loan so you can start a business.

Before crypto-currencies, it was very difficult to do these things unless you had a bank account. And in 2008 (the year with the first-ever bitcoin transaction), McKinsey &amp; Company published a report concluding that half of the world's adult population is unbanked.

But with crypto-currencies, anyone with access to the internet and a computer or smart phone can use bitcoin to send and receive money online -- without needing to first obtain a bank account.

Environmentalism

The energy required to facilitate transactions in decentralized, blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is minuscule by comparison. And, most importantly, the amount of energy used to solve the proof-of-work problem does not grow as the number of transactions-per-second grows.

Traditional financial institutions require an enormous amount of overhead to facilitate transactions in their centralized networks. Unlike bitcoin, which was designed specifically to eliminate the unnecessary overhead created by a trusted third party, pre-cryptocurrency transactions required humans to verify transactions. These humans require office buildings. These office buildings require energy to build and maintain. And, most importantly, as the number of transactions-per-second grows on their network, the number of humans and office space also grows.

| [!Bar Graph shows the comparison of energy usage of Bitcoin and various industries](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023/) | |:--:| | Bitcoin versus other industries --- yearly energy use, in TWh source |

This fact is often misunderstood because there's a lot of misinformation on the Internet that makes a few disingenuous modifications to the facts:

1. They calculate the energy usage of the computers processing transactions only, maliciously omitting calculating the energy usage of the entire industry's infrastructure (eg energy used by office buildings)
2. They calculate the energy usage per transaction, maliciously omitting the fact that the amount of energy expended by bitcoin miners is automatically adjusted by the proof-of-work algorithm (so energy usage does not increase as the network scales-up)
3. They offer statistics about "energy usage" without mentioning the energy sources. It matters if the energy source is coal/nuclear/natural-gas or solar/wind/hydroelectric

> | "...estimates for what percentage of Bitcoin mining uses renewable energy vary widely. In December 2019, one report suggested that 73% of Bitcoin's energy consumption was carbon neutral, largely due to the abundance of hydro power in major mining hubs such as Southwest China and Scandinavia. On the other hand, the CCAF estimated in September 2020 that the figure is closer to 39%. But even if the lower number is correct, that's still almost twice as much [renewable energy sources] as the U.S. grid" | [!Nic Carter Headshot](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023/) | > |:--:|:--:| > | source: Harvard Business Review | Nic Carter |

The facts are that the energy usage of bitcoin is magnitudes less than the energy used by pre-cryptocurrency financial intuitions, that energy usage does not increase as the number of transactions processed by the network increases, and that mining bitcoin is often done with renewable energy.

The facts are that the energy usage of bitcoin is magnitudes less than the energy used by pre-cryptocurrency financial intuitions, that energy usage does not increase as the number of transactions processed by the network increases, and that mining bitcoin is often done with renewable energy.

Low Fees

The introduction to the Bitcoin White Paper (2008) clearly states that Bitcoin was created to reduce costs by using a distributed ledger (the blockchain) to eliminate the need for a trusted third party.

> | "Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model. | | > |:---|:---| > | Completely non-reversible transactions are not really possible, since financial institutions cannot avoid mediating disputes. The cost of mediation increases transaction costs... | | > | These costs and payment uncertainties can be avoided in person by using physical currency, but no mechanism exists to make payments over a communications channel without a trusted party. | | > | What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers. In this paper, we propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server to generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions." | [!A hooded figure wearing a guy faux ask sits in lotus pose. Behind them is an illuminated personification of Bitcoin](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023/) | > | source: Bitcoin Whitepaper | Satoshi Nakamoto |

At the time of writing, the average transaction fee for a bitcoin transaction is $0.06. And unlike pre-cryptocurrency transactions, you can increase or decrease the fee that you pay to increase or decrease the time it takes for the transaction to complete (at $0.06, it will get added to the blockchain in ~1 hour).

By comparison, the way to send funds internationally through the Internet via pre-cryptocurrency banks is via an international wire transfer. Fees very per bank, but they typically charge $15-$85 per transaction. And unlike bitcoin, wire transfers won't make move on nights and weekends, so they can take 1-7 days to complete.

