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Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

paralleleconomy.com

61–70 of 92 posts

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#61
post #8

Nice pivot. I look forward to this "economy" stabilizing in the same way that Truth Social or Parler did - at about a tenth of the scale of their competition. Happy to let the pill-sellers and woke-fearers spend their money in their own little walled garden, well away from where I every have to hear about it (or be advertised to).

Ya, this is pretty much how I felt about the whole Ivermectin thing. Who am I to tell someone not to take horse de-wormer, when I also advocate for the freedom to take psychedelics? If someone _really_ wants to make sure they dont have horse heart worms, I dont see how they're hurting anyone else (besides being a disease vector, but thats not going to get worse).

In addition to veterinary applications in horses, Ivermectin is approved for human use and is a powerful anti-viral that is effective against "wide range of RNA and DNA viruses, for example, dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and others"[1].

There is, to date, no evidence that it is effective as a treatment for the Covid-19 variants. However, it's certainly harmful to post in a public forum that it's just "horse de-wormer", which could lead patients to reject approved treatment for these other diseases.

1. https://www.drugs.com/ivermectin.html

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#62
post #4

That's a good company name. The broader the cancellations, the broader the emerging parallel economy. Every case of a corporation refusing a customer is an opportunity for another to accept. In a relatively free market you don't extinguish a sector by dividing it; that just generates targetted support. Media is dividing along partisan lines and apparently payment processing is too. What else? How broad will the paral…

On the flip side, every time I hear about some right wing nut getting deplatformed by paypal, I think to myself, "hey their service isnt as bad as I thought." Virtue signaling might bring them more business then they lose by tossing out a small number of fringe wackos.

From your comments throughout this thread it seems as though you are either confident that your personal convictions will remain within the overton window in perpetuity or you lack the ability to imagine that one day they may not. Not to mention some of your convictions may have been outside the overton window in recent history. In a world where cash can be refused by businesses and governments can ban physical interaction, the ability to conduct digital commerce (and speech) must not be frustrated regardless of its general unsavoriness. The fact that we as a society have allowed a small cabal of payment processors to collude on who is allowed to conduct online commerce is a tragedy.

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their about page ( https://www.paralleleconomy.com/about/ ) explicitly mentions Parler: We are starting with payment processing. And keep building. We took on big tech and it was us who made Parler the most downloaded app in the world. Unfortunately we did not control Parler. We took on big tech and the success we had was unprecedented. We are back and we continue to take on all entities that want to abridge your fre…

I support and believe in the freedom to be a left-wing radical.

The difference is that radical left-wingers usually want better wages, free, universal health care, free education, a solution to climate change, gun control, equal chances. Some of them also advocate for a societal transition to veganism, banning cars, and universal basic income. Radical left-wingers tend to reject political and business elites. They tend to reject religion.

The radical right-wingers are white supremacists frequently committing acts of domestic terrorism. They are hostile toward education and science. They support a free market with trickle-down economics and no regulations. They worship oligarchs, hoping to become like them. They regularly call for normalcy and the sanctity of the family unit, but they also think that women don't deserve rights, because they are thin-skinned and can't stand to lose any of their privilege. They call everyone snowflakes, sheeps and cucks, which is exactly who they are. They love watching oligarchs living it up on their dime. Most of their idols are scam artists preying on their fears.

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#65
post #4

That's a good company name. The broader the cancellations, the broader the emerging parallel economy. Every case of a corporation refusing a customer is an opportunity for another to accept. In a relatively free market you don't extinguish a sector by dividing it; that just generates targetted support. Media is dividing along partisan lines and apparently payment processing is too. What else? How broad will the paral…

On the flip side, every time I hear about some right wing nut getting deplatformed by paypal, I think to myself, "hey their service isnt as bad as I thought." Virtue signaling might bring them more business then they lose by tossing out a small number of fringe wackos.

Something in those words reminds me of what some people were saying in early 1930s Nazi Germany: "Serves them right. Goddamn Jews."

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

—Martin Niemöller

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-nie...

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#66
post #57
post #4

That's a good company name. The broader the cancellations, the broader the emerging parallel economy. Every case of a corporation refusing a customer is an opportunity for another to accept. In a relatively free market you don't extinguish a sector by dividing it; that just generates targetted support. Media is dividing along partisan lines and apparently payment processing is too. What else? How broad will the paral…

we're going to have a red internet and blue internet pretty soon as various service providers begin to take sides. It will be interesting if the owners of fiber/copper in the ground and on poles begin to take sides as well. Same goes for peering providers...

Just like we have a red and a blue movie industry?

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the way that oat milk is milk made from oats.

Yes, and in the way the "censorship resistance" here is predicated on only the faintest family resemblance to censorship.

If removing an organization's ability to accept and send payments due to their entirely legal messaging isn't censorship, I'd like to see what is. If this organization is on the level, it would be a godsend for Palestinian or Yemeni charity organizations, who are constantly getting their payments screwed with and their accounts closed.

Palestinians are cancel culture victim #1, and the only reason anyone has ever heard of Bari Weiss is that she was a college campus cancel culture warrior.

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at about a tenth of the scale of their competition. I wish they were all at that scale, instead of being part of oligopolies/monopolies that depend on the silence/support of government to maintain that position.

Competition is great, and you'll never see me use PayPal for personal concerns over their own anti-consumer practices, but I don't see any particular value in introducing side-shows to the event. Stripe was a real contender for PayPal because it was playing the same game. Now they actually compete. Introducing a "competitor" that is promising to NOT play the same game just means that it's a novelty. There is value in…

> I don't see any particular value in introducing side-shows to the event.

I think that there's a nicer way to refer to the competition of large monopolists than as "side-shows."

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#69

Great work! If you could implement a payment flow where payouts could be made in Crypto, that would be awesome. It is very difficult getting paid for my software, and I’m just a little software developer in Canada. I don’t understand how you manage to maintain merchant accounts with the credit card vendors. It seems likely that they’ll shut you down, as soon as someone tries to fund a peaceful protest that goes again…

The Canada convoy protest was peaceful, except for the bribery, threats, assault, dangerous driving and setting a building on fire. That and the $6 billion economic loss, or the fact that nobody wanted them there, or that the protesters were protesting the COVID-19 vaccination mandate. And if that's not enough the whole thing was funded from the United States by Donald Trump donors and an American billionaire called…

It’s difficult to respond to such a deeply distorted perception of reality, but I’ll try.

The millions of people who supported this strong and effective display of resolve value their liberty so deeply that those subject to the “totalitarian impulse” are unable to comprehend it.

The unprecedented measures of “group punishment” deployed to stop it were stunning in their overreach, and have re-set the assumptions of compliance with government and police for millions of citizens.

You have absolutely NO comprehension of the beast you’ve unleashed.

Re: Parallel Economy: Censor-Resistant Payment Processing

#70

Great work! If you could implement a payment flow where payouts could be made in Crypto, that would be awesome. It is very difficult getting paid for my software, and I’m just a little software developer in Canada. I don’t understand how you manage to maintain merchant accounts with the credit card vendors. It seems likely that they’ll shut you down, as soon as someone tries to fund a peaceful protest that goes again…

The "Freedumb" Convoy "Protest" had Nazis in it, therefore it was a Nazi "Protest." The second they didn't kick out the dudes waving Nazi flags they lost any credibility they claimed to have.

And for the record the Freedumb Convoy was reviled by VAST majority of Canadians who saw it as the Nazi-enabling, grift-funded, reality-denying, anti-rational cesspool it truly was.

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