g2devi

g2devi, 5 days ago

I think it’s because finance in general is more a guy’s conversation area. Put two arbitrary guys from anywhere in the world together and they’ll talk about one of the following: sports/gaming, business/finance, technology, politics and family. XMR covers at least three of these. Women tend to have more social interests so finance (other than budgeting, where women dominate, even it hyper-traditional families) is a much smaller percentage of most women’s conversation. It’s not to say that privacy isn’t important to women, but if you want a privacy podcast for women, it has to be more social. If you want a pro-privacy podcast for women, get the following women to start a group podcast: Naomi Brockwell (privacy), Janice McAfee (privacy money activist), Vanessa Harris (practical altcoins with strong support for privacy in crypto), and some women in the “Women Leading Privacy” organisations around the world. If you want such a podcast, reach out directly to these women, encourage others to do so, and pledge to support the podcast, either by spreading the world, or helping organise it, or day to day, or even through a donation (in XMR of course).

g2devi, 11 days ago

There is no “we”. Like fiat, Monero is used by activists and persecuted people on all sides of any issue or normies in messed up countries where banks prevent you from getting your own money or normies who long for something better (either new or from the before times).

I’d be perfectly happy if the fiat system returned to the 1980s when you could get a bank account without ID, banks had to bribe you to share purchase history with “partners”, banks didn’t censor you because of your politics, you weren’t asked questions or restricted when you wanted to remove your money from the bank, MMT did not exist, and governments provided fewer services so they taxed you less. But that world isn’t coming back (at least not without a collapse). A 1960s world when fiat was still tied to gold would be better. But that’s even more unrealistic without a collapse. There are still a number of people who still remember the before times, and many have a similar vision and we can reach them. Bitcoin isn’t good enough…it’s too public…the information on it is too permanent. Showing the account balance and purchase history of an arbitrary Bitcoiner to a normie is the surest way to turn him off to crypto, especially when that normie learns that you can find out the purchases made during their younger years. People don’t want to be financial exhibitionists. So privacy coins like Monero are our only hope and our only hope to reach the normie.

People who do not remember the before times tend to either accept he current state or lean to a form of libertarianism or anarchism or agorism.

IMO, it’s a good thing there is no “we”. It means Monero is for everyone.

g2devi, 13 days ago

While I do admire the pledge and I hope it succeeds, IMO, it’s a bit too idealistic given how few people currently accept Monero. My suggestion is to have three tiers…platinum (the above)…gold (add “where possible” to each level) and bronze (add “or other crypto” but not fiat when not possible).

g2devi, 30 days ago

I agree in principle but in practise it would be a disaster without a plan. Localmonero.co works because it is THE P2P XMR place. If there are 100 versions, the liquidity on each would be so low that Noone would use it, especially for non USD trades. Having 100 localmoneros is good but you need a federated login like nostr and when you search for offers you would see offers for all instances of localmonero, or at least the most reputable ones. With this approach, the new localmonero would be unstoppable.

g2devi, 30 days ago

Note with this federated approach it would be possible for some instances to add plug-ins for haveno and basicswaodex and serai.

g2devi, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Here’s instruction on use: learn.robosats.com/read/en/

I think the key issue is the lightning network and the lack of user state so they user doesn’t know how many steps there are or where they are in process. Getting rid of lightning solves parts of the issue. The user state issue is a newbie UI mistake that most DEXes have solved by including something basic like providing the steps involved in the sidebar, highlighting where you are in the process and how to get to the next step. What I found intimidating on LocalMonero was the openness of it and the fact that may ads requested either KYC or to use Telegram (which I have no need of installing). The two extra layers on anonymity in robosats discourages KYC or use of 3rd parties to discuss the transaction. The discussions can take place on an ID-less chat like SimpleX which is integrated. I believe that SimpleX supports plugins to allow for automation, so crypto-to-crypto trades can be done without user intervention.

The point I’m trying to make is that in the absence of LocalMonero, it is possible to build a replacement using existing technologies (Tor,Robosats,SimpleX,Haveno,BasicSwap,Serai, etc), in a more private, anonymous, an easier and less intimidating to understand technologies.

g2devi, 1 month ago

While I agree, it’s not impossible. MimbleWimble has proven itself on Litecoin and it was implemented (I believe) using a soft fork. So just as Ordinals was forced on the maxis, MimbleWimble can be forced on the maxis as a payment channel if the demand is there. Note, MimbleWimble isn’t as private as Monero, and the fact that it’s possible to know when something goes into and out of MimbleWimble may make you targeted as a “money launderer” makes it risky. But at least its a step forward.

g2devi, 1 month ago

Eventually Monero will ossify and be linked to the existing financial system just like cash and gold. But when it happens it has to be on Moneros terms. Unfortunately bitcoin ossified and got adopted before it became popular. Btc.maxis believe Btc is popular but that is only in comparison with other crypto. If you look at people like rebel capitals on YouTube try to live off crypto outside Europe or the US you see it no crypto is anywhere near usable except perhaps Usdt on tron. That’s to Btc, monero has a guide on what not to do.

