Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments • Hacker News Board

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#131

Post by vmception » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:01 PM UTC

0des wrote: post #85

vmception wrote: post #83

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…

Its good enough in user experience and storage, in fact far superior to Monero’s experience. When a user then wants fungibility the one time they want the state’s money and financial institution then they use Monero as a conduit.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#132

Post by barnabee » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

rvz wrote: post #23

throwaway4good wrote: post #8

Quoted post unavailable.

> So if I want to get started with cybercrime; is Mullvad and Monero the way to go? Yes. > Any other tools that I should be aware of? Like Tor, I hear that Signal is also a great choice for terrorists and extremists as well according to some testimonials from them. The road to hell is paved with good intensions.

I’ll take the risk of extra crime or terrorism as a cost of privacy as a human right, thanks

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#133

Post by ipaddr » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

stanmancan wrote: post #107

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?

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.

Does this apply to vpns? Have we crossed the more normal people are using it threshold than criminals or should that be outlawed?

Will we reach a point where self hosting is seen as criminal?

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#134

Post by Fritsdehacker » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

kfreds wrote: post #118

andreisbc wrote: post #67

Mullvad always seemed too good to be true. So that's why i'd won't use it if i'd had critical stuff to do. I do love Mullvad, but so aircrack-ng

Thank you for the compliment! We are indeed for real, but I don't expect this comment will convince you. I'd love to know what we could do that would change your mind. The same goes for anyone else reading this. Are you worried that we are too good to be true? What could we do to become more trustworthy in your eyes? Cheers, Fredrik Stromberg (cofounder of Mullvad)

I don't know. Disclaimer: just a happy customer. What I do know is that all you know about me is the account number you gave me and the IP address I'm connecting from. I always pay cash, so that would be hard to trace back.

So I know you do the absolute maximum you can do to know as little about me as possible. As far as not keeping logs and not spying on me, I suppose I'll have to trust the audit reports.

Not much more you can do in my opinion. It's definitely good enough for me! Thanks for this great service!

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#135

Post by throwaway4good » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

_joel wrote: post #42

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #34

As a Mullvad fan this makes me very nervous. If they begin being used by, and taking payment from criminals it's going to bring a lot of extra heat their way.

You can literally send them an envelope of cash anonymously, how is this any different?

Really? I guess running a VPN is a profitable business ...

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#136

Post by heipei » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

seanw444 wrote: post #41

Thank you, Mullvad team! This is quite literally the only feature I've been wanting. Everything else works well. Bandwidth? Excellent. Apps? Excellent. WireGuard? Excellent. No form of KYC required, period? Excellent. Payment options? Excellent. I hope I don't live to see you turn into every other shady VPN service.

All that plus IPv6 support, which is still not that common among VPN providers.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#137

Post by throwaway4good » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

tomxor wrote: post #54

seanw444 wrote: post #41

Thank you, Mullvad team! This is quite literally the only feature I've been wanting. Everything else works well. Bandwidth? Excellent. Apps? Excellent. WireGuard? Excellent. No form of KYC required, period? Excellent. Payment options? Excellent. I hope I don't live to see you turn into every other shady VPN service.

I really like mullvad's service too (wiregaurd)... My only issue is that is seems to have become increasingly difficult to access many websites through their servers. I suppose this is inevitable to some degree with any VPN service, it's part of the deal for more privacy, you have to share an IP with potential sources of abuse. But it seems to have gotten really bad recently to the point that I end up server hoping t…

"I'm not blaming Mullvad" - you should - this is a direct consequence of accepting customers that pay cash and wants to be completely anonymous.

In the end they are going to drive their honest non-abusive customers elsewhere.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#138

Post by ipaddr » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

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.

It shows scale and also makes them a bigger target for lawsuit which get's settled through access.

Check out what vpn have been sued over the last year (they all have been no log companies) and you will quickly realize that logs are being shared by anyone of size. The smaller the service the better.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#139

Post by throwaway4good » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

kuroguro wrote: post #115

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…

Most of EU has prepaid SIMs without registration AFAIK? It's really not much of a problem.

Not in my home country anymore.

And all major telcos have departments dedicated just to serve the authorities.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#140

Post by px43 » Tue, May 03, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

seibelj wrote: post #73

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.

Tokens were thing on Bitcoin too. They were called "colored coins". The reason that it works on Ethereum is turing complete scripting allowing you to build all sorts of fun financial gadgets and tools around the token.