Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 153 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#41

Post by bigiain »

New_California wrote: post #34

Yes, it is absolutely conceivable to be anon developer, except for officially publishing in the Apple/Google/MS walled gardens. Then if you would want to accept donations or payments, anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin.

> anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin.

Can we just stop with the "Bitcoin is anonymous" bullshit here?

Anybody here is smart enough to know better, so it just earmarks you as another fucking crypto-shill.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#43

Post by kzrdude »

bigiain wrote: post #41
New_California wrote: post #34

Yes, it is absolutely conceivable to be anon developer, except for officially publishing in the Apple/Google/MS walled gardens. Then if you would want to accept donations or payments, anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin.

> anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin. Can we just stop with the "Bitcoin is anonymous" bullshit here? Anybody here is smart enough to know better, so it just earmarks you as another fucking crypto-shill.

I think you have some kind of point but it's lost by being rude

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#44

Post by ahaquer »

bigiain wrote: post #41
New_California wrote: post #34

Yes, it is absolutely conceivable to be anon developer, except for officially publishing in the Apple/Google/MS walled gardens. Then if you would want to accept donations or payments, anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin.

> anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin. Can we just stop with the "Bitcoin is anonymous" bullshit here? Anybody here is smart enough to know better, so it just earmarks you as another fucking crypto-shill.

Bitcoin is anonymous in the sense that you don't necessarily need to link your wallet to your real name, it's just not the best choice for privacy since transaction details are public. Besides, mixing services exist.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#45

Post by New_California »

bigiain wrote: post #41
New_California wrote: post #34

Yes, it is absolutely conceivable to be anon developer, except for officially publishing in the Apple/Google/MS walled gardens. Then if you would want to accept donations or payments, anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin.

> anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin. Can we just stop with the "Bitcoin is anonymous" bullshit here? Anybody here is smart enough to know better, so it just earmarks you as another fucking crypto-shill.

No, we can't. Bitcoin *is* anonymous against average Joe which is what the OP needs here.

Pretty irrelevant here but for your fucking information, with significant expert effort, Bitcoin *can* be also anonymous against big actors.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#46

Post by elcomet »

bigiain wrote: post #41
New_California wrote: post #34

Yes, it is absolutely conceivable to be anon developer, except for officially publishing in the Apple/Google/MS walled gardens. Then if you would want to accept donations or payments, anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin.

> anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin. Can we just stop with the "Bitcoin is anonymous" bullshit here? Anybody here is smart enough to know better, so it just earmarks you as another fucking crypto-shill.

Bitcoin is anonymous (ie your key is not linked to your identity) but not private (all your transactions can be seen)

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#47

Post by bigiain »

kzrdude wrote: post #43
bigiain wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anonymity is only possible with cryptocurrencies and cash-by-mail. The easiest one (anonymity wise) is Monero and the most popular one is Bitcoin. Can we just stop with the "Bitcoin is anonymous" bullshit here? Anybody here is smart enough to know better, so it just earmarks you as another fucking crypto-shill.

I think you have some kind of point but it's lost by being rude

Yeah, fair criticism. But I'm just so over the insane mass hallucination these planet burning pyramid scheme grifters keep wanting to convince everybody is real. There are no clothes, there isn't even a damned emperor. They all deserver to be called out and ridiculed at every sighting. And yeah, I'm rude while doing that.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#48

Post by Lex-2008 »

treyfitty wrote: post #13
spoonjim wrote: post #7

There are three levels of anonymity: anonymity to the general public, to Apple, and to a state-level actor. Anonymity to the general public is very easy, incorporate a company behind some of the shell corporation mumbo jumbo that any corporate lawyer can prep for you, it will cost $ but it will be easy. Anonymity from Apple could probably be pulled off by incorporating in a country with fairly weak transparency and h…

Legitimate question: what benefits are there to be anonymous to the general public? Wouldn’t most people be happy to take credit for their code?

Daniel Stenberg, developer of very popular opensource library/utility curl, once received a threatening email:

https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/02/19/i-will-slaughter-you/

SQLite developers were receiving phone calls in the middle of the night, so decided to change temporary files prefix:

https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/3cf493d/src/os.h#L52-...

In both cases, their libraries were used in some other software, which upset users.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#49

Post by New_California »

DarthNebo wrote: post #39
New_California wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anon LLC is US specific. Not available in other countries.

Not limited by LLC, registering a company anywhere can ensure it to an extent

No, company board and owners are public and readily available data in virtually all countries, US being an exception to the rule.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#50

Post by necovek »

DarthNebo wrote: post #39
New_California wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anon LLC is US specific. Not available in other countries.

Not limited by LLC, registering a company anywhere can ensure it to an extent

At least where I am from (Serbia), registry of all LLCs is publicly available with personal data on all the "members" (whole- or part-owners). The best you can get is by having a foreign LLC where there is no name requirement register an LLC here.
Post reply on HN