Thought Crime Trap House

https://www.techrepublic.com

California’s Forests Are Being Drenched in Glyphosate

A recent investigation found the U.S. Forest Service has applied over 266,000 pounds of glyphosate across CA forests in 2023, nearly 5x more than two decades ago, with new spraying plans expanding into ski resorts,

/PRIVACY\

Wake up and suit up anon, shit is getting dark real quick out there....

The FCC now wants you to ID yourself just to activate a cell phone. This is a common practice in shitty countries around the world, but in the "land of the free", we have always been able to go buy a burner phone and phone card with cash, activate it under an alias, and have a little fucking privacy with our cellular phones. The FCC, realizing that they had accidentally allowed people to have a little privacy and freedom, is quickly correcting their mistake. But wait, don't we have to have like a vote or something? No anon, this is America, where unelected bureaucrats can just make up laws any time they want as long as they call them "regulations".

On April 30, the FCC proposed a rule that would impose stricter KYC requirements on cell service providers. This would effectively end anonymous phone service, something that many people including me rely on every day. Domestic violence victims, activists, journalists, and your favorite cocaine dealer would all be fucked. If the rules make it through, they would probably take effect in about a year, so I'm wondering if we activate a bunch of anon numbers now if they would be grandfathered in or not. If not, I suppose when you run out of service and try to refill it they are going to ask for ID. So I wonder if I should activate 1000 phone numbers, buy 3 years of service for each of them, and then start selling anon phone service in the post anon phone service world. How much would you pay for an anon phone when no anon phones exist? Also send me a tip so I can afford to do my anon phone startup, because right now I think I can only afford to activate like 3 of the 1000.

I also wonder if this is going to put companies like MySudo and Silentlink out of business. Surely, there will be some kind of loophole...I hope....and it would be in the prepaid phone companies best interest to lobby hard against this because they will lose a lot of business if this goes through.

Also, another thing to consider, is if someone sued the FCC over this draconian bullshit, theoretically they could cite the recent 2024 Supreme Court Ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, which destroyed the "Chevron Doctrine". This was supposed to mean that Federal Agencies like the FCC can't just create de facto "law" via regulation without congressional authority. I'm not fluent enough in the holy language of the state, legalese, to determine if this could be applied or not, but it would be nice.

FCC Robocall Crackdown Raises Privacy Concerns Over Mandatory ID Checks

The FCC's proposed robocall crackdown could force carriers to verify customer identities, raising privacy concerns over anonymous phone use.

The FCC's new rule arrives not that long after Mexico announced it is implementing mandatory KYC on all cell phone numbers and internet lines in Mexico. The deadline to register is approaching soon and there was no grandfathering in of existing numbers with this, every single phone number has to be registered and linked to a biometric identity. Last time I checked, the majority of people had not complied with this law yet, it remains to be seen what will happen on deadline day. It's fascinating to me all the fucked up things governments will do to fight crime, but they won't just destroy half of crime overnight by ending the war on drugs.

Mexican politician: We got to track every phone to fight the cartels!

Me: Couldn't we just legalize drugs and take away their money and power?

Mexican politician: Are you high gringo? Legalize drugs? If we did that Trump would carpet bomb us.

Me: That's fair.

The control freaks also want you to hand over ID if you so much as want to talk to AI. The GUARD act just passed committee and it would require doxxing yourself just to use an AI chatbot. Now we have to ask the important questions...such as

Should we be selling our $VVV? $VVV is the crypto token for Venice AI, a privacy focused AI platform, which probably wouldn't work so well if they had to scan your face or ID first. I think the answer is no, don't sell. The founder, Erik Voorheez, will find away around it....that dude is smart (anyone who agrees with me politically is pretty smart).

As for me, I don't even have a valid ID. And you are not scanning my face either. I will go steal some RAM and run my own goddamn model before I scan my face.

THEY WANT YOUR ID FOR EVERY GODDAMN THING NOW.

Back when men were men and T levels were higher, if someone wanted to verify your identity, they just asked you for your signature. Men would go and hunt a bald eagle, make a pen out of it's feathers, make some ink out of it's blood, and sign on the dotted line. No ugly selfies on plastic. No DMV lines. No databases. Just birds of prey and a handshake, as it should be.

Someone found a way to fingerprint Mullvad users, and a fix has been rolled out.

Mullvad exit IPs as a fingerprinting vector

Update 5/29: Mullvad has begun rolling out a mitigation feature on their servers that scrambles exit IP positions, thereby fixing this issue. IPs are still deterministically selected based on the pubkey. Mullvad is one of the few VPN providers that offers multiple exit IPs for its servers.

https://tmctmt.com

Kycrip made a wallet for Monero with a native AI Agent gateway, if you want your agent to be based check it out.

Ripley Terminal | Self-Custodial Monero Desktop Wallet

The first self-custodial Monero vault with native AI Agent Gateway. Built-in Tor routing, cross-chain Ghost Sends, encrypted local keys.

https://ripley.run

Google is using new captchas on desktop users that require you to scan a QR code with an Android or iOS device with Google Play Services installed. So if you only have a Graphene OS device, you will be locked out of these websites that are using Google's captcha system.

IT Guy

@T3chFalcon

It is important for anyone concerned about privacy to recognize that this is not a technical error but an intentional policy decision.

At Cloud Next on April 22-23, 2026, Google(@Google) introduced Cloud Fraud Defense, describing it as the next evolution of reCAPTCHA. When the

Here's a very detailed thread about it from Graphene OS if you want more info.

GrapheneOS

@GrapheneOS

Apple and Google are gradually expanding their use of hardware-based attestation. They're convincing a growing number of services to adopt it. Google's Play Integrity API and Apple's App Attest API are very similar. Apple brought it to the web via Privacy Pass, which Google

ICE is giving thousands of police departments across the United States access to it's face scanning app, which compares faces to a federal database of millions of faces to verify someone's immigration status. There are a few jurisdictions that have banned their police from using facial recognition, and I'm assuming those police departments won't be using this app. Here's a list if you want to know where a good place to live might be if you don't want the piggies scanning your face.

Facial Recognition Bans in America: State by State - State of Surveillance

15 states restrict police facial recognition. San Francisco banned it in 2019. Every wrongful arrest has been a Black person. The complete US guide to biometric surveillance bans.

https://stateofsurveillance.org

Flock cameras aren't just automated license plate readers, they also catalog vehicles by other characteristics including paint jobs, body damage, bumper stickers, etc. On top of this, they have built in microphones. Flock is turning on these microphones in some places to supposedly listen for gunshots and people in "distress". This means the mics are live 24/7, listening to any human voices they can detect and scanning those voices for signs of "distress". I have a feeling "accidental" police shootings are going to go up significantly if the cops get auto called by these surveillance devices every time they hear someone screaming. People sound like they are in distress all the time in non emergency situations, and if you send heavily armed trigger happy thugs to a non emergency situation then often it turns into a real emergency situation in which innocent people end up hurt or dead. The surveillance grid that is being built out right now by Flock needs to be stopped, and some enterprising young men and women could theoretically knock these cameras down faster than Flock can replace them....

FWPD begins testing on Flock surveillance cameras with audio detection

The system, which uses acoustic sensors to identify sounds associated with gunfire and other potential public safety threats, is the latest Flock Safety technology to be used by the department alongside its existing license plate reader camera network.

https://www.wane.com

As if every Flock camera turning on microphones wasn't bad enough, a company called Signal Trace is about to make the automated license plate reader problem much worse. Even if you don't drive a car, you will be tracked if you get into a car with any bluetooth device. This is one of the reasons I still use wired headphones, using bluetooth opens you up to attacks like this. They also might be tracking phones via WiFi and RFID too, so be aware of that as well.

Jason Bassler

A company called SignalTrace wants to expand license plate readers into cross-device surveillance infrastructure and link phones, AirPods, and smartwatches to your car’s movement.

First they tracked your car.

Now they want to track your "always-on" Bluetooth devices with

Deflock is having a national week of action on August 16-22 to try and slow down or stop the proliferation of these Flock surveillance systems. The deflock movement has already gotten 68 cities to cancel their existing contracts or reject them in the first place. Because Flock Cameras are installed by a private company and not the Federal or State governments, it is way easier to stop them at the local level. Every city that bans these cameras puts another blind spot in their surveillance network. To find out more about check out the week of action page, and check out Deflock's website.

National Week of Action Against ALPRs | DeFlock

Mass surveillance doesn't equal safety. Join the movement to dismantle automated license plate readers in our communities. Add your city to the growing list.

https://noalprs.com

DeFlock

DeFlock is an open-source project that maps license plate readers across the US.

https://deflock.org

Sweden wants to force children to wear GPS monitors if they determine the child is at risk of committing a crime in the future. What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Reclaim The Net

https://www.hipaajournal.com

Sweden wants to strap GPS bracelets on children based on pre-crime predictions.

A social worker decides you're "at risk" of committing a crime and the state tracks your location in real time.

They say they'll design it to look like a watch so it's less "stigmatizing."

The

Many smart TVs are taking screenshots of whatever you have on your screen, including that porno you filmed with your ex that you watch at 3 am every Friday night while cutting yourself. These TVs are then using ACR to figure out what exactly you are watching, logging it, and sending that data off to God knows where. Pro tip, just don't buy a "smart" anything unless it's open source and self hosted.

Nav Toor

@heynavtoor

Your smart TV is taking screenshots of your screen every 15 seconds.

Not a guess. Not a theory.

A peer-reviewed study by researchers at UC Davis, UCL, and UC3M tested it.

Samsung TVs: every minute.
LG TVs: every 15 seconds.

Even when you're just using it as a monitor.

Here's

Some Republicans introduced privacy legislation on the Federal level that has some interesting aspects to it. Of course all the good shit will get stripped out and replaced with watered down versions, and horrible shit will get added before any comprehensive pro privacy bill like this gets anywhere near becoming law, so don't get your hopes up.

House Republicans Make New Attempt to Introduce Federal Data Privacy Legislation

House Republicans have made a fresh attempt to introduce federal data privacy legislation that, if passed, will replace the current patchwork of state House Republicans have introduced the SECURE Data Act, which seeks to create a federal data privacy standard to replace the current patchwork of states' comprehensive data privacy laws.

/CRYPTO\

Is Monero under attack? Again?

First Thorchain got exploited (again) for 10 million dollars less than 24 hours after live demoing the new Monero integration with real XMR. A Thorchain integration would be game changing for Monero on and off ramping because it would add a liquid decentralized exchange to the community. Instead of relying on instant swap services, Monero users could permissionlessly swap Monero into other cryptocurrencies, which could then be offramped into fiat easily. It also works the other way around, someone could buy some Bitcoin with fiat, then swap into Monero on Thorchain.

Douglas Tuman

@DouglasTuman

.@jpthor of @THORChain just live-demoed a Rune to Monero swap! It’s not live on Mainnet yet, but it appears to be functioning with real Monero!

None of this would have been possible without the contributions @kayabaNerve has made. The Monero fam is patiently waiting for the

.....the next day

THORChain

@THORChain

Important Announcement

Trading on THORChain is currently halted after a vault was compromised. Initial indications are user funds are safe and only protocol owned funds are affected.

The network automatically detected abnormal behavior and halted signing activity, which alerted

The Monero community has been waiting on Thorchain to add Monero for years and this is the closest it has ever gotten to happening. Talk about a rug pull. Once Thorchain recovers from this latest exploit (what is this like the 5th, I lost count), hopefully they can complete the Monero intergration. I believe Serai DEX is also close to launching, and sooner than later would be good considering that...

Retoswap also got exploited, not long after Thorchain. Retoswap is a P2P exchange built on top of Haveno, which is a Bisq fork. Bisq was also exploited not long ago as well. Considering that Retoswap is one of the largest decentralized offramps for converting XMR to fiat or other crypto, it is vitally important to the Monero ecosystem. 7000 XMR worth 2.7 million dollars were stolen.

