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Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

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Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#101

Post by flatiron »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #89
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…

> may be blocked from less websites than TOR exit nodes I guess. Try routing all your traffic through TOR and trying to navigate the modern web or common apps. It is _extremely_ punishing when you connect through TOR exit nodes.

I used to run a relay and they are even hostile to relays. I had to stop because my family was asking why their banking apps didn’t work on the Wi-Fi and why they always get warnings and CAPCHAs only at home.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#102

Post by throwaway82652 »

Etheryte wrote: post #94
throwaway4good wrote: post #93

Many years ago I worked for a telco that had a mobile product that you could buy with cash (show up in a convenience store with cash and you would get a SIM card for use straight away without any form of registration). This was 5 times as expensive compared to when you paid by debit or credit card. This offering was extremely popular amongst drug dealers and people needing a burner to call in a bomb threat. (Maybe th…

Interesting story, but how does this relate to Mullvad accepting Monero payments?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero#Illicit_use

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#103

Post by sgillen »

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…

Avoiding my university or workplace from snooping on my traffic.

I’ve had it where I was served an add from a server that had previously been implicated in a bot net operation. The university told me I was infected and that my computer was not allowed back on the network until I came in person to show them that I had done a full wipe and reinstall of my OS.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#104

Post by brewdad »

capableweb wrote: post #27
ravenstine wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ProtonVPN because I already have a Protonmail account and they don't sponsor podcasts (as far as I know).

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is "not sponsoring podcasts" a plus for a VPN service? Personally Mullvad is my favorite and AFAIK, they also don't sponsor any podcasts, but I don't think that would influence how I feel about Mullvad.

I used Mullvad for a few years and was largely happy with it. I got a multi-year deal on ProtonVPN that was too good to pass up, so now I'm on that. Overall, I think I liked Mullvad better so may go back to it when my time is up.

I used NordVPN back quite a few years ago. Once they started advertising on cable tv shows, I knew it was time to jump ship. A VPN service spending that kind of money is either burning through cash too quickly to survive, selling user data, or a government honeypot.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#105

Post by throwaway82652 »

lordofgibbons wrote: post #100
throwaway4good wrote: post #93

Many years ago I worked for a telco that had a mobile product that you could buy with cash (show up in a convenience store with cash and you would get a SIM card for use straight away without any form of registration). This was 5 times as expensive compared to when you paid by debit or credit card. This offering was extremely popular amongst drug dealers and people needing a burner to call in a bomb threat. (Maybe th…

>Moral of the story: selling stuff to criminals might seem like easy money but may not be worth the trouble. Interesting that you think only criminals want privacy. I use Signal and TLS too, I must be Pablo Escobar's second coming?

Even if you aren't a criminal, the fact is that privacy tools of this nature are explicitly relying on having enough volume of criminals and other illicit users to provide cover for you. This is what they're designed to do, the designers of these systems will openly admit to it. You can make your own judgement on whether you're ok with that, but it doesn't help to deny what's actually happening.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#106

Post by joshmarlow »

throwaway4good wrote: post #59
ziddoap wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in real life, both VPNs and anonymous currency have other applications than committing crimes. What's your point?

That they don't have any practical applications other than committing crime?

Well trying to get unfiltered information in a censored country _would_ be a crime.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#107

Post by stanmancan »

lordofgibbons wrote: post #100
throwaway4good wrote: post #93

Many years ago I worked for a telco that had a mobile product that you could buy with cash (show up in a convenience store with cash and you would get a SIM card for use straight away without any form of registration). This was 5 times as expensive compared to when you paid by debit or credit card. This offering was extremely popular amongst drug dealers and people needing a burner to call in a bomb threat. (Maybe th…

>Moral of the story: selling stuff to criminals might seem like easy money but may not be worth the trouble. Interesting that you think only criminals want privacy. I use Signal and TLS too, I must be Pablo Escobar's second coming?

If you looked at 'average people' versus 'criminals' you'll find that there's a much higher demand for privacy/anonymous communication among the criminals. That isn't to say that normal folk don't want privacy too.

The end result is that if you're one of few company that offer privacy to your customers you'll find your customer base has a higher ratio of criminals as they'll all flock to you.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#108

Post by lil_dispaches »

throwaway82652 wrote: post #105
lordofgibbons wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Moral of the story: selling stuff to criminals might seem like easy money but may not be worth the trouble. Interesting that you think only criminals want privacy. I use Signal and TLS too, I must be Pablo Escobar's second coming?

Even if you aren't a criminal, the fact is that privacy tools of this nature are explicitly relying on having enough volume of criminals and other illicit users to provide cover for you. This is what they're designed to do, the designers of these systems will openly admit to it. You can make your own judgement on whether you're ok with that, but it doesn't help to deny what's actually happening.

When only criminals care about privacy, privacy becomes criminal?

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#109

Post by lordofgibbons »

throwaway82652 wrote: post #105
lordofgibbons wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Moral of the story: selling stuff to criminals might seem like easy money but may not be worth the trouble. Interesting that you think only criminals want privacy. I use Signal and TLS too, I must be Pablo Escobar's second coming?

Even if you aren't a criminal, the fact is that privacy tools of this nature are explicitly relying on having enough volume of criminals and other illicit users to provide cover for you. This is what they're designed to do, the designers of these systems will openly admit to it. You can make your own judgement on whether you're ok with that, but it doesn't help to deny what's actually happening.

>the fact is that privacy tools of this nature are explicitly relying on having enough volume of criminals and other illicit users to provide cover for you

No, that's not how this works. You don't need criminal activity to provide you with anonymity. You just need ANY other activity in order to get lost in the crowd[1].

Your flawed view is that nobody should have privacy because some bad guys might use privacy to do bad things. Privacy advocates are the opposite. We say everybody deserves privacy as a human right, even if on occasion some bad guys take advantage of the privacy.

[1] https://www.getmonero.org/resources/moneropedia/ringsignatur...

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#110

Post by jermaustin1 »

tomxor wrote: post #61
jermaustin1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own digital ocean droplet. Its easy to set up and get going, costs only $5/mo, and with all of my other droplets bandwidths combined I effectively have unlimited bandwidth. Only ever use it on public wifi, and it isn't meant to be "private", just good enough to prevent accidental data leakage at Starbucks/doctors' offices/wherever else my 5g doesn't reach and I'm forced onto public WiFi.

I used to do this, and it's nice having your own IP, however keep in mind that while you preserve privacy from your ISP/gov you lose privacy from the websites and services you access as you become very uniquely identifiable.

Yeah I'm less worried about trackers (block those with uOrigin and AdGuard), and just more worried about data leaks on public wifi which are less and less likely with everything being on SSL now, but until everything is FORCED onto SSL then I will still run my own VPN when I'm on public.
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