Live data from Hacker News

Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

mullvad.net

121–130 of 246 posts

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#122
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tornado cash is good enough tbh Monero communities arrogance and in-grouping has segregated them just like they desired. That technology and user experience is an evolutionary dead end, it can exist and that has enough utility. But in the multichain world the user experience is better and the funding models are better, even gitcoin grants streamline development of projects.

Respectfully I disagree with this statement, on a conceptual, as well as factual level. >Tornado cash is good enough tbh I hold neither of these, but as someone with a significant amount of experience in the field, the facts are clear. "Good enough" is not an objective measurement of the binary quality of fungibility. Monero is fungible. Is this me saying everyone should go out and buy some Monero, no, it is me sayin…

> the binary quality of fungibility

The fact that Monero has been growing the minimum ring size over time, as well as refining the decoy selection algorithm, shows that fungibility, in the sense of transaction graph obfuscation, is more of a spectrum.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#123

Just as a reminder, you can bridge from EVMs to Monero via the SECRET bridges, which seems to have the Monero community's blessings on consensus models. There is ample liquidity as well. So there is bi-directional access to and from the broader crypto ecosystem without centralized exchanges and without the selectively scamming shapeshift-style sites, and for the pros: without OTC desks either.

Well Secret isn't exactly the broader ecosystem, it uses the EVM (as most smart contract platforms do these days) but isn't Ethereum Mainnet. So you'd have to bridge more from there. Of course you could bridge into Ethereum or other chains directly with something like WXMR as well. Everything is getting bridged these days, there's going to be 1000 bridges soon. Users should be aware of the risks!

That said Secret is interesting. Another thing to note though in terms of privacy is that Secret token transactions aren't anonymous afaik, despite the name suggesting otherwise. Only the smart contracts are. It's an interesting design choice, there are probably arguments pro and contra both.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#124
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?

If you really don't see the value of privacy, why not post your various account login credentials here? If only criminals are those with things to hide, surely you will allow us access to your bank, email, etc. You have nothing to hide, why not?

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#125
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I don't think you can give me a single legitimate use case for a VPN with no KYC paid via Monero.

You live under an authoritarian regime that jails you based on the things you purchase.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#126
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I don't think you can give me a single legitimate use case for a VPN with no KYC paid via Monero.

You said there was no practical application for VPNs or Monero, but now you're shifting your goal posts? I think I have wasted enough brain cycles on this.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#127
post #88
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.

monero, without dev tax and pre-mine, simply doesn't have the funds to compete in research with other, more well funded projects. I don't see how a different emission curve would have helped here. MRL work is progressing on Seraphis[1] which will allow for significantly higher ring sizes without increasing the transaction size. A proof of concept is currently in development. [1] https://www.getmonero.org/2021/12/22/w…

Hello Selsta :)

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My only issue is that is seems to have become increasingly difficult to access many websites through their servers. Welcome to the world of Tor users. People who value online dignity need to work together against privacy hostile web technologies. My present bugbear is Cloudflare, who seem to do a lot to disrupt privacy respecting technologies. Ultimately though, the power lies with web service designers. One can no…

The flip side to this is to have your site hammered by bots, scrapers and worms looking for exploits (look at your weblogs sometime and see how often Wordpress php pages are requested, lol). I don’t know what the middle ground is but in spirit I agree with you, especially in keeping the internet decentralized. In practice I’m not so sure.

When configured correctly you can use most of the cloudflares features such as WAF without blocking all tor/vpn users. Requires a little bit more than just flicking the „i’m under attack“ button though.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#129

Just as a reminder, you can bridge from EVMs to Monero via the SECRET bridges, which seems to have the Monero community's blessings on consensus models. There is ample liquidity as well. So there is bi-directional access to and from the broader crypto ecosystem without centralized exchanges and without the selectively scamming shapeshift-style sites, and for the pros: without OTC desks either.

Well Secret isn't exactly the broader ecosystem, it uses the EVM (as most smart contract platforms do these days) but isn't Ethereum Mainnet. So you'd have to bridge more from there. Of course you could bridge into Ethereum or other chains directly with something like WXMR as well. Everything is getting bridged these days, there's going to be 1000 bridges soon. Users should be aware of the risks! That said Secret is…

I didn't feel the need to specify how many bridges you had to take, just that you can have XMR and get to the broader ecosystem via SECRET. That is 100% accurate and orders of magnitude better than before the SECRET bridges existed.

Correct, yes, on SECRET network, smart contract variables are private, which means all token transactions are while the native currency is not. There are a variety of ways to leak data anyway.

So SCRT is the native currency while sSCRT is the token version that therefore has the variables (to, from, amount) private.

sXMR is the token version of XMR there.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#130
post #114

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?

If you are interesting enough, Signal doesn't help at all. Some nation state will have NSO infect your mobile device with Pegasus and record everything you type, say and do. People need to understand this. There is no solution for mobile device compromise other than to stop using these devices. And if you cannot stop using them, then you must understand that everything you type, say and do on or around your mobile de…

Sure, but just because nation states can hack you doesn't mean you should throw your hands up and give up on keeping your data as secure as possible. There are non-state actors who would love to get their hands on your data for profit.
Post reply on HN