These hacks happened within a week of each other and on the eve of the largest upgrade in Monero's history, FCMP++, that will make it almost impossible for blockchain analysis companies to trace transactions. Is this a coincidence or a coordinated attack on the only blockchain that is in a position to resist the dystopian surveillance state that is being built out at an accelerated pace. The state wants to track every cent you spend, every thing you do online, and everywhere you travel. They are well on their way to being able to do that, and the only thing that stands in the way of total control is freedom tech like Monero. So it would make total sense if the United States Government, which likely has access to non public advanced AI models (like Anthrophic's Mythos), would use those models to find vulnerabilities in Monero's ecosystem. However, it might just be some random hackers, or even state actors from another government such as Lazarus Group out of North Korea, who are targeting Monero specifically because it is much more convenient to unload stolen Monero than it is to unload stolen crypto on any transparent blockchains.

Monero's biggest upgrade ever, Full Chain Membership Proofs ++, is finally almost here. After two and a half years of development, the upgrade is currently undergoing it's third audit by Trail of Bits. Saying this is a big fucking deal is an understatement, FCMP++ would fix Monero's biggest issue, the probabilistic deanonymization of transactions, by increasing the effective anonymity set exponentially. Currently every transaction output hides within a "ring" of 16 outputs, 15 of which are decoy outputs. In 2025, Rucknium published research that showed the effective ring size was closer to 4.2, not 16, with an optimal Bayesian adversary. Monero either had to redesign it's entire system, or this problem could get even worse over time. So that's exactly what they are doing with FCMP++ basically the number of outputs a real spend is hiding among goes up to more than 150 million instead of 16. This would make Monero's privacy...bulletproof, and completely destroys Chainalysis's current statistical attack methods on Monero. In a world that is becoming more dystopian every day, we need untraceable digital cash more than ever. Freedom itself is on the line here. Monero is the only privacy cryptocurrency that is actual used in real world commerce at the moment, if it gets broken either slowly by further attacks on the current setup, or by unforeseen bugs in the FCMP++ upgrade, then it will leave a massive hole in the privacy crypto space just when private cryptocurrencies are needed the most. That's why the devs have been taking their sweet time delivering this, they have to move slowly and carefully because it is so important that they get everything right.

@ babysolo_ recently published a good deep dive into the FCMP++ upgrade and it's potential risks, including;

-A mild fail: Performance issues that slow the network down, which could be optimized and fixed

-Moderate fail: Some kind of privacy bug where either some kinds of transactions or even all transactions can be deanonymized

-The "holy shit we are fucked" fail: Inflation bug (way worse of an issue on a privacy blockchain because they can go unnoticed for some time), meaning an attacker can mint free Monero that shouldn't exist. Technically this could be fixed, but the damage to both Monero's price and reputation could be catastrophic.

The author pointed out that there is no set rollback plan if the FCMP++ hard fork does have a major issue. Any response would be be improvised under extreme pressure. This is a blockchain that is securing billions of dollars in value and literally protecting people's freedom or even their lives. Personally I have a lot of faith in the very smart people who have been working very hard on getting this upgrade right, the first time. But it is important that we as a community are aware of the risks of the upgrade, which is why I appreciated this article. Check it out if you want to dig deeper.

In other Monero news, the devs are hard at work addressing the elephant in the crypto ecosystem, quantum computers and the threat they pose to the security of almost all cryptocurrencies.

Monero (XMR)

The Monero Research Lab has provided an update on post-quantum encryption for Monero!

Monero Research Lab (Unofficial)

https://bitcoinmagazine.com

tevador proceeds with Option A (standard CSIDH-1024 parameters) for Jamtis: 400-character addresses. All transactions embed a CSIDH-1024 public key in tx_extra; legacy wallets ignore it with no scan-time change. An optional interactive symmetric-crypto payment protocol is being

The new version of Monero GUI desktop wallet is out. Get it here, make sure to verify your download.

SAYLOR SOLD

Bitcoin has been dumping ever since Microstrategy, the world's largest holder of Bitcoin other than Satoshi, announced it had made its first sale of Bitcoin since 2022 to cover dividend payments. I think they are now saying that he only sold because he wanted to prove to the bond rating agencies that he would sell if he needed to so that they would rate his bonds higher than "junk". Despite being only 32 BTC out of more than 840,000 BTC, the price reacted badly. Saylor has been the "never sell" leader of the orange tie suitcoiner fucktard brigade that transformed Bitcoin from a cypherpunk alternative currency into a traditional investment "reserve asset" for corporations and boomer retirement accounts. The Saylor brigade only cares about number go up, while ignoring freedom, privacy, and actual Bitcoin development. Maybe the state has to decided to deal with the threat of Bitcoin by pretending to embrace Bitcoin. By pushing the "digital gold" narrative, they're steering people away from using Bitcoin as an actual currency like it was designed to be, with increasing numbers of Bitcoiners getting in bed with the state and TradFi just to get rich in fiat terms.

Microstrategy's "strategy" is a potential house of cards that could trigger a prolonged bear market or worse, prompt the US Government to bail them out to acquire their massive hoard of Bitcoin (over 4% of the entire supply) for Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Originally a software company that pivoted to being a "Bitcoin Holding Company" in 2020-2021, MSTR was attractive before Bitcoin ETFs existed because it gave people a way to gain exposure to BTC within a brokerage account other than the GBTC trust. Now that MSTR is no longer the only game in town, Saylor's latest gimmick is selling STRC shares, which are $100-pegged shares paying 9-11% monthly dividends. This ponzi requires actual cash flow, which MSTR doesn't have since they have no real business or revenue. By selling those 32 Bitcoin, Saylor shattered the illusion that MSTR would never sell, and now the market is pricing in future sales. If Bitcoin keeps dropping, Saylor may need to sell larger amounts to fund monthly STRC payments, creating a recipe for what could be a legendary downward spiral. Bitcoin is for subverting the state, not making institutions richer, and it might have its revenge on these over leveraged assholes, giving plebs another chance to buy cheap bitcoin. Although honestly I don't know enough about MSTR's ponzinomics to know what it would take to actually bankrupt them. They could just keep trucking along forever, but I'm not going to ever invest in them.

Strategy (MSTR) Sells 32 Bitcoin, First BTC Sale Since 2022

Strategy broke its long-standing HODL streak, selling bitcoin for the first time in years.

Z Cash finds hidden inflation bug, presses the "pause" button

TylerD 🧙‍♂️

@Tyler_Did_It

Confirmation of a massive potential ZEC exploit

TLDR:
- ZCASH hired a security researcher to try to find exploit vectors
- The researcher (Taylor Hornby) found one that would let him create unlimited counterfeit ZEC in a shielded pool
- The exploit is now fixed as of June 1
-

zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ

@zooko

x.com/i/article/2062…

Apparently an exploitable inflation bug was found in the Orchard shielded pool on Zcash by a security researcher running the code through Claude 4.8. In response Zcash paused all Orchard transactions for about 24 hours and patched the bug.

This required the majority of miners to coordinate and agree to orphan Orchard transactions. They were able to arrange this relatively quickly as well, which is worrisome. This means that Zcash mining is centralized to the point where it is easy to coordinate a massive operation like this, which if you think about from an adversarial perspective, means it would also be relatively easy for a organization with a monopoly on violence, i.e the state, to pressure these same entities into freezing a shielded pool, perhaps indefinitely because someone who the state doesn't like has deposited a large amount of ZEC into the pool.

A supposedly decentralized uncensorable privacy blockchain SHOULD NOT be this easy to pause. Although to be fair, they didn't pause the entire network, just part of it. Does centralization have it's advantages? Sure, in this example they were able to quickly patch this bug, which is great. But this can also be abused and is an axe hanging over the head of any ZEC holder that at any time without warning you could lose access to moving your funds.

It gets worse though....this bug has been exploitable for 4 years and was only just discovered. While there is currently no evidence that it was exploited, because of the nature of a shielded pool, there is no way to find out for sure without making a whole new shielded pool and migrating all the funds from the Orchard pool to the new pool through a "turnstile". If more ZEC tries to exit Orchard than has entered it, then you will have confirmed that it was exploited. Hidden inflation bugs are the biggest risk for any privacy protocol, because a hacker could just sell "counterfeit" coins without anyone ever knowing until it was too late. It took people a few days to realize the severity of this and on Thursday ZEC sold off hard. I think ZEC will probably be ok in the long term, but it remains to be seen. Polymarket has the odds that the bug was actually exploited at only around 10%.

Paul Sztorc, the guy behind drivechains (a bitcoin upgrade that will never see the light of day because the bitcoin community has stopped believing in upgrading software at all), gave up on getting them implemented into bitcoin and is hard forking into "ecash" in August. Ecash with ship with 7 drivechains, including a Zcash clone for privacy (hopefully one without any inflation bugs). Interestingly, while regular BTC holders will receive ecash on a 1:1 basis, Satoshi only gets 1:2. Half of Satoshi's coins will go to fund the project I believe.

Paul Sztorc

@Truthcoin

BREAKING: New Bitcoin Fork

I am helping create a **new Bitcoin Hardfork** -- dropping this August, called "eCash".

- Your coins will split. For example, if you have 4.19 BTC, then you will get 4.19 eCash.
- You may sell your eCash -- or keep it. Or ignore it!

Vegas:

- Yes, I

/Cool Shit\

Here is a new site from one of the largest ancap accounts on twitter, Dylan Allman

HOSTIS · Enemies of All Mankind

no rights reserved · all copies welcome

https://hostis.black

It's basically a bunch of privacy tech stuff and ancap philosophy, except pirate themed. Obviously vibe coded, but well done nonetheless.

Someone built an email service on top of Nostr. I spun up a couple of emails, it's free and just generates a new nsec for each email address, or you can use an existing nsec. I have no idea how much free storage comes with this though, and your actual email address is pretty unwieldy for using IRL because it is simply your npub, which is a long string of random characters and numbers, so mine is npub1hhgazttsdefyeyvang4fws7z3l3ns9tspa2rga8ntpjce7ncjt0qhgj85s@uid.ovh

So if you want to use this, you could always use simplelogin to create shorter alias emails that forward to your nostrmail.

Keep in mind I have no idea who created this, how secure it is, or if they respect your privacy or not, so use at your own risk. Supposedly it is designed to be a more decentralized, safer, and faster alternative to SMTP. They also say that your email metadata is encrypted and hidden from the Nostr relays.

It's open source, so if you want you can just run the code through Claude and find out how private and secure it is. Regardless, since creating a new email with nostrmail currently involves absolutely zero friction (no need for another email address, phone number, etc), it probably makes a good option for a burner email address if you need one.

Nostr Mail | The Open Protocol for Decentralized Email

The open, sovereign and decentralized email protocol powered by Nostr. Own your identity and inbox without central authorities or gatekeepers.

https://nostrmail.org

I also found an email hygiene tool, Paperweight, which I wish had been available to me a couple years ago when I started the long and arduous process of digging through old email accounts, cleaning them up, and finding and deleting any accounts that used that email.

Paperweight scans all your emails, and maps out your digital footprint based on that so that you can try and control it.

-Find out which companies that you interact with have been breached

-Identify every company that has your data

-Generate GDPR data deletion requests with pre-filled templates and company contacts.

-Unsubscribe from dozens of mailing lists at once.

-Hosted locally so that you are not sending all your email off to some unknown party somewhere.