Also, with bitcoin, that $0.06 transaction fee only applies when you're sending money. Many banks will also charge a fee for an incoming wire transfer. In bitcoin, there is no transaction fee to receive money.

Anonymity

Though early cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin don't ensure anonymity like newer privacy coins, ZCash and Monero were designed specifically to provide private transactions.

This allows our customers to purchase from us anonymously, which can be extremely important for activists and journalists whose lives are threatened by their adversaries.

| [!Tweet from WikiLeaks that reads "WikiLeaks now accepts anonymous Bitcoin donations on 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v"](https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/80774521350668288) | |:--:| | WikiLeaks started accepting donations in Bitcoin 7 months after PayPal froze their account |

We accept both ZCash and Monero. If you'd like us to accept another privacy coin, please contact us :)

Censorship-Resistant

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are peer-to-peer and permissionless. Transactions exchanging bitcoins occur directly between two parties. There is no middle-man that has the power to block, freeze, or reverse transactions. Before blockchains were used to maintain a public ledger and enable peer-to-peer transactions, we were dependent on big financial institutions to move money on our behalf through the internet. That antiquated system allowed them to censor transactions, such as donations made to media outlets reporting war crimes and donations to protest movements.

> | "For me, that is one of the coolest things about bitcoin... | | > |:---|:---| > | People can potentially use it donate more anonymously to dissident groups and causes in a world where mass government surveillance threatens freedom of expression and certainly harms activists' ability to fundraise for their work, when people are afraid they could be targeted by a government for donating to a worthy cause." | [!Evan Grer portrait](https://buskill.in/bitcoin-black-friday-2023/) | > | source | Evan Greer |

After PayPal froze WikiLeaks's donation account in 2010, WikiLeaks started accepting bicoin in 2011. From Occupy Wall Street to Ukraine, defenders of democracy have utilized permissionless cryptocurrencies to accept international donations without the risk of transactions made through financial institutions.

Buy BusKill with crypto

Don't risk loosing your crypto to a thief that steals your laptop. Get your own BusKill Cable at a 10% discount today!

Buy a BusKill Cable https://buskill.in/buy

You can also buy a BusKill cable with bitcoin, monero, and other altcoins from our BusKill Store's .onion site.

[!Bitcoin Accepted Here](https://buskill.in/buy)

[!Monero Accepted Here](https://buskill.in/buy) Stay safe, The BusKill Team https://www.buskill.in/ http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion

See also: Fifth Circuit says law enforcement doesn’t need warrants to search phones at the border https://monero.town/post/402125

> The app store “collects and sends data […] This includes information like device model, brand, country, timezone, screen size, view events, click events, logtime of events, and a unique KID ID,”

> Hancock didn’t return the tablet to her daughter until after making changes to protect her daughter’s privacy.

> [She] even installed Tor, a browser that is designed to protect the anonymity of its user.

An awesome Mom, like Mrs. Roberts from xkcd!

>A storefront, said Ortis, is a fake business or entity, either online or bricks-and-mortar, set up by police or intelligence agencies. > >The plan, he said, was to have criminals use the storefront — an online end-to-end encryption service called Tutanota — to allow authorities to collect intelligence about them.

Tutanota (now Tuta) denies this: https://tuta.com/blog/tutanota-not-a-honeypot

> These changes radically expand the capability of EU governments to surveil their citizens by ensuring cryptographic keys under government control can be used to intercept encrypted web traffic

> This enables the government of any EU member state to issue website certificates for interception and surveillance

https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2023/qualified-web-authentication-certificates-qwacs-in-eidas/ > The browser ecosystem is global, not EU-bounded. Once a mechanism like QWACs is implemented in browsers, it is open to abuse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIDAS > The proposal would force internet companies to place a backdoor in web browsers to let them perform a man-in-the-middle attack, deceiving users into thinking that they were communicating with a server they requested, when, in fact, they would be communicating directly with the EU government. […] If passed, the EU would be able to hack into any internet-enabled device, reading any sensitive or encrypted contents without the user's knowledge

See also: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/11/2/eu-digital-identity-framework-eidas-another-kind-of-chat-control/

SimpleX Chat is still a relatively early stage platform (the mobile apps were released in March 2022) But in the end, SimpleX will be our choice, right? Or at least for most of us.

here: SimpleX-Chat Github

[Edit 2: Read the admin’s “reasoning” and comments here or see PS below. The clearnet site is up again. The onion versions = 100% up tme for me]

[Edit: As of writing this (2023-11-01) their clearnet server is down, while the onion version is working. Cock.li is exactly like this… Relatively rarely but randomly it’s down. Kind of irresponsible but it’s just like that. Interestingly, though, onion is up and clearnet is down. Usually opposite.]