g2devi, 1 month ago

An old school method is to write a note with every fifth word being a seed word. Keep that note among 20 others so you cannot know what is relevant.

g2devi, 1 month ago

It doesn’t need to be on a device. You can create a “book” at the local binding store containing 200 samples of “Vogon poetry” ( spaceinvaders.epizy.com/vogon.html?i=1 ) . Your seed phrase can be scattered in a memorised pattern within the book. You can bring that book with you anywhere and have multiple copies in different locations.

g2devi, 1 month ago

Mining isn’t a transmission service. All mining does is validates a transmission that already happened. If validation equals doing, then you could send all auditors and detectives and judges to jail for the crimes they investigate and convict.

g2devi, 1 month ago

It’s nowhere near as complicated as this. Anarcho-Capitalism inevitably leads to Crony-Capitalism since some people out-compete others and eventually you arrive at a state where its possible to 51% attack any system (e.g. Cantillon Effect). There is only one solution, complete decentralisation in everything so that no-one person can dominate. Bitcoin’s main weakness was the lack of privacy (so real life attacks such as censorship, KYC regulations, etc could happen), lack of ASIC resistance (so power centralises), transaction speed so you have to rely on L2s, and the inability to mine your own transactions to push them forward. Monero is far better but it is not free from these issues. Mining should be so light that all wallets do it and the chance of centralisation is near zero.

g2devi, 1 month ago

I’m not american, but it’d take this report with a grain of salt since Politico is left leaning, the former advisers were selected at a time when Trump was more naive wrt the deep state and more dependent on neocons (first term Trump was indifferent to FISA, now he opposes it since it targeted him). What we do know is that Trump wants a strong dollar since if the US looses its reserve status, it’s a disaster. He wants to stop the haemorrhaging of US debt by stopping the wars and rebuilding US financial relations which were damaged due to the war and sanctions that forced many countries that tried to wean themselves off the dollar and SWIFT. His stance on Bitcoin has softened, so I don’t think he’ll be antagonistic to it. A lot depends on who he picks for VP and the military and FBI/CIA. If he picks Vivek Ramaswamy as VP and Tulsi Gabbard in charge of the military and FBI/CIA, he’ll focus on government and military reform and he’ll be very friendly to crypto, possibly using it along with gold to help to support the US dollar. If he does the reverse, you’ll likely see more social programs and reigning in of the FBI/CIA. If both are excluded and MAGA conservatives are selected to those spots, expect him to continue pre-COVID policies which appeared to work.

g2devi, 1 month ago

I agree to an extent, but banning from CEXes is the only way for Monero to truly become digital cash since cash is P2P. If everything depends upon CEXes, all Monero has done is replicate the existing financial institution. We might as well adopt anonymous repaid debit cards. It would have been best if this happened after Haveno, Serai, Serai integrating with the Maya Protocol, Seraphis, and FCMP (Full Chain Membership Proofs). But realistically, Haveno was taking forever, as was Serai, and FCMP were supposed to be done after Seraphis, and Seraphis might take 5 years to complete. IMO, because of the pressure with the delisting, Haveno and Serai have accelerated their development as has the interest in using them. FCMP may arrive before the end of the Bitcoin bull run. People from the Maya Protocol have also eyed Serai as a possible hub into the privacy space (since Monero proved that it won’t go away or be bow to regulation) and an integration like the Cosmos integration might be possible, making Monero integration into the whole DeFi world convenient and possible.

g2devi, 2 months ago

POS is fundamentally flawed. It increases centralization because people won’t want to validate themselves and instead delegate their stake to “trusted institutions”. Essentially, you’re recreating the existing financial system. POS is also less secure since you only lose X dollars for misdeeds but have the power to do far more than X dollars of damage. And if all you want to do is damage, that slashed stake is just the cost of doing business. And if people are staking with you, you don’t even risk losing your own money. And although the “guarantee” that the validator is doing right comes form the slashing of the stake, the enforcement of that slashing is political (i.e. others have to gang up on you to take your stake). When enforcement is political, wrongful slashing is inevitable. Finally, when a 51% attack is possible with validators, it’s imposible to undo it…unlike POW which can call on the community to start a few miners on their PCs.

g2devi, 2 months ago

Instead of POS (see my previous post), it would make much more sense to adapt the Nimble Wimble approach of making it so that validation is P2P whenever both parties are online. If I buy from you and you agree, then the purchase should been validated with 2 confirmations. Since we both agree that the transaction is made, it’s no-one else’s business if the transaction is valid. This would be much less resource intensive than even POS and be faster. If only one party is online at a time, it should be possible to have 1 confirmation and the other confirmation can be delegated to a miner. If neither are online at the time, then the usual POW takes place. Of course, that would mean that all wallets would have to be validators, but since you’re only validating your own transactions, it should be light weight.