(they even accept Monero if you want to purchase a perpetual license for extra features)

Paperweight | Manage your digital footprint

Paperweight scans your inbox to map your digital footprint, then helps you take back control and delete your data. Local-first and open source.

https://www.paperweight.email

Check out the latest Cloak and Dagger podcast with Thane Riddle on the Paznia Radio Network. He's been having some good guests/conversations recently, you should also check out the previous episode in which he interviews a drug war refugee living in Mexico after fleeing prosecution for cannabis in the United States.

And the latest Monerotopia episode for the latest from the Monero community.

Here's a cool site where you can learn all about FIPS, the mesh network protocol being built on top of Nostr.

Learn FIPS | Learn FIPS

An interactive guide to the FIPS mesh protocol

https://learn.fips.network

If you actually read this and made it down here, you are an obviously based individual. Thank you, remember to subscribe and share, and have a wonderful day!

Thought Crime Trap House #7 March 31 2026

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 22:33:14 GMT

You don't have to go to the extremes I have, but protecting your privacy is no longer optional. Criminals are getting data on crypto holders from data leaks and targeting them with kidnappings and armed home invasions. The state is implementing an AI powered mass surveillance network on a scale never before seen in history. Digital IDs and CBDCs are spreading like wild fire and the exits are closing. If you don't opt out and build a life outside of the system soon, you might be trapped in it forever. Subscribe to get the latest news on crypto, freedom tech, and privacy alongside actionable advice to help you opt out and protect yourself.

- I might have to move soon, Paragraph has been wonky as fuck lately to the point where it has taken me twice as long to finish this issue. I keep getting "rate limited by upstream proxy" or server errors when I'm editing my post and that's probably not a good sign. Neither is the radio silence from Paragraph's socials lately. Given that it was a Farcaster project originally and Farcaster isn't doing so well, Paragraph may be out of runway to keep operating. Hopefully they didn't spend all their capital trying to "coin" everything, it's pretty obvious at this point that nobody wants to buy a memecoin for a ephemeral blog post or "creator coins" that don't offer any actual ownership of anything. It sucks because I liked Paragraph a lot especially before they started all the coining nonsense. This will probably be the last issue on Paragraph unless things improve. I certainly don't want to be beholden to Substack so instead I am looking at either paying for Ghost (the Rage uses them) to host me or self hosting on my own website. Consider helping me with any moving costs by donating!

Please excuse my bad language and rampant sarcasm.

Tip me in XMR on XMRchat

Send some ETH or any ERC-20 token on mainnet or any EVM layer 2 blockchain to thoughtcrimeboss.eth

Send me sats via Bitcoin mainnet: bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Or send me Bitcoin via lighting to burnedmitten671@minibits.cash

Send me SOL or any Solana token at 9uLhcY5AKHjYK3kySrgDnWqp5NFh9p1LQztT8iZUPdxZ

You can also support me by following me on Nostr npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

Or follow me on X and help me get to 1k followers!

Please share this with your friends and enemies, it's free and it helps me a lot.

RIP Discord

In our last issue we talked about the announcement from Discord that they would be implementing mandatory age verification. If you didn't verify your age through either uploading a government ID or taking a video selfie, than your account would be locked in a restricted teen mode.

I was pleased to see the absolute firestorm that erupted across the entire internet over this. It was a reminder of the absolute power that users have over platforms that are nothing without their users. People were threatening to or did delete Discord in droves and Google searches for discord alternatives spiked to record highs. The move was not popular in the slightest, I didn't see any positive reactions to it on X at least.

Discord did some backpedaling in response to the controversy. Now they were saying for most users they could just guess if you are an adult or not (probably by scanning every message you have ever sent on the platform).

Discord

@discord

We’ve seen some questions about our age assurance update and we want to share more clarity. We know how important these changes are to our community.

Here’s what we want you to know:
‣‣‣ 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗮

discord.com

A Safer Discord by Default: New Teen Safety Updates

Discord is rolling out global teen safety updates designed to create age-appropriate experiences by default.

Discord Support

@discord_support

Discord will soon be expanding teen safety protections worldwide including teen-by-default settings and age assurance designed to create safer experiences for teens.

We’re also launching recruitment for Discord's first Teen Council, creating a space for teen voices to help shape

Tools instantly appeared all over the place to bypass Discord's age verification. So they switched up the entire process and started sending the data to a company called Persona.

Pirat_Nation 🔴

@Pirat_Nation

Discord has been caught lying.

Discord caught ditching its current age verification provider for Persona after bypasses appeared everywhere.

They promised "facial scans never leave your device" and no uploads, but now they send your IDs and data to a third-party company.

After Persona got involved, shit really hit the fan for Discord. Some hackers accessed some information left exposed to the open internet on OpenAI's servers that revealed disturbing things about Persona, the third party identity verification service that Discord had switched to. Basically verifying your identity through Persona is a one way ticket into a Federal database where you will be rated on how suspicious you are.

the watchers: how openai, the US government, and persona built an identity surveillance machine that files reports on you to the feds

53MB of source code leaked from a government endpoint. 269 verification checks. biometric face databases. SAR filings to FinCEN. and the same company that verifies your ChatGPT account.

https://vmfunc.re

So after this Persona leak, people got even madder at Discord than they were before and Discord had to drop Persona.

Pirat_Nation 🔴

@Pirat_Nation

Discord has announced that it is cutting ties with Persona, the AI software company backed by Peter Thiel that it used for age and identity verification.

"Discord is attempting to distance itself from the age verification provider Persona following a steady stream of user

After all the hoobaloo that Discord caused, they are now delaying the rollout of age verification entirely until the second half of 2026. I think they are just hoping everyone forgets about it by then.

Discord

@discord

Getting Global Age Assurance Right: What We Got Wrong and What’s Changing.

Read the update:

discord.com

Getting Global Age Assurance Right: What We Got Wrong and What's Changing

Discord's CTO addresses community concerns about age assurance: no mass ID collection, new vendor transparency commitments, and a delayed global launch until second half of 2026.

Luckily, Discord is not the only game in town, there are alternatives for hosting a community chat. I haven't seen a Discord killer yet, but with the ease of coding with AI increasing drastically it is only a matter of time before some Chad vibe codes a based freedom tech version of Discord that is good enough to get adopted.

The main problem with all of the current Discord alternatives is lack of adoption, no matter which one you choose there are going to be way less users and servers to choose from than with Discord. It's up to us to fix that, we should be trying to get as many people off of Discord and onto FOSS alternatives as we can. Discord needs to die out and serve as a lesson to any platform that decides to implement mandatory age verification.

So what is available right now? For FOSS Discord alternatives we have:

Mumble:

-Voice chat application

-Lightweight, doesn't take much resources

-Focused entirely on voice chat

-Doesn't save your messages unlike Discord which keeps everything

-Voice channels and control channels are encrypted

-No text chat, setting up a server is a little more technical than Discord, lacks many of Discord's features.

-Mobile and desktop clients available

Stoat:

-Stoat is much closer to Discord in design with both text and voice channels and roles.

-Self hostable if you want

-Not many users yet

-Easy to migrate a group from Discord to Stoat

-Not end to end encrypted, messages are only encrypted in transit from user to server, but if you control the server you have full control over that data.

Matrix:

-End to end encrypted

-Federated and decentralized design

-Interoperable with other protocols, for example users can use a portal to chat with people on a Discord server or Slack

-Feature rich like Discord. Supports text chat, voice/video calls, screen sharing, file sharing, reactions, threads, and custom emojis.

-You can either self host or use a public home server. Pick a good home server if you want to go that route, or your user experience is going to be less than ideal.

-A bit more of a learning curve than something like Discord, but still easy enough to figure out if you aren't a retard.

SimpleX:

-Privacy focused platform for small group chats or one on one chats

-Strong encryption for all messages

-No voice chat

-No phone numbers or emails needed to create an account

-Designed to limit metadata as much as possible

-Decentralized design, no central server

-Mobile client needs some work, but it is usable

-Very limited community management tooling

-They have some very dope servers to hang out in

Valour:

-Looks and feels more like Discord than most of the alternatives

-Still in Alpha

-Voice and text chat

-Item system, personalization features, custom emojis

-More privacy than Discord

-Slow development

-Self hostable

Flotilla:

-Built on top of NOSTR

-Built in zaps (sending small amounts of Bitcoin over lighting to your homies)

-Threads, rooms, web of trust, private messages

-Still very new, almost no users yet, but has potential

Jitsi:

-Video conferencing software that doesn't spy on your meetings

-Been around awhile, stable

-Can handle video calls with up to 75 people at once

-One on one calls are E2E encrypted

-Self hostable, no accounts required to join meetings

-In meeting text chat and screen sharing

-Meetings are one time events, you can't host a persistent community on Jitsi.

Common Ground:

-Web3 Discord alternative

-Github not very active lately, make of that what you will

-Self hosting is not an option yet, relies on centralized servers

-Looks and feels like Discord

-Very crypto oriented, good for DAOs who want things like token gating.

Rocket.chat

-Limited feature set for the free version, but still open source

-Very focused on security of comms, good for work teams

-Self hostable

-E2E encryption

-Highly customizable, intergrations with zendesk and salesforce, live call transcription and AI recaps

-Supports airgapped deployments

My two favorites right now are SimpleX and Matrix, but that's also because I haven't tried any of the others! I am looking for a place to host a Thought Crime Trap House chat for all 50 of my subscribers, so let me know what your favorite Discord alternative is.

/Random Tips For Avoiding The State\

-Make friends with your neighbors, especially those close enough to see or hear your home. Introduce yourself to them if you haven't already, give them a phone number and tell them to call you if they ever need anything.

Wave at them when you see them, smile, ask how they are doing. Do favors for them if you can. Do this even if you hate it, even if they are retarded scumbags. Who knows, they might grow on you.

The main goal is to get them to talk to you first if they have a problem rather than going straight to the police, HOA, or code enforcement. You don't want to make enemies with your neighbors. Many encounters with the state start with neighbors who don't like you, often because they don't even know anything about you.

Eventually you want to develop the kind of relationship with your neighbors in which they will look out for you. A neighborhood full of friends doesn't call the state on each other.

-Remember, once you put your garbage can on the curb, it's considered fair game for cops to look through it without a warrant.

If you have anything to dispose of that you don't feel like sharing with the state, discreetly take it to a public trashcan or burn it.

After all we all know how much pigs like their garbage.

/Privacy & Security\

In a rare victory for privacy, public backlash against a VPN ban provision in a Wisconsin age verification bill led to it being removed from the bill entirely. The rest of the bill still sucks, but it is an improvement at least.

Wisconsin scraps VPN ban from age verification bill following backlash

Lawmakers hear the concerns of VPN users across the country, removing VPN blocking requirements from the age verification bill. Yet, experts warn that the proposed law still comes with some major issues.

https://www.techradar.com

AND public backlash from a dystopian Super Bowl ad where Amazon demonstrated how it's Ring security cameras could be used to instantly locate a lost dog in the neighborhood, led to Amazon canceling it's contract with Flock Safety.

Singularity

@promptprofitsai

Amazon's Ring cancels controversial AI surveillance partnership with Flock — the network used by ICE, feds & police. The deal would have let Ring users share footage with law enforcement agencies. techcrunch.com/2026/02/13/ama… #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AINews #Tech

techcrunch.com

Amazon's Ring cancels partnership with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police...

This news comes less than a week after Ring's Super Bowl commercial stoked controversy over the company's capacity for mass surveillance.

Of course any good news lately is immediately overwhelmed by bad news. California, Colorado, Brazil, and now Illinois have either passed or are trying to pass bills that force age verification on the OS level. Sure if linux distros start implementing this, there will be forks and workarounds, but the average user isn't going to use them. So that means most users in these jurisdictions will have to go through some kind of age verification to even install a fucking operating system. This makes me want to puke.

The Lunduke Journal

10 days until Brazil’s draconian “All Operating Systems must have age verification” law takes full effect.