Onion http://rurcblzhmdk22kttfkel2zduhyu3r6to7knyc7wiorzrx5gw4c3lftad.onion/

Cockbox on kycnot.me - https://kycnot.me/service/cockbox !“Too bad it costs $9 to send BTC. Bring Monero.”

(From their webpage) > Cock.li is your go-to solution for professional E-mail and XMPP addresses. Since 2013 cock.li has provided stable E-mail services to an ever-increasing number of users. Cock.li allows registration and usage using Tor and other privacy services (proxies, VPNs) and thanks to continued funding by its users is certain to stay free forever.

Cock.li (aka Cockmail) is a Tor-friendly, privacy-focused, soon-to-be-10-year-old free email provider (IMAP, POP, XMPP, Webmail). Although currently (since around 2021) a new registration is invite-only, the admin @vc now states on their website:

!

> E-mail is a Human Right! > > Oppressive governments are using dirty tricks to try and force e-mail providers to require phone numbers or other controlled integrations to register. We will never allow these crimes against our userbase. We will stand up for the right to register for e-mail without being surveilled, and demand this right to be recognized globally. Public registration re-opens on cock.li's 10th birthday, 20 November.

Probably people here know this service pretty well, but some important points:

• Their email addresses are sometimes blacklisted when you want to use them, because in the past the service was abused by spammers. So this provider may not be suitable for normal users/normal usage. Its “technical scores” may be low too, when checked e.g. via https://internet.nl/mail/ If you think this is sketchy and its name is weird, it is. It’s not for you, so please just ignore it.

• A cock.li account may be great to have if you want to sign up and use it anonymously always via onion (something you can’t do with Proton or Tutanota), perhaps with PGP. Maybe great to use on Tails OS too.

• Their service was not very stable in the past. In recent years, it’s been rather stable and very fast even via onion. Pop/Imap via Tor works perfectly. Cock.li onion may load 100 times faster than that of Proton.

• Custom domains are not supported! Consider Disroot or Tutanota if you need them and would like to pay with Monero.

• They are one of the earliest v3 onion providers. In contrast, Proton was so slow to migrate from v2 to v3 (even after v2 got obsolete). Cock.li is also one of the oldest mail providers that started accepting BTC and XMR donations. So probably they’re extremely well-funded (you know why).

• If you use Thunderbird, set up your account manually (its automatic setup probably doesn’t work right).

For more info, visit their webpage. Please DO NOT abuse this based cypherpunk service.

*** PS. Vincent Canfield (vc@shitposter.club) wrote on September 23, 2023: > Good morning, CISA is now calling cock.li a "Malicious E-mail Domain" and implies this is because it's not "publicly available". So, cock.li will once again open to the public on its 10th birthday, 20 November. #StopRansomware > > https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-263a > > For those who don't remember, a previous CISA advisory which recommended "service providers strengthen their user validation and verification systems to prohibit misuse of their services" shortly predated cock.li going invite only. > > https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa21-116a > > I'm sure if cock.li added phone number verification these joint statements would go away. Everyone sees what's happening, you want to force all providers to link to identities so you can surveil people. Cock.li is never adding that bullshit.

> privacy is often considered a tabu when talking about money, despite being a well-accepted fundamental human right for other topics. The growing development of high-surveillance financial tools often creates controversy and conflict of interest against privacy cryptocurrencies.

> [We] asked ChatGPT to pick three privacy cryptocurrencies: > > The AI responded with its top 3 picks being Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH).

>> “Renowned for its unparalleled privacy features, Monero uses ring signatures, ring confidential transactions, and stealth addresses to anonymize all transaction details. By concealing the identities of the sender and receiver, as well as the transaction amount, Monero makes financial data tracking nearly impossible, ensuring complete discretion for the users.” > > — ChatGPT-4