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Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

mullvad.net

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Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#231

Post by kfreds »

Fritsdehacker wrote: post #134
kfreds wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

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

Thank you. I happen to think there's a lot more we can do. Look forward to future blog posts. :)

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#232

Post by kfreds »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #168
kfreds wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

My only feedback is that Mullvad is based out of Sweden which is a member of Fourteen Eyes. I don’t expect you to move your location but it is the only detractor I can think of.

Thank you.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#233

Post by kfreds »

throwaway92394 wrote: post #171
kfreds wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

This isn't meant to be criticism just curious. Why did it take so long to add monero support? For the past several years there's only ~2 other VPNs that tick all the privacy boxes, and you're the most preferable - other then lack of monero support. It always seemed weird that you went so far for privacy, but didn't support monero. Was it just on the backlog and took a bit of time to implement? I appreciate that you b…

> Why did it take so long to add monero support? It always seemed weird that you went so far for privacy, but didn't support monero. Was it just on the backlog and took a bit of time to implement?

I don't work with payments and the surrounding systems so I don't know the details of the project itself. As an organization we've certainly been aware of the feature request, but until now we've prioritized other projects.

> EDIT: I've heard a rumor that you've shared a user IP because of a government subpoena (live during a connection, so it wasn't logged). Has this happened?

To my knowledge it has never happened in the history of our service.

> EDIT: One other question - is there plans to add more IPs? Services seem to flag most mullvad IPs but I'm not sure there's much you can do about that.

I'm sure my colleagues in the Operations and Support teams are aware of it. You'll get a better answer from support@mullvad.net.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#234

Post by trompetenaccoun »

easrng wrote: post #190
trompetenaccoun wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

WXMR is not real bridge, it's effectively a pegged token. Secret Network bridges are custodial. Atomic swaps would be better.

How so? They claim they keep custody of your tokens in exchange for the WXMR one, that's how any bridge works in essence. And yeah, you're right it would better to do swaps, this wasn't supposed to be an endorsement. There is an inherent danger in ceding custody to a third party, be it on Secret or Ethereum.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#235

Post by kfreds »

0daystock wrote: post #178
kfreds wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Paradoxically, the most trustworthy thing you could do as a VPN provider is explain why most people don't need and won't actually benefit from a VPN. Outside of a few limited use cases (accessing location-restricted content, connecting to legacy services) and with almost-ubiquitous end-to-end TLS encryption deployed on the Internet, there's really not a lot of good reasons to use a VPN (and many good reasons not to).…

Thank you.

I disagree with your assessment of the use cases for a VPN. Just one example: Your IP address is often a great identifier, making a VPN or Tor a useful starting point for online privacy. This is more or less what we say on our website as well.

Based on your comment however I think you might find the follwing links to IVPN refreshing:

https://www.ivpn.net/blog/why-you-dont-need-a-vpn/

https://www.doineedavpn.com/

https://github.com/ivpn/doineedavpn.com

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#236

Post by maccolgan »

vortext wrote: post #184
handsclean wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, websites like that are saying they’ll only do it without a condom. You want it real bad, so it’s tempting to try to bargain about it, or maybe just take it off for now - it’s just a little while, what’re the chances it goes wrong? - but we all know that the smart move is to keep it on or back out entirely. Reasonable partners, of which there are many, understand and cooperate. And ones that don’t ar…

Username checks out.

HN isn't reddit, please keep this shit out.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#237

Post by maccolgan »

bauruine wrote: post #163
brightball wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea problem from an admin perspective is that all malicious traffic attempts to use privacy respecting technology. It’s more guilt by association than anything else for the legitimate users. One of the weird realities is that in order to combat fraud you need to be able to identify the source, which is a hard reality as a privacy advocate.

Where do you have the information from that "all malicious traffic attempts to use privacy respecting technology."? I just checked an access.log (from a searx instance) and an auth.log for malicious traffic and it doesn't look at all like that. ssh bruteforce top 5 offenders: 147 (Tor: 0) TENCENT-NET-AP-CN 133 (Tor: 0) DIGITALOCEAN-ASN 31 (Tor: 0) CHINANET-BACKBONE 17 (Tor: 0) BAIDU 13 (Tor: 0) CHINANET-SH-AP Overall…

Most Tor exits block SSH and SMTP. Look elsewhere.

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#238

Post by atom058 »

mekster wrote: post #175
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.

Wish the name was easier to remember. It opens opportunity for typo domain/app squatters to take people elsewhere. I had to double check the spell from reliable sources.

'Mullvad' is the Swedish word for Mole (as in the tunneling animal - also seen in Mullvad's logo)

As a Swede, it's easy to remember, but I can see why it can seem a tad esoteric to native English-speakers :)

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#239

Post by throwaway92394 »

kfreds wrote: post #233
throwaway92394 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't meant to be criticism just curious. Why did it take so long to add monero support? For the past several years there's only ~2 other VPNs that tick all the privacy boxes, and you're the most preferable - other then lack of monero support. It always seemed weird that you went so far for privacy, but didn't support monero. Was it just on the backlog and took a bit of time to implement? I appreciate that you b…

> Why did it take so long to add monero support? It always seemed weird that you went so far for privacy, but didn't support monero. Was it just on the backlog and took a bit of time to implement? I don't work with payments and the surrounding systems so I don't know the details of the project itself. As an organization we've certainly been aware of the feature request, but until now we've prioritized other projects.…

Thanks so much for the response!

Re: Mullvad VPN now accepts Monero payments

#240

Post by 0daystock »

kfreds wrote: post #235
0daystock wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paradoxically, the most trustworthy thing you could do as a VPN provider is explain why most people don't need and won't actually benefit from a VPN. Outside of a few limited use cases (accessing location-restricted content, connecting to legacy services) and with almost-ubiquitous end-to-end TLS encryption deployed on the Internet, there's really not a lot of good reasons to use a VPN (and many good reasons not to).…

Thank you. I disagree with your assessment of the use cases for a VPN. Just one example: Your IP address is often a great identifier, making a VPN or Tor a useful starting point for online privacy. This is more or less what we say on our website as well. Based on your comment however I think you might find the follwing links to IVPN refreshing: https://www.ivpn.net/blog/why-you-dont-need-a-vpn/ https://www.doineedavp…

> Your IP address is often a great identifier, making a VPN or Tor a useful starting point for online privacy.

See, this is exactly why I don't trust you. This is used car salesman talk. IP addresses are only one minor tracking mechanism out of many which defeat obscuring originating IP by means of VPN altogether (canvas fingerprint, cookies, font/screen tracking, etc.) You're trying to say if I use a VPN, I get privacy because websites don't know my IP, but this isn't even remotely accurate. Do you explain this anywhere in your marketing materials? If not, it doesn't really help me, it just helps you sell the product.

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