To date, not one major Open Source organization (Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, etc.) has addressed this law… which carries $9.5 Million (USD) in fines per violation (per

The Lunduke Journal

Brazil Law: All OS's Have 13 Days to Add Age Verification

A new law, in Brazil, requires age verification on all Operating Systems (including Linux & Windows) by March 17th. Plus a rundown on similar laws in California, Colorado, and New York.

The Lunduke Journal

An “Age Verification for all Operating Systems” (including Windows, macOS, & Linux) bill has been introduced in the state of Illinois.

This new bill (Illinois SB 3977) is *very* similar to the recently passed California bill (and the introduced Colorado bill) and, if passed,

The Lunduke Journal

https://digitalgoods.proxysto.re

Say hello to Michigan House Bill 4429 and Senate Bill 284.

This is Michigan’s “Digital Age Assurances Act”.

And it would require ALL Operating Systems (including Linux & Windows) to implement “commercially reasonable” age verification of every user on every system.

This

These new laws led to a very controversial change to "systemd" , an innit system for Linux that is used by the majority of Linux distros. The pull request #40954, "userdb: add birthDatefield to JSON user records" was merged in mid March. This adds an optional birthday field to systemd's userdb service which manages user account records. Applications can then request this information from the OS.

Just because the field is "optional" today doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. Linux devs shouldn't be ceding a single inch to these tyrants and their Age Verification nonsense. Every thing starts out as "optional" and eventually becomes mandatory, such as social security numbers. Distros are now deciding whether they will support age verification or refuse to support it, here is a list of who is on the side of freedom and who isn't.

People are being banned from r/linux for even discussing this, which should tell you all you need to know.

Proton doxxed an anon protester to the FBI through payment data. Now, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Proton is going to turn over data to law enforcement when legally required to. Almost any company would comply with such an order. The problem I have with Proton in this case is that they are going to have this data on every single paid user because they are not offering any private payment methods. The only payment methods they offer on their checkout page is credit/debit card, Google Pay, and Paypal. Contrast this with another popular privacy service, Mullvad VPN, which also offers traditional credit/debit card payments for people who choose to accept the risk of paying that way, but then they offer BTC, BCH, XMR, and cash by mail in multiple currencies. So at least with Mullvad you have two easy options to pay anonymously using Monero or cash.

You have to ask yourself why Proton doesn't offer these options, or even something better than a debit card like some Bitcoin. Sure you can use a card under an alias, but the average idiot is just going to pay with a card under their own name which completely destroys the entire point of using a privacy service. So people in the Monero community kept bugging Proton to accept Monero until finally the Proton people were like, if you bring us a petition with X number of signatures, we will accept Monero.

Well that's exactly what the Monero chads did, and Proton decided to be lil bitches and instead of putting Monero right there on their website so that anyone could easily see they can pay in it, they instead only "accept" Monero through a relatively obscure third party service.

Digital Goods by ProxyStore

Buy coupons, voucher codes and gift cards for privacy services and pay anonymously with Monero, Bitcoin or cash letter. SEPA Bank transfer is also available.

So what are some alternatives to protonmail for the privacy conscious email user such as yourself? While I would still use protonmail for burner email addresses, just make sure you don't

A) link an email to the burner email that links back to you

B) link a phone number that links back to you

C) access it from an IP address that links back to you

4) pay them any money, just use the free version for burner emails.

For more privacy with your emails, use Tuta (formely tutanota), or self host your own email server. You can pay for Tuta with Monero because they actually care about privacy.

Just a reminder, audit your extensions....get rid of any you don't use, if you need them again you can always reinstall them in 2 seconds. Less is always more when it comes to your privacy and security, apply the same policy to apps on your phone. Consider every app and extension as a potential attack vector and be highly selective about what you allow to be on your phone.

Keystone Hardware Wallet

@KeystoneWallet

URGENT: 7,000+ users just got hacked through a once "harmless" browser extension

The QuickLens Chrome extension (formerly Google Lens) was SOLD to hackers who injected malware in v5.8 and auto-pushed it to victims.

What they stole:
- Login credentials
- Session tokens
-

BleepingComputer

@BleepinComputer

A Chrome extension named "QuickLens - Search Screen with Google Lens" has been removed from the Chrome Web Store after it was compromised to push malware via ClickFix attacks and attempt to steal crypto from thousands of users.
bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/…

A new study shows how easy it is to doxx people with AI, what used to take many hours of labor by an OSINT investigator can now be done for a few bucks in tokens with AI.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

The great AI powered doxxing is coming.

If you have multiple identities online and you want avoid them being linked together for 4 dollars in AI tokens, here's what you can do.

Say you have identity A and identity B and you want them to remain separate.

1. Cleaning up. Delete

Brian Roemmele

@BrianRoemmele

WARNING: YOU ARE NO LONGER ANONYMOUS IN THE AI WORLD.

New Research Reveals AI Agents Can Unmask Pseudonymous Online Users

Researchers from ETH Zurich and Anthropic have shown that large language model agents can reliably connect pseudonymous accounts on forums like Hacker

Google is still trying to get rid of sideloading, so that all developers of apps have to dox themselves to Google if they want their apps to be installable. Because of this requirement, my favorite Youtube watching app, Newpipe is shutting down in September because they refuse to comply. (UPDATE: Supposedly they are now implementing a way to sideload after confirming you aren't a retard or something)

Techlore

@TechloreInc

Google wants to force every Android developer to register with them, even if you never touch the Play Store. We signed the open letter opposing this alongside EFF, Proton, F-Droid, Tor Project, and 30+ others. Android's openness is non-negotiable.

keepandroidopen.org

An Open Letter to Google regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Android App Distribution

Open Letter to Google Regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Third-Party App Distribution

Well we found out who is behind the push for age verification laws across the country...Meta. Not surprised at all. They want the responsibility for age verification to be pushed onto OSes instead of individual platforms, and they want to be able to distinquish bots and humans so they can keep making those sweet advertising cuckbucks. Currently millions of dollars of ads are being shown to robots, which is a problem for these corpos.

Pirat_Nation 🔴

@Pirat_Nation

Meta spent a record 26.3 million dollars lobbying in 2025 and quietly funded a group called the Digital Childhood Alliance to push age-verification laws.

The real target appears to be the App Store Accountability Act and similar bills.

These laws would require Apple and Google

Not only does the ruling class want to fully control your access to information at the app level and the OS level, now they also want to control what routers you can buy. I have a feeling that certain foreign based router manufacturer will be able to apply for exemptions to this law if and only if they agree to install a backdoor for the Feds to monitor all your internet traffic.

Bloomberg

@business

The FCC ordered a ban on the import of new models of foreign-produced consumer wireless routers after an interagency panel determined they threaten national security

bloomberg.com

FCC Bans Wireless Router Imports, Citing Security Concerns

The Federal Communications Commission ordered a ban on the import of new models of foreign-produced consumer wireless routers after an interagency panel determined they threaten national security.

Washington state ended up passing the 3D printer bill, you now need a fucking license to form plastic into shapes. That's like saying you need a license to buy legos.

Delrith

@CtrlAltDelrith

My state actually passed a bill to make 3d printers illegal and a felony to operate without licensing. CNC Machines too.

Wild. Washington overstepping SUPER hard. They want everyone to upload all their designs to a database for "verification"

aka stealing, blech - The biggest

This is why you shouldn't play games that use your location and your camera.

The Rage

NEW: POKEMON GO USERS TRAINED THE NEXT GENERATION OF KILLER ROBOTS

Thousands of PokemonGo users feel tricked into building Niantic's massive image database.

Big tech attempts to crisis manage the software as a tool for "logistics" for “delivery robots.” That, it turns out, is

A massive breach of a digital ID verification service leaked over a billion records. The state is most definitely going to use the fact that so many people's personal information has been leaked and is likely for sale on the Dark Web to start mandating biometric verification for everything. The social security number, which was already bad enough, will probably be replaced by something like iris scans. At that point, if you aren't already living outside of the state's systems, it will become much harder to exit.

/Crypto\

Apparently having crypto to crypto swap functionality in your app will get you rejected from the Apple app store, or at least that seems to be the case for Unstoppable Wallet. Cake wallet is in the Apple app store still I believe, I'm not sure how they aren't affected by this? Maybe it is just a matter of time before Cake Wallet has to remove swapping to stay in the App Store, but that is how they make money so I certainly hope not.

Unstoppable | Private Wallet

@unstoppablebyhs

The War on Crypto Swaps Has Begun

It seems Apple is tightening the screws on crypto swap services.

The latest Unstoppable wallet update has been repeatedly rejected by App Store reviewers, citing swap functionality as the reason.

If you’re an app, providing crypto-to-crypto

If you thought NEAR Intents swaps were decentralized and permissionless, apparently they aren't, not exactly. If you aren't familiar with NEAR Intents, I am not well versed on the technicals but it is a protocol that allows cross chain swaps, including between Zcash and Solana which was a major driver of the recent rally in ZEC. Before NEAR Intents the only way to acquire ZEC was through centralized exchanges and swap services or directly P2P. There were no DEXes that supported it prior to NEAR intents that I am aware of. NEAR Intents made it much easier for anyone to swap into or out of ZEC and to create wrapped versions of it on other blockchains. The same thing could theoretically be done with Monero.

The following tweets give some good insights into how NEAR Intents works. Apparently it is better than a CEX but not as good as a DEX like Maya Protocol. The swaps themselves ARE atomic, so you will always get something back or a refund, however the API that most providers use is permissioned and the solvers that are the counterparties for a swap are required to do AML checks. So using their "1 click" API is more convenient from a UX perspective, but as a user be aware you could potentially lose funds. For more info read Vini B's entire post below, than read the replies from Unstoppable Wallet.

Vini B |「 thecoding 」

@vinibarbosabr

Interesting case here around NEAR Intents
WARNING: this will probably be a very controversial post

A red market operator lost 10 BTC while using NEAR Intents

→ /sexinfochina reported the loss with screenshots
→ NEAR Intents support bot claimed "mandatory compliance review"
→

Bitcoin used to take a dump at 10 AM EST every single day, apparently this stopped when Jane Street recently got hit with a lawsuit....interesting story of potential market manipulation.

Roberto Rios

@peruvian_bull

x.com/i/article/2026…

Kraken became the first CEX to gain access to the Federal Reserve's core payments system....which is interesting because it is also the ONLY US based exchange that lists Monero. If you can list Monero and still get this kind of regulatory approval, what is Coinbase, Gemini, and Binance's excuse?

Which makes me wonder.....maybe Kraken has been able to keep Monero listed because the Feds have requested they keep it listed. Having a KYCed on and off ramp for Monero helps with "tracing" Monero transactions significantly. Now I am not saying Monero transactions are traceable per say, when I say tracing I mean doing statistical analysis to determine the likelihood a transaction orginated from a certain person based on external metadata and eliminating decoys. Having a KYC exchange involved in a series of transactions is kind of like handing Chainalysis the corner pieces to a puzzle, it gives them somewhere to start, some signal amidst the noise.

Connor

@connorxmr

Seriously? You're still buying your $XMR on a CEX that's now plugged straight into the FED?

Holy honeypot!

Sure, you can transfer the $XMR out and break the trail… but it’s too late. You already KYC’d your identity at purchase. Now they’ve got a permanent record tying YOU

CoinDesk

@CoinDesk

BREAKING: @krakenfx just became the first crypto firm to gain access to the Federal Reserve's core payments system, putting it on the same payment rails as thousands of U.S. banks and credit unions.

The Patriot Act is being deployed by the supposedly pro crypto administration against crypto....and news outlets are reporting it as a win for privacy. If you read the whole report it doesn't seem like a win.

The Rage

News outlets are touting a recent report by the US Treasury on the combatting of illicit finance in digital currencies as a "win for privacy."