g2devi, 3 months ago

Agreed but that’s the wrong approach. You cannot just drop old blocks since old wallets would lose their money. A better approach would be to have wallets specify a 'preserve records for N months ’ feature. The larger the number of months, the higher transaction fees are so people are incentivized to use a small number… A small number would also help with privacy since if the view key is ever leaked or quantum computing ever takes off, old your old records would not be leaked. Once N months passes. Old transactions are replaced by a single forwarding transaction with the total amount in the account.

g2devi, 3 months ago

Note that when you first deposit money into a wallet, you would prepay the cleanup fee and you would pay the cleanup fee on any transaction made after the N months. This would ensure that only N months of records are present. And if you do not touch you account for 20 years, no problem. You still have all your money and you only have N months of payments

g2devi, 3 months ago

BTC/ETH sidechains would be silly but there are valid uses of sidechains. Currently all transactions are stored on the blockchain forever, but do you really need to have 600 coffees a year forever on the blockchain for a significant portion of the Monero community? It makes much more sense to farm that out to a Monero Mimble-Wimble sidechain. Since this side chain specialises in small purchases, the consensus rule might also be speedier, so you get all the benefits of the lightning network with none of the drawbacks. Similarly, having a sidechain for scripted actions like automatic subscription payments (or at least payment reminders) would be nice, or more complex multisig and escrow wallets. If done correctly, all this could be done without touching the main Monero chain so Monero can focus on being real cash and the sidechains can do the extras and test out experimental features that may come to Monero eventually.

g2devi, 3 months ago

Don’t laugh. Gold can be purchased in many jurisdictions without KYC, so having a tokenized gold sidechain that may be exchanged with real gold at participating local dealers might actually qualify as a legal fiat on/off ramp. If gold is KYCed in your region, just then use a silver, copper, or even industrial grade manure or toilet paper side chain token. You can’t KYC all commodities. Imagine the field day the press would having on any politician that required KYC for trading fiat for bull manure (BS) and vice versa. The jokes just write themselves.

g2devi, 4 months ago

The reasons you give for using Monero don’t resonate with most people. No matter what political system you’re under, most people generally live very similar lives, separated more by the city/rural divide than anything else. So even if you convince people of all the threats, they’d shrug their shoulders and adapt, no matter what actually happens. Every once and a while, things get really out of whack, like during the lockdowns, but they can’t stay that way because people get bored of the political blah blah and tired of being manipulated and just go back to normal despite the consequences. Revolution doesn’t defeat tyrants, indifference does.

So what can be done to help Monero? Just increase the parallel/circular economy. Convince shop owners that crypto in general allows them to avoid credit card service charges and that there are only a few cryptos that are actually used, Monero being one of them. Host Monero meetups in restaurants and convince them to accept Monero during the meetup. Talk to farmers and get them to accept. Get content creators and online services to avoid dealing with payment processors and accept Monero. Basically, the usual stuff. Also, improve Monero technology. There are a lot of gaps that need filing to make the user experience as easy as credit card to use and banks to manage your money. Make it easier to live off Monero using by providing services like Spritz finance (www.spritz.finance). Yes these are KYCed services, but you are already KYCed by your landlord, tax department, and electricity company so there is no loss of privacy. This does, however, allow you to live on Monero without having a bank account and some services can be made non-KYC when possible.

g2devi, 4 months ago

For the record, this is more information on how drive chains are implemented in Z-Cash: lightco.in/2020/04/30/xcat-drivechain/ .

Essentially, a drive chain works by defining a wallet to accept payments and return money. When you put money in the wallet with a note on which sidechain wallet you want to have the money directed, a token representing the money placed into the money deposited is placed into the sidechain wallet. To remove money from the side chain, you send a note to the side chain where to send the money to and the tokens are destroyed and the wallet that you deposited the money returns the money to you.

This is extremely easy to build in Monero and is transparent that there is a point of trust (unlike BTC’s Lightning where at least the wallet appears it’s completely noncustodial), and that everything from Monero-LIghtning to Monero-Liquid to Monero-EtheriumCompetitor to even a currency exchange (put money into the wallet pool in one currency and get money back in the other currency by a drivechain on the other currency) can be built into Monero. It’s also clear that it could be done today without the Monero developers permission, but without some kind of endorsement, no-one would trust it since it’s so easy to rug pull.

g2devi, 5 months ago

The main problem I see with this is that it looks complicated and it’s unclear how to spend Monero upfront, so the bulk of people won’t follow through on this even if they understood what to do. The BTCtip is closer to what being approachable…fewer words and a barcode to get to the site directly and an expiration date to encourage people to act now (and let you know if the gift was accepted). Ultimately, I don’t see how you can avoid some one-on-one preparation (possibly with some hand holding) for this to work.