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Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

mullvad.net

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Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#71

Post by ziddoap »

throwaway4good wrote: post #68
ziddoap wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of other practical applications. I guess if you believe that only criminals want privacy it might be hard to see them, though. Do you also believe that encryption is evil? Those pesky criminals use it all the time.

That is a bit of a straw man ain’t it? I was talking about the real world use cases for a vpn paid with monero.

Do you want me to sit here and list out all of the applicable and legal use-cases for VPNs and Monero? How many would I have to list for you to change your views? Is there even a number, or is your mind set that VPN = criminal?

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#72

Post by nuclx »

What are people using VPNs for mostly, if they're living in a country without internet censorship?

It's either your ISP or the VPN provider, which can log the websites you have visited, so there isn't a clear advantage of using a VPN. Sure the VPN provider may claim to log nothing, but that's hard to confirm and not proven to be true in some cases (related thread regarding Protonmail: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28443449).

For researching confidential topics, TOR appears to be fine. VPN may have better network bandwidth, or may be blocked from less websites than TOR exit nodes I guess.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#73

Post by seibelj »

0des wrote: post #14

Its too bad monero research lab seems to be slowing down and disbanding. Devs have to eat and all, but I wonder sometimes if a longer and slower emission curve would have helped here. Monero is mostly emitted at this point. For a project that means so much to the world and still has much work to do, its a shame how things turned out with MRL.

This is why tokens make sense. Can fund development of new features if you could integrate new tokens on Monero. It’s how Ethereum has moved mountains with new infrastructure projects.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#74

Post by vmception »

michaelt wrote: post #52
throwaway4good wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unbanked?

'Unbanked' is a term used in policy circles for people who don't have bank accounts. For example undocumented migrants, homeless people, people fleeing abusive partners, people with a history of bankruptcy, and so on. This can be politically important because if the state wants to pay all benefits by bank transfer to keep admin costs down, they've got to make sure even the most vulnerable people in our society can ge…

One of the flaws of policy circles is that they assume the unbanked are victims. The term, for that sector, is a proxy for the desire and recognition of people lacking access to capital and services, which is what the policy circle really wants to occur and being in the banking system had been the route to that for so long.

Now it is not necessary, with peer to peer digital cash operating in a parallel economy, that allows access to goods, services, investments, insurance, capital and more.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#75

Post by leodriesch »

nuclx wrote: post #72

What are people using VPNs for mostly, if they're living in a country without internet censorship? It's either your ISP or the VPN provider, which can log the websites you have visited, so there isn't a clear advantage of using a VPN. Sure the VPN provider may claim to log nothing, but that's hard to confirm and not proven to be true in some cases (related thread regarding Protonmail: https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…

Torrenting comes to mind. Also if you trust the VPN provider more than your ISP or VPN provider has essentially no PII of you (in case of Mullvad).

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#76

Post by nonrandomstring »

CommieBobDole wrote: post #56
0des wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of us wear a trenchcoat and moustache glasses

I'm a clipart hacker, so I wear a hoodie and sunglasses. Indoors, in the dark.

I find thick black leather gloves really help with my typing too.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#77

Post by vmception »

michaelt wrote: post #66
throwaway4good wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In crypto circles it is also code word for "criminals". As in for example "banking the unbanked" which translates into "providing extremely expensive banking like services for criminals."

I'll be honest, I've never heard 'unbanked' used in relation to cryptocurrency or criminals before vmception used it above. I know my drug dealer can't pay duffle bags full of cocaine-covered $100 bills into the bank - but he can still get a personal checking account and pay in $100 a week or so. So I would not describe him as 'unbanked' in the conventional sense.

When the state moves to seize and freeze his bank accounts and flag his unhosted bitcoin addresses, he'll wish he had some Monero and Tornado.cash notes to pay his lawyer with.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#78

Post by V1ndaar »

nuclx wrote: post #72

What are people using VPNs for mostly, if they're living in a country without internet censorship? It's either your ISP or the VPN provider, which can log the websites you have visited, so there isn't a clear advantage of using a VPN. Sure the VPN provider may claim to log nothing, but that's hard to confirm and not proven to be true in some cases (related thread regarding Protonmail: https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…

For me one big use case: avoiding stupid geoblocks on motorsport streams. Often streams are available in countries where the licence has not been sold on Youtube or the websites of the sport itself (sometimes for free, sometimes as a subscription).

For example Formula 1 has F1TV that you can only sign up for in some countries (where they didn't sell out to Sky essentially).

Like, I don't even mind paying for a service if it's good and actually available!

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#79

Post by pluc »

nuclx wrote: post #72

What are people using VPNs for mostly, if they're living in a country without internet censorship? It's either your ISP or the VPN provider, which can log the websites you have visited, so there isn't a clear advantage of using a VPN. Sure the VPN provider may claim to log nothing, but that's hard to confirm and not proven to be true in some cases (related thread regarding Protonmail: https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…

Getting around region limitations (eg "getting the US Netflix" or ability to get Hulu or HBO+ at all in Canada)

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#80

Post by ziddoap »

nuclx wrote: post #72

What are people using VPNs for mostly, if they're living in a country without internet censorship? It's either your ISP or the VPN provider, which can log the websites you have visited, so there isn't a clear advantage of using a VPN. Sure the VPN provider may claim to log nothing, but that's hard to confirm and not proven to be true in some cases (related thread regarding Protonmail: https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…

>It's either your ISP or the VPN provider

That answers it for many people, I would guess. Even without censorship, many ISPs have a much worse track-record for gathering and subsequently selling information than, say, Mullvad does.

Is it an absolute that Mullvad doesn't log/sell information? No, of course not. But they make a much more convincing case than my ISP does.

Geoblock avoiding is another common answer. My ISP also sends out letters if you torrent, which can be annoying to receive - Mullvad alleviates that.

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