This is incorrect.

While the report notes that "lawful users of digital assets may leverage mixers to enable financial privacy when

Bitcoin Magazine

@BitcoinMagazine

JUST IN: US Treasury reports to Congress that using Bitcoin and crypto privacy mixers are NOT unlawful:

"Lawful users of digital assets may leverage mixers to enable financial privacy when transacting through public blockchains."

Big win for privacy!

Over 5k in annual crypto transactions in Paraguay now requires mandatory reporting down to every transaction hash and wallet address. Don't worry though, I'm sure none of this data will get leaked and nobody will get kidnapped because of it.

The Wandering Investor

@wander_investor

Paraguay tax office worker to shady character:

“Gunther from Germany, the gringo living in this apartment, has $7 million in crypto and these are his wallets. Now give me $500”

JAN3

@JAN3com

LATEST: Paraguay's tax authority (DNIT) just escalated financial surveillance.

Resolution 47 mandates that crypto users exceeding $5,000 in annual volume must report their transaction hashes, public wallets, and personal details.

Monero's Carrot upgrade just passed it's audit!

Monero (XMR)

CARROT has successfully been audited by Cypher Stack!

'CARROT is a proposed upgrade to Monero's addressing protocol, bringing new security, privacy, and usability features, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing addresses.' - by Justin Berman

Monero Research Lab (Unofficial)

.@cypher_stack completed their audit of carrot_core! github.com/cypherstack/ca…
Summary of results
• The security properties defined in the specification were found to be present in the implementation.
• Both C++ and Rust use Blake2b keyed mode per RFC 7693; the specification

Cake Wallet got a major overhaul from top to bottom, I must say it's looking good. I remember when I first used Cake Wallet years ago, it used to suck. Now it's the best Monero supporting mobile wallet in existence.

Cake Wallet got a major overhaul from top to bottom for v6 and added lightning support, I must say it's looking good. I remember when I first used Cake Wallet years ago, it used to suck. Now it's the best Monero supporting mobile wallet in existence.

QnA

@btcqna

@cakewallet v6.0 is out.

Every Bitcoin wallet is now a Lightning wallet - one toggle, same 12 words, no channels to manage.

On this week's FTF, @sethforprivacy walks through the Spark integration, the privacy model, Spark vs Ark trade-offs, and does a full live demo.

If

fountain.fm

Ungovernable Misfits • Cake Adds Lightning ⚡ | FREEDOM TECH FRIDAY 32 • Watch on Fountain

A weekly live show covering all things Freedom Tech with Max, Q and Seth.Lightning Journey: https://blog.cakewallet.com/our-lightning-journey/Lightning in Cake: https://blog.cakewallet.com/lightnin...

The IRS's new crypto audit form is absolutely overkill. You are supposed to check yes or no under penalty of perjury next to every exchange you have ever used...ever. I saw some wallets in the list too, like Metamask. Luckily I never make enough money to pay taxes.

/Politics and Other News\

Epstein's island had a private submarine entrance so rich fucks could arrive with no records of them doing so. I wonder what kind of fucked up shit goes down on private submarines chilling in international waters...

Old Lady Brain 🩸

@oldladybrain

In 2010, a billionaire from Iowa bought his girlfriend a gift.

A 240-foot yacht. Five decks. A helipad.

And something most people wouldn't notice: a compartment beneath the waterline.

Big enough for a submarine.

They named it Plan B.

His name was Ted Waitt. He'd built

Bessent is pressuring Banks to go even harder on their KYC.....

Illegal immigration is the latest BS excuse (the mafia, terrorists, drug cartels, and now illegal immigrants) , and total financial surveillance is the goal. This latest doubling down on banking KYC follows the move last year to lower reporting requirements at money service businesses from $10,000 to $200 in 30 jurisdictions.

How long before they just outlaw cash altogether and say it's necessary to keep the illegal immigrants from being able to use cash?

Trump promised no CBDCs, but if you read the Genius Act it creates the infrastructure for privately issued stablecoins to be totally controlled and surveilled by the Federal Government and the Federal Reserve, creating a CBDC with better branding.

Total control and depopulation is the final goal of the ruling class. They will get there by creating fear and division among citizens so that we are too busy fighting each other to resist.

If illegal immigration scares you more than the control mechanisms being put in place to supposedly fight it, then you have fallen for their psyop.

Bessent Pressures Banks to Review Immigrant Accounts

In Congressional hearings last week, the Treasury Secretary doubled down on the use of financial warfare to achieve political ends.

https://www.therage.co

The funny business with the Epstein Files seemingly never ends....they are still withholding huge amounts of the files for unknown reasons...including but not limited to EVERY SINGLE ONE FROM AROUND 9/11.....

Chris Martenson

@chrismartenson

It's just a complete coincidence that the DOJ has completely withheld all the Epstein documents immediately before, during, and after 9/11, right?

They also decided to use the distraction of starting a new fucking war to delete some files....I really hope lots of people downloaded the shit out of every single one of these before they got taken down.

Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth)

More and more Epstein files are getting pulled down.

No reason given.

No redactions filed with Congress.

None of them contain victim info.

DOJ continues to violate the law, distracting from the President’s crimes.

The Lincoln Project

@ProjectLincoln

Trump's DOJ has been quietly removing Epstein files from the DOJ website since the attack in Iran ; CBS reports.

This is a coverup.

When is enough enough? Not only is the state trying to throw your kids in jail, they are protecting pedophiles, and dropping bombs on children overseas. The criminalization of children continues to get worse. For instance a kid can't even get in a fist fight at school without facing criminal charges over it. Truancy has become a crime. Many states treat minors as if they were adults if they commit a felony such as possessing the wrong kind of plant or mushroom. Kids have been made into sex offenders for hooking up with each other or sexting. Once upon a time our society didn't try to throw kids in fucking jail. You can tell how healthy a society is by how it treats it's children. Oh and the state does all this while simultaneously claiming it needs to take away more of your rights to "protect children" through age verification laws that lock down the internet.

Spike Cohen

@RealSpikeCohen

Tennessee is considering a bill tomorrow that would put foster kids with no criminal record in prison. Similar policies have led to mass r*pe and t*rture of innocent children in prison in New Hampshire other states. You can help us kill this bill today.

Tennessee (like many

What in the fuck kind of timeline is this? The US military commanders are trying to get their soldiers to think this is a "holy war". Points for creativity I guess. If people believe God is on the state's side its easier for them to commit evil on behalf of the state.

US commander said Trump "anointed by Jesus" to attack Iran: Report

Some U.S. military leaders are telling troops that the Iran war is part of "God's divine plan," according to a religious freedom advocacy group.

https://www.newsweek.com

Well during the not so holy "holy war", the United States managed to use outdated intel from 2016 and bombed the ever living shit out of 165+ Iranian children at elementary school. This is what I mean when I say paying taxes is funding murder.

Outdated intel likely led US to carry out deadly strike on Iranian elementary school, AP sources say

Outdated intelligence has likely led to the United States carrying out a deadly missile strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed over 165 people, many of them children, in the opening hours of the conflict, according to a U.S.

https://apnews.com

Speaking of war, war is never going to be the same. It is now the era of decentralized asymmetric warfare in which people can build manpads for $100.

chiefofautism

@chiefofautism

someone built a $96 3D-PRINTED MANPADS rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor and piano wire

its called Project Canard

it integrates with distributed camera nodes to triangulate airborne targets and update flight paths in real-time

it proves the

Did you think the state wouldn't be willing to use vaccines maliciously? Read these newly declassified CIA files and wake the fuck up.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

https://www.projectnomad.us/

The files are real, I checked.

A great example of why you shouldn't trust anything the state says, especially if it involves your health or your family's health.

If they were willing to use vaccines maliciously in the 1950s.....

MJTruthUltra

@MJTruthUltra

Dear Conspiracy theorists.. you were right again.

The CIA just republished declassified files related to “Project Artichoke” — A Secret Government Program Designed to manipulate Americans' minds through covert drugging with vaccines

Project Artichoke (1951–1956), a secret

/Discover New Tools, Media, and Projects\

From the same people who brought us jmail.world have aggregated some of the Epstein file data into a wikipedia style website.

Jmail

@jmailarchive

We built Jikipedia, a new wiki that compiles Jmail data into exhaustive reports on key figures in the Epstein scandal.

It lists all recorded visits to Epstein's estates, each person's possible knowledge of Epstein's crimes and laws that they may have violated.

Here is

Some chad build an MCP server for Monero, allowing his openclawd bot to spin up and use a Monero wallet.

BALTSAR

@gustafgarnow

just gave an AI agent its own private wallet.
Agent Zero + my Monero MCP server. 12 tools. Mainnet.
Real XMR. No KYC. No transparent chain. No one sees what the agent transact. While Coinbase builds x402 with full surveillance, I built the private alternative.

Open

BALTSAR

@gustafgarnow

I built the first MCP server for Monero. MCP is the open protocol that lets AI agents use external tools – any agent, any framework, Open Claw (Moltbot/Clawdbot), Agent Zero, Claude, OpenAI, your own custom agent, whatever comes next.

Privacy is king.

github.com/Baltsar/monero…

Thanks to Kazani for sharing this new Android app for detecting smart glasses nearby, so you that you can hopefully avoid getting your face scanned by some asshole. Turns out the Meta smart glasses are pwning the assholes who buy them anyways by spying on them when they aren't wearing them. Don't leave your smart glasses on the nightstand or workers in Kenya are going to be watching you in the bedroom.

There is a new tool, called Stealth, for doing blockchain analysis on your own bitcoin addresses. You can run it through your own node so that no one knows what addresses you are looking at it. Check to see if there are any links between your different address clusters that you didn't realize. Investigating yourself like this is a great way to find holes in your opsec and fix them, but you have to be careful that you don't leak information during the act of investigating yourself. For example if you use a rando block explorer and search a Bitcoin address you use for one identity, and then search a Bitcoin address you use for a different identity using the same browser and IP address, then you are telling whoever runs that block explorer that those 2 addresses might be linked. They may then sell that information to Chainalysis. That's why this tool is so fucking cool, it's a safe way to do this kind of OSINT investigation on yourself without leaking info to anyone. Check out this Ungovernable Misfits podcast about it, or just check it out for yourself here.

Some cool shit is happening over on Nostr, which is now way easier to onboard onto then it was when I first got on there a few years ago. Just send your friends to https://nstart.me/en and it will hold their hand through the entire process.

Check out Roadster, it's like Uber, but for cypherpunks and built on top of Nostr.

Juraj Bednar

@jurbed

Roadstr — a decentralized "Waze" integrated with OsmAnd and a web version. The spec allows sending events via MeshCore as well, otherwise it goes through Nostr. However, MeshCore is not yet implemented — for now, only the event format has been specified for MeshCore. Nostr is

People are building bridges from Nostr to other protocols, learn how to follow Bluesky accounts on Nostr using the Mostr bridge and Bridgy Fed.

Someone is supposedly working on a Monero based stablecoin...I've been waiting for the holy grail of a private stablecoin for a long time, but so far they have all failed except perhaps FUSD on Zano which is still functioning but tiny. This account is brand new and I know nothing about it but let's keep an eye on it.

MoneroUSD

@MoneroUSD

Monero USD $USDm will revolutionize the Monero ecosystem with FCMP++ privacy, stability and Defi-like buildability. A developer friendly fork of $XMR that aims to serve the community with lending platforms, staking rewards and more.

Mark Edge is back on Free Talk Live for a great interview with Scott Horton. He is one of the two orginal hosts of FTL, an award winning #libertarian and #voluntaryism focused call in radio show that was instrumental in early #Bitcoin adoption. Ian Freeman was the other host and is currently serving 8 years in Federal prison for selling Bitcoin to consenting adults.

Free Ian Freeman!

#podcasts

Free Talk Live: FTL2026-03-15

Episode webpage: https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-03-15

In case you didn't know, every Saturday at 4 pm EST Self Liberation Saturday is streamed live on Paznia Radio. If you are interested in escaping the servile society and living free, this is radio for you.

P.A.Z.NIA Radio Network - P.A.Z.NIA

Download the "GreyJay" app on your Android, iPhone, or desktop device. Add whatever sources (i.e. YouTube, Rumble, Odysee) you like, then subscribe to our respective channels. GreyJay will then allow you to stream the audio in the background.

https://paznia.com

Project NOMAD is FOSS designed for when SHTF. If the internet goes down, you can still have access to important knowledge, education, and LLMs. Love it, haven't downloaded it yet, but it's on my list.

"Node for Offline Media, Archives, and Data — a free, open source offline server you install on any computer. Download the content you want, and it works without internet — forever. Similar products cost hundreds of dollars. Project NOMAD is free."

Keep an eye on Flock with these sites

Jason Bassler

3 Important Flock Watchdog Sites:

1. Deflock.me - Nationwide ALPR map covering Flock deployments, removals, & resistance.

2. Eyesonflock.com - Crowdsourced hub mapping Flock cameras, & city contracts.

3. Haveibeenflocked.com - Quick lookup for whether

haveibeenflocked.com

Have I Been Flocked? - License Plate Privacy Check - Search Flock Safety Audit Logs

Have police looked up your travel history? Search Flock Safety audit logs for your license plate

Thanks for reading!

Thought Crime Trap House #6 Feb 12, 2026

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:00:00 GMT

You don't have to go to the extremes I have, but protecting your privacy is no longer optional. Criminals are getting data on crypto holders from data leaks and targeting them with kidnappings and armed home invasions. The state is implementing an AI powered mass surveillance network on a scale never before seen in history. Digital IDs and CBDCs are spreading like wild fire and the exits are closing. If you don't opt out and build a life outside of the system soon, you might be trapped in it forever. Subscribe to get the latest news on crypto, freedom tech, and privacy alongside actionable advice to help you opt out and protect yourself.

In This Issue:

A guide to non KYC on and off ramps to cryptocurrency
Epstein files destroy all remaining trust in the Government, and Bitcoin gets caught in the crossfire
Age verification continues it's spread
A tool to potentially bypass Discord's new age verification
And much more!

Please excuse my bad language and rampant sarcasm.

Tip me in XMR on XMRchat

Send some ETH or any ERC-20 token on mainnet or any EVM layer 2 blockchain to thoughtcrimeboss.eth

Send me sats via Bitcoin mainnet: bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Or send me Bitcoin via lighting to burnedmitten671@minibits.cash

Send me SOL or any Solana token at 9uLhcY5AKHjYK3kySrgDnWqp5NFh9p1LQztT8iZUPdxZ

You can also support me by following me on Nostr npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

Or follow me on X and help me get to 1k followers!

Please share this with your friends and enemies, it's free and it helps me a lot.

/Getting In and Out of Crypto Without KYC\

Now that we are in a bear market, it's a good time to start building your non kyc crypto stack.

The best way to use cryptocurrency is without using any services, apps, or exchanges that require KYC and dox your wallets. This is true both for individuals attempting to opt out of the traditional financial system and regular individuals who want to use crypto without the risk of getting their skull bashed in from a five dollar wrench attack. Most blockchains are 100% open and transparent, meaning anyone can open a block explorer, type in a crypto address, and discover the balances and history of every transaction that wallet has ever made. They can go further and discover the balances and transaction history of every wallet that has interacted with the initial wallet as well. There is some protection in the pseudonymous nature of these crypto addresses, as they are just a random string of characters that don't directly announce the identity of the owner. That information has to be gathered from external data points, such as a centralized cryptocurrency exchange that verifies the identity of it's users through KYC/AML processes. This information is usually given over on a voluntary basis by the users. Most on and off ramps to crypto, meaning the ways in which crypto can be converted into fiat currency, have mandatory KYC. The problems with KYC are too numerous to go over here, but one of the biggest issues is that once you KYC, you put yourself at risk for targeted theft, phishing, and kidnapping. Data breaches happen all the time, and once your crypto address is linked to a real world identity once, there is no going back. Every transaction you ever make with that wallet or any wallets linked to it will then always be linkable back to you.

There are many advantages to never KYCing your crypto holdings, or at the very least, having compartmentalized KYC and non KYC holdings that do not ever intermingle. But how do you put cash in or get cash out if you can't use a centralized exchange and bank account to do so? This task is harder today than ever before, but it is still very doable. Then, once you get a little bit, you now have a foot in the door so to speak. You can then use that little bit to make a little bit more and slowly (or quickly) build up your non kyced stack of crypto. That's because one of the easiest methods of acquiring nonkyced crypto is with other nonkyced crypto (See "DeFi/Trading/Gambling below".)

-WARNING: When you are buying crypto P2P, especially if you do so using the decentralized exchange or atomic swap methods, there are risks to buying non fungible/transparent crypto currencies like this. You might inadvertently end up with "tainted coins" that are connected to a sanctioned entity or criminals. Even though this is unlikely, it is a risk to be aware of. The best thing is to just buy Monero because Monero is much more fungible than transparent cryptocurrencies. If you are buying a transparent crypto like Bitcoin then buy it from someone with a good reputation. Many nonkyc instant swap services or centralized exchanges do have automated checks that should in theory prevent you from getting tainted coins. Many decentralized exchanges don't.

The Meetup Method

This goes along with a very important part of opting out of the system, and that is building a network of friends and associates. The bitcoin meetup method works best if you live in or near a major city, but even if you live in a rural area, traveling to a city with a meetup once a month is worth the investment in time and gas.

1- Find the closest Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency meetup: I've only ever been to Bitcoin meetups, I'm assuming the process would be similar for a differen't coin's meetup though. Meetup.com is a good place to start looking.

WARNING: If you create a meetup.com account in order to join one of the bitcoin or crypto groups, be sure to use a VPN, an email that isn't linked to your real identity, and an alias name. Do not tell people at the meetup your real name! They expect you to use an alias, and you should.

2- Don't be a weirdo: Go and introduce yourself, don't try to sell anyone any crypto the first time you go, make some friends first. Maybe buy a little if someone is offering, but don't show up and immediately try to sell a stranger a large bag, you don't want them to think you are a scammer or something worse. Try to get invited into their group chat. Be friendly and respect people's privacy. Don't ask someone where they live, or how much Bitcoin they have. There are usually some very paranoid OG's with lot's of Bitcoin at these meetups and they are going to be guarded around strangers, especially if the strangers are asking very personal questions. They also want to spread Bitcoin though, so they will welcome you with open arms if you can just be chill and hang out.

3- Ettiquette: After you go 2 or 3 times and find out the meetup's methods and etiquette for buying and selling, then you can mention you are looking to sell some Bitcoin. Don't even try selling other cryptocurrency if it is a bitcoin only meetup. Once you get to know people you might be able to sell some people XMR, but anything other than BTC or XMR is unlikely to find buyers. If you want to sell other cryptocurrencies, just convert them into Bitcoin first. Remember, don't be posting specific details in the group chat,

Good group chat message: "Selling, DM me" Keep it short, simple, and generic. DMs should be encrypted, such as the "secret chat" in Telegram.

Bad group chat message: "I have 0.1 BTC for sale, will meet on North side" Don't tell the whole group chat exactly how much bitcoin you have for sale, it may be invite only but it's still a bad idea and bad etiquette too.

4-Vetting: Sometimes it is hard to get someone to buy from you if you don't have someone else in the group willing to vouch for you. However it is easier to buy some without a vouch, especially if you have gone to a few meetups and made some friends. So what you could do is buy $100 of Bitcoin from someone, and then you have a successful transaction under your belt in which no one got ripped off. Then later on, you can ask the person you bought from to vouch for you when you want to sell some Bitcoin. You are also going to want to ask a potential buyer if anyone else from the group will vouch for them. If not, to be safe you probably shouldn't sell to them until that changes.

5-Find a DCAer: Lot's of Bitcoiners DCA(dollar cost average) and buy a set amount of Bitcoin at preset intervals regardless of what the market is doing. If you can find someone like that who is willing to buy from you on a regular basis, then you have a guaranteed off ramp for X amount every month.

6- Safety first: Doing transactions at the meet up itself is a good idea, but if you are doing a trade in between meet ups, just make sure you meet in a public place and only carry the cash you need for the deal itself. If you are dealing with a new person, start small and build trust over multiple smaller transactions. Tell someone where you are going so that if you don't come back they know you are tied up in the back of a van.

7- Sell at spot: If you charge extra fees when selling crypto, that could be construed by the state as operating a business of selling crypto. So just sell at the spot price and sell amounts that are under $10,000 dollars.

Buying and selling goods and services

Another great way to get or use non kyc crypto is buying and selling goods and services directly. There are tons of things you can buy directly with Bitcoin and Monero, from food to cars. For everything else, there are gift cards.

XMRBazaar is basically Craigslist for Monero. You can buy or sell any good or service that is legal in your jurisdiction. They are adding support for other cryptocurrencies as well. Make sure your seller has good reviews and/or is bonded. There is also an escrow feature that you can use with unbonded sellers without any reviews to protect yourself, if the seller supports it.

Proxy Store allows you to pay for various digital services/subscriptions with Monero or Bitcoin. This was the work around Proton used to "add" Monero payments for their VPN after a petition to do so was circulated on Twitter, because they are too scared to just offer Monero payments directly. Mullvad has been accepting Monero for years without any issues, so idk why they are so scared.

Anon Shop lets you buy things on Amazon with Monero through a proxy shopper. No amazon account needed. You can ship to your house, but it kind of defeats the purpose. Instead, ship to an amazon locker, park a block or two away, then wear a covid mask, hat, and reflectacles when picking up your order for near total anonymity. I tried this service when it first launched and it worked fine.

Gift Card Providers

There are other providers not listed here, I am only listing gift card providers that I have tried personally. There are also services that allow you to sell giftcards for crypto, or you can do that on XMR Bazaar, which is one way to turn cash into non kyc crypto. However you are going to pay for the privilege.

Cakepay: I have used Cakepay for a few years for various things. For most things, they are reliable, but occasionally there are problems with the card providers but they aren't really Cakepay's fault. Don't bother with Best Buy cards. If you are buying a prepaid debit card, do it on public WiFi instead of using a VPN or it might not work. I'm not sure what exactly will get you "flagged" with Mastercard or Visa when purchasing prepaid virtual debit cards. I've heard of someone getting flagged possibly for splitting a larger transaction into 2 different cards, which they were just doing because they wanted to make sure it worked before buying the full amount. No information was given about the reason for the flagging. The first card went through fine, but when they bought the second one they got flagged by the provider and were no longer able to buy any debit cards from them. Their Monero was returned by Cakepay eventually.

Bitrefill: I've only used these guys a few times, no problems though other than sometimes they would be "sold out" of prepaid debit cards of certain denominations. Like they would have $20 ones but not $100 ones. I didn't know you could run out of stock on virtual visa cards, and I have to wonder if this was just a ploy to milk fees out of people who would be forced to buy multiple cards.

Coincards: I've used Coincards with no issues. They are slightly more expensive than Cakepay. This is because it is a Canadian company, so they have to jump through more hoops to convert their Monero to fiat and added a small fee to each purchase to cover those costs.

Decentralized Exchanges

There are P2P DEXs out there that offer crypto to fiat, fiat to crypto, or crypto to crypto trading. People get paid through various methods such as paypal, cash app, or cash by mail. The platforms have various ways to reduce the possibility of getting scammed, such as multisig escrow systems and security deposits. This way instead of a corporation running a centralized exchange knowing you bought or sold some crypto, only one individual knows. This reduces the attack surface. If you are buying, don't put something stupid like "for bitcoin" in the cash app payment memo, just put something generic or the payment service provider will know you are buying crypto. You don't want them to know.

XMR Bazaar- You can buy and sell XMR for cash on XMRBazaar, not a whole lot of buyers and sellers yet though, but there are some.

RetoSwap- This is a fork of Haveno, which was a fork of Bisq. It is always highly recommended by the Monero community as a way to buy and sell XMR with no KYC, and is now doing more volume than Bisq is I think. You have to run a client on your computer to use it, and it supports most fiat currencies via Paypal, CashApp, SEPA/ACH transfers, cash by mail, and in person meetings. Currently supports Monero (XMR), USDT (on ETH & TRON), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) & Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Bisq- Same idea as RetoSwap, but more focused on Bitcoin and less privacy focused.

Robosats- A P2P Bitcoin to fiat exchange that runs on TOR using the lightning network. Here is their onion site as well.

Defillama Swap- This is for crypto to crypto swaps for EVM compatible cryptocurrencies only (anything on Ethereum or any Ethereum Layer 2). It is an aggregator that finds the best price it can across multiple EVM DEXs. The reason I prefer this aggregator over others is you can set it to obscure your IP address from the DEX it connects you to. This is a smart contract DEX, it doesn't require you to find a particular seller, you just buy from a liquidity pool permissionlessly.

Jupiter- This is also a crypto to crypto DEX aggregrator, but for cryptocurrencies on Solana only. Use this instead of doing the swap directly in your Solana wallet to avoid extra fees. Phantom charges 0.85% for every swap.

Instant Swap Services

Once you have some non kyc Bitcoin or Monero, you can easily swap into any other crypto you need on instant exchange sites. Or if you need to swap other cryptos into cash, you can use the instant swap service to convert them into Bitcoin to sell p2p. There are risks here because unlike a DEX, you have to send your crypto to the provider while trusting that they will deliver the crypto you want to your wallet. One of the risks is shotgun KYC, which is when the instant swap service decides you are sketchy. Then, instead of just returning your funds, they make you KYC to get your funds back. I have never personally encountered this, and it is supposedly rare, but it does happen.

Trocador.app: This is an aggregator, it checks multiple instant swap services for whatever exchange you want to do to find the best price. It also tells you how long the swap will take and how private each service is. It has a rating system that will show you the risk of a particular provider doing shotgun KYC. Oftentimes the swaps will take less time than is shown in my experience.

StealthEx (REF LINK WARNING) : I've used this one a few dozen times with no problems, then I hadn't used them in maybe a year or so when I tried using them on the latest Bitcoin crash day, Feb 5th. It took a long time to complete the exchange from XMR to some stablecoins, more than 4 hours. To be fair the day was kind of fucked, so hopefully on most days it goes quicker.

Bounties/Jobs for Crypto

Superteam Earn: This site has a few bounties you can try to win via things like making blog posts, twitter threads, videos, or writing technical documentation for various crypto projects. I've used them and have successfully gotten paid a couple times, so they are legit. The opportunities are more sparse than they used to be though.....bear market vibes.

rentahuman.ai: A brand new website where the rapidly multiplying army of AI agents can hire a human to do any task in meatspace. They pay you in stablecoins. No word yet if the agents have put any hits out yet. Thank god someone, well something, is hiring though.

Nostr: If you make good posts on Nostr, people will tip you in small amounts of Bitcoin on the Lightning network. You have to set up a lightning wallet to receive "zaps" though. The best client is Primal, but don't use Primal's built in wallet because it asks for personal information (or you can just lie, I don't think they actually confirm the info). I am currently using a wallet called Minibits to receive zaps, but be aware Minibits is custodial. Minibits might not be the best option, it's just the first one I could get to work. If you earn any significant amount of Bitcoin, don't leave it sitting in there, take custody of it by sending it to an external non custodial wallet such as Zeus.

Farcaster: (REF LINK) Farcaster has a myriad of ways to earn or win crypto through the various miniapps or people tipping your posts. You can very easily earn a dollar or two a day in non kyc crypto by spending less than 5 minutes in this app, just from clicking buttons. I've made quite a decent chunk of change from playing around here over the last couple of years. They just got acquired though, so who knows what the future will bring, but for now it's still printing some loot.

XMRchat: If you create content, you can set up an XMRchat profile to easily recieve XMR tips in the style of youtube superchats where the tipper can include a message.

Mining

Often people forget that you can skip all the nonsense and just turn electricity and computing power into fully virgin cryptocurrency with no identity or transaction history attached to it. XMR can be mined on any CPU, and even if it doesn't turn out to be profitable per say, consider it as converting cash into crypto with electricity as the middle man. So even if your electricity cost is higher than the value of the coins you mine, consider that premium the cost of getting non kyc crypto. When you buy non kyc crypto on the street, it usually costs a bit more than kyced crypto on Coinbase or Binance. So even mining at a loss can be still worthwhile to build up your anon stack with zero risk of getting tainted coins. Also, if you have any altruistic tendencies, keep in mind that mining helps the fight for freedom.

Gupax makes Monero mining relatively easy, and solo bitcoin mining is also easier than ever, with miners like Bitaxes that now plug into regular ol' outlets. You can even buy a space heater that mines Bitcoin and uses the waste heat to heat your room. Now if you want to actually get some crypto, you are going to want to pool mine rather than solo mine. Solo mining is more like playing the lottery, but with much better odds. It could take a very long time solo mining before you actually win a block and get some crypto, if ever. The better equipment you have, the higher the odds. Pool mining is when you join forces with other miners to increase the odds of winning a block, but you then split the proceeds of that block.

CR1337

@CR1337

How To Mine Monero (XMR) via Gupax:

Besides earning XMR as a freelancer, the next best way to earn XMR is to simply mine it. Unlike Bitcoin, which relies heavily on specialized hardware (ASICs), Monero uses the RandomX algorithm, designed for regular CPUs. You can start mining

DeFi/Trading/Gambling/Airdrops

You can turn your crypto into more crypto by earning yield on it in DeFi. This is not risk free of course, as you probably already know DeFi is a minefield of potential hacks, rug pulls, counterparty risk, depeggings, and liquidity issues. Now it is becoming a battlefield between blackhat hackers using AI models to find vulnerabilities to exploit and whitehats hardening smart contracts to protect them. Unless you are deliberately hunting airdrops by using newer DeFi protocols, stick to battle tested ones like Aave. This will reduce your risk but not eliminate it, as we saw recently with the OG protocol Balancer getting hacked.

-Lending: The simplest way to earn some crypto in DeFi is to deposit EVM stablecoins into a lending protocol like Aave to earn about 2 to 10% annually. You can also earn on other coins, but the yield is low at the moment. Keep in mind most stablecoins are centralized, freezable, and very trackable. They also carry depegging risk, even the largest stablecoins USDC and USDT had a major depeg as recently as 2023. So don't stick your life savings in a stablecoin and as always DYOR.

-Staking: Many kinds of cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, can be staked to earn some yield. Staking secures the Ethereum network similarly to how mining secures Bitcoin. The easiest way to do this is to swap into a liquid staking coin. There is also a privacy POS coin, called Zano, that was created by one of the creators of the crypto note protocol that Monero is based on.

-Providing Liquidity: This is a more advanced technique, do your homework before trying this especially if you doing it with uncorrelated assets because you have to factor in the risk of impermanent loss. LPing is when you deposit two different assets (or one with single side LPing) into a liquidity pool to earn a portion of the fees when traders trade between the two assets. So if you deposit wrapped bitcoin and Ethereum into a pool, every time someone swaps WBTC for ETH, you earn a small fee.

-Super advanced techniques: People have discovered all sorts of creative or degenerate ways to stick DeFi legos together to increase their yield. The more complicated the strategy is, the more risky it is, but the possibilities are endless.

-Funding Rate Arbitrage: You can do this entirely onchain now using perp dexes without needing to use KYCed CEX's. Or you can use one of the remaining non kyced CEX's as well. It's pretty simple, you just have to make sure you don't get caught in a liquidation which will erase all the yield you made and then some. If the funding rate is positive, that means longs pay shorts and it costs money to be long. If it is negative the opposite is true. You can earn some delta neutral yield off of this strategy, which means you aren't exposed to the price going up or down, you just collect the funding rate. Say you own 2 Monero, you can then short 2 Monero on Hyperliquid and collect the funding rate when the longs have to pay the shorts. By being long spot and short perps, they cancel each other out and you get to keep the funding rate. The trick is you have to avoid liquidation, so you need to have enough margin on the perp dex to cover any extreme price swings. If Monero starts mooning and you are at risk of liquidation, you just close both sides of the trade and walk away with your yield. Some assets have crazy high funding rates at times, which can give you massive yields if you avoid getting blown out. This is best done if you have a decent stack of liquidity to work with.

-Trading: You can always try to trade the market to earn some more non kyced crypto. It is incredibly difficult to trade profitably though, especially if you are using high leverage. You might have some beginners luck and think you are a trading god, but more than likely you will proceed to lose it all. It usually takes the few traders who become consistentally profitable several years of experience before they start to make money. For most people, trading is a good way to quickly lose your non kyced stack of crypto. There is a whole lot of bad information out there. The fact is, if you don't have an exact system that is back tested with a statistical edge and you are just trading off vibes, you will eventually lose money. You have to develop an actual system and stick to it. Or you can just allocate X amount to gambling and if you lose you lose. If you have a small amount of capital, it's even harder to make money trading. However, if you are trading small amounts, that can be an edge in itself because it means your orders won't move the market even on tiny nano cap shitcoins. If you want to play in the memecoin trenches, either on Base, Solana, or Binance Smart Chain, than make sure that you remember to take fucking profits. Many coins are launched every day but only a few will run, and even less will last more than a short time before going to zero. Unrealized profits are not profits at all. Many people will refuse to sell a winner because they are worried it might go up even more and they don't want to miss out on those extra gains. After all, sometimes coins will go up 100x, and if you sold at 2x, that will be very painful. But many people give back 10xes in hopes of a 100x and end up with nothing. There is an easy solution if you don't want to be a victim of FOMO, and that is to take partial profits on a runner. When you should take partials depends on the coin, it's market cap, and it's volatility. If you can't resist the temptation of potential gains and want to try trading, start with small amounts and get a feel for things before trying with significant size. If you lose money trading with $100, you probably aren't going to make money trading with 10k.

-Airdrop Hunting: This is becoming much less profitable than it was even a year ago, as many projects are choosing to ICO instead of doing airdrops, and many of the airdrops that do happen have been peanuts. My best advice is to focus your time and energy farming a few quality projects rather than trying to do it all. You can easily get bogged down in sub par airdrop campaigns that take many hours of effort and tied up capital to get $20 or some bullshit at the end of it. Also, just exploring the world of crypto naturally and trying new things will increase your onchain footprint and potentially qualify you for random airdrops. The trick is actually hearing about the airdrops and claiming them before they expire. Keep your ears open on X and in group chats and you can check premarkets on whales.market for upcoming token launches. Be careful about what you connect your wallet to though! The airdrop world is full of scams. Also many airdrops exclude the United States, so it's a good idea to use a VPN when airdrop hunting if you want to even be able to claim them. More and more airdrops are requiring full KYC to claim these days which is sad. Years ago, airdrops would just show up in your wallet if you qualified for them, that's why they were named airdrops. Now you have to often have to connect your wallet and sign a transaction within a certain period of time and sometimes they want you to verify your identity. I just skip the KYCed ones and airdrop hunting has been my biggest source of non kyc crypto over the years. If you qualify for a KYCed airdrop of significant size, but you don't want to dox your wallet, there are ways around this. Use your imagination.

-Giveaways/Contests: This is still good to do during the bear market, when dying projects are desperate for engagement on social media and do contests that like 8 people enter. Even during the bull market, you can still find really good odds of winning sometimes. Look for giveaways or contests that require very little effort and have low engagement on the annoucement tweet. I try to look for 1/500 odds or better. You can ignore 99% of giveaway posts because they are fake and are doing two things, farming engagement and farming addresses to sell to scammers. A fake giveaway will be like "comment your Ethereum address to win 4 ETH" with no obvious marketing reason behind it by a random account. People comment their addresses, and the scammers link addresses with handles, check the balances, and use your balances to target you for scam airdrops or phishing attempts.

Instead look for legitimate projects, wallets, founders, etc who are doing realistic give aways or contests to promote their project or wallet. @vikrantnyc the cake wallet guy does Monero giveaways all the time for example. Sometimes you will see POW contests, like writing a twitter thread, best meme contests, or logo designs. If you find a legitimate giveaway or contest to enter, make a seperate wallet just for giveaways and contests.

There are probably more ways to earn non kyc crypto that I haven't thought of, such as catfishing lonely crypto developers. Be creative and you can start building your stack with no connections to your real world identity. This kind of wealth, outside of the system, is incredibly valuable. It should be a priority for you if you want to opt the fuck out.

And now for just some of the crazy shit that has gone down since the last issue.

/Crypto\

The US Government is so ineffective they can't even keep track of the crypto they seize and some kid stole 40 million dollars worth of government crypto. Then other kids made fun of the kid for being poor until he decided to share his wallet just to prove them wrong. Someone immediately sent it to ZachXBT and now he is highly likely to be grounded for the rest of his life.

ZachXBT

@zachxbt

1/ Meet the threat actor John (Lick), who was caught flexing $23M in a wallet address directly tied to $90M+ in suspected thefts from the US Government in 2024 and multiple other unidentified victims from Nov 2025 to Dec 2025.

The Epstein files dump spared noone, as corruption and evil have been exposed across the entire ruling class. Unfortunately Bitcoin was also a victim of sorts of the latest release of 3 million files. Turns out Epstein may have had some influence on Bitcoin development, it's not really clear at this point. He was definitely involved in the investing side of things, whether or not that translated to influence over it's development is up for debate.

Meanwhile, Monero devs are not in the Epstein files.

VLAD HOSTS THE BEST PODCAST IN BITCOIN

@Vladcostea

This is the most concerning thing I’ve read in the Epstein files:

Plotting to control Bitcoin development.

Finding a power vacuum when the Foundation shut down in order to grab the top 3 developers.

Possibly influencing development for the next few years.

Here is a podcast with a good overview of the files in terms of Bitcoin.

If you want to check out the Epstein files for yourself, be sure to take measures to protect yourself. You can try accessing them through TOR, I don't know if it will work or not but it's worth a shot. More about the files in the politics section.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

A good PSA courtesy of @L0laL33tz for anyone taking a look at the Epstein Files

"PSA: please use TOR Browser to access these files. Akamai, the content delivery system hosting the documents, is suspected to be a bulk surveillance tool that was tied up in the NSA's foreign spying

Monero has been on a wild ride since the last issue. After I said Monero had the best looking chart in all of crypto, it proceeded to break ATHs and rocketed up to $800. Then ZachXBT ruined the party by claiming the price rise had been possibly related to a hacker laundering funds. The party got ruined even further when Bitcoin fell off a fucking cliff. However Monero has continued to hold up better than most altcoins and is currently chilling in the 300's.

Jaylene🐰

@playmatejaylene

Monero $XMR makes new ATH after:

> Delistings from every exchange
> Bans in multiple countries
> Constant negative press
> Blacklists everywhere
> An IRS bounty hunt

ZachXBT

@zachxbt

On January 10, 2026 at around 11 pm UTC a victim lost $282M+ worth of LTC & BTC due to a hardware wallet social engineering scam.

The attacker began converting the stolen LTC & BTC to Monero via multiple instant exchanges causing the XMR price to sharply increase.

BTC was also

The Bitcoin crash on 2/5 was epic, it was one of the worst days in Bitcoin's history. That whole week I felt like I was adding collateral to my Aave loans every 15 minutes, digging coins out of digital couch cushions to try to avoid liquidation. I came incredibly close to losing most of my wrapped Bitcoin. If Bitcoin had gone down another few hundred dollars I would of been so fucked. I'm still fucked just not AS fucked as I would of been if I had been forced into selling at the bottom.

Lots of potential catalysts for this crash, including a possible Hong Kong based fund blowing up combined with the markets not liking the hawkish Fed chairman nomination. Don't forget a healthy serving of Quantum FUD that got so bad our least favorite Bitcoiner, Micheal Saylor did a 180 from dismissing Quantum as FUD to forming some kind of task force to address it. Mix all that with some Epstein files and you end up with a massive shit sandwich.

Parker

@TheOtherParker_

This was the highest volume day on $IBIT, ever, by a factor of nearly 2x, trading $10.7B today. Additionally, roughly $900M in options premiums were traded today, also the highest ever for IBIT. Given these facts and the way $BTC and $SOL traded down in lockstep today (normally

It seems like X has been doing it's best to suppress Monero adoption, not only did they refuse to allow Doug Thuman to advertise the Monerotopia 2026 Conference (February 12-15 in Mexico City, and it will be broadcasted online for free this year as well), but they also banned the XMR Bazaar twitter account for breaking the unwritten rule of sharing too many external links. In response, the community has started a new group for sharing listings,

For some reason the Paragraph editor won't let me delete this duplicate tweet below about the IBIT volume....now that it's a bear market and Paragraph probably has 0 funding left, I probably need to migrate my newsletter. This isn't the only bug I've been encountering with this editor, but it's always been a little buggy. Maybe they should of fixed the editor instead of launching writer coins that noone will buy. I can't do paid subscriptions but I can launch a creator coin? Or if you want to get even more retarded I can launch a coin for the post itself, in case you want to invest in Issue #6 like it is bringing in revenue or something.

Parker

@TheOtherParker_

A reminder that storing money in USDT or USDC is almost the same as storing it in a bank account.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Storing your loot in centralized stablecoins such as USDT or USDC is about as safe as storing your loot in a bank account.

And that's not at all safe. Holding money in a bank account or these stablecoins opens you up to the risk of having your money frozen or seized at any time

The Monero GUI desktop wallet has released a new version. When you update you should also update your node's ban list. Many of the spy nodes have changed their IP addresses, so the old list is no longer effective. These spy nodes try to harvest as much data about transactions as they can for bad actors like Chainalysis.

hundehausen 🌱

@hundehausen

Monero v0.18.4.5 has been released:
- Ledger: fix Ledger Monero app crash & add support for Ledger Nano Gen5
- Daemon: fix race condition causing dropped connections during sync
- Wallet: fix edge case where key images remain marked unspent
- more... (1/2)

github.com

Release Fluorine Fermi, Point Release 4.5 · monero-project/monero

Overview This is the v0.18.4.5 release of the Monero software. This release fixes a bug with Ledger hardware wallet. Some highlights of this release are: Ledger: fix Ledger Monero app crash (#1023...

Monero (XMR)

The Monero Research Lab has released a new spy node ban list!

'If you operate a node (locally for your own use or as a public service), you can add the Monero Research Lab's spy node ban list to improve your privacy.'

Monero Research Lab (Unofficial)

Run your Monero node with the new MRL spy node ban list
TL;DR: If you operate a node (locally for your own use or as a public service), you can add the Monero Research Lab’s spy node ban list to improve your privacy.

About a year ago, the Monero Research Lab (MRL) released a

Monero is becoming more important as currently it is the only viable alternative for cash, which is slowly being phased out.

Reclaim The Net

Across the US, cash is being quietly phased out of daily life. Now even on federal land.

The National Park Service no longer accepts physical money at dozens of parks, forcing visitors to pay digitally through private systems that record and control every transaction.

This

Reclaim The Net

Lawsuit Challenges National Park Service Ban on Cash Payments

reclaimthenet.org/lawsuit-challe…

/PRIVACY\

I do have to give some props to Apple, the FBI was unable to get into a Washington Post reporter's iphone because it had lockdown mode enabled. However, they were able to access her laptop because she had touch id enabled. A good reminder why biometric security isn't security at all, all someone has to do is grab your hand and stick it on the print reader.

Lifehacker

@lifehacker

Apple's Lockdown Mode is powerful enough to stop the FBI from breaking into your iPhone, but you probably don't want to use it.
Link:
lifehacker.com/tech/what-is-l…

Meanwhile, Microsoft seems to be considerably less based than Apple, and will just hand over your Bitlocker encryption keys to the FBI if they ask nicely.

Thanks to a recent hack of a company called Gravy Analytics, we now a have a list of thousands of apps being used to track users without their knowledge. Even the app developers of the apps being used may not be aware of this. Here is a direct link to the list of apps. This is a good example of why you should use open source apps that don't even participate in these RTB advertising markets that are being co-opted to harvest data.

"Some of the world’s most popular apps are likely being co-opted by rogue members of the advertising industry to harvest sensitive location data on a massive scale, with that data ending up with a location data company whose subsidiary has previously sold global location data to US law enforcement.
The thousands of apps, included in hacked files from location data company Gravy Analytics, include everything from games like Candy Crush and dating apps like Tinder to pregnancy tracking and religious prayer apps across both Android and iOS. Because much of the collection is occurring through the advertising ecosystem—not code developed by the app creators themselves—this data collection is likely happening without users’ or even app developers’ knowledge.
“For the first time publicly, we seem to have proof that one of the largest data brokers selling to both commercial and government clients appears to be acquiring their data from the online advertising ‘bid stream,’” rather than code embedded into the apps themselves, Zach Edwards, senior threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Silent Push and who has followed the location data industry closely, tells 404 Media after reviewing some of the data."

Some based individual has launched a website, http://haveibeenflocked.com/, that let's you check to see if your license plate number has been searched for by law enforcement using Flock's surveillance tools. There are millions of records searchable on the website right now.

The cops are freaking out, Flock is freaking out. It's great. Black market entrepreneurs across the country have just been given a free heads up that they are being watched, hopefully they use this information to stay out of prison. They are saying this could of fucked up a bunch of active surveillance ops, and most "surveillance" ops are just pigs trying to bust people for victimless crimes. I mean how many times do you hear about cops following around a potential burgler or rapist to prevent them from stealing or raping. Not very often, because they spend all their resources watching drug dealers instead. Thanks to civil asset forfeiture laws creating perverse incentives for law enforcement, they will want to focus more on drugs than actual crime, because it's easier for them to score some cash, cars, houses, boats, etc and help pad out that pension fund.

If you are wondering how they acquired this information, it happened when Flock made a massive redaction error.

"A handful of police departments that use Flock have unwittingly leaked details of millions of surveillance targets and a large number of active police investigations around the country because they have failed to redact license plates information in public records releases. Flock responded to this revelation by threatening a site that exposed it and by limiting the information the public can get via public records requests. "

LOL

Age Verification is spreading like a virus, since the last issue Discord has announced they are launching it, and Greece, Spain, and Austria are all implementing social media bans for minors that will be enforced through age verification.

RIP Discord....I refuse to submit a face scan to a closed source project with a history of leaking user data. I shouldn't have to dox myself to use your stupid app. If I have to I will buy a age verified account from a third world country and use that. This kind of preempitive compliance that we are starting to see from social media companies is really making me angry. Oh but you can still use the platform, just in "teen" mode, so it's not big deal right? Wrong! They always just take a little bit of your freedom away at a time, not enough that you freak out. It's framed as just a minor inconvenience to "protect the children", and don't you want to protect the children? What the fuck ever, I grew up with free and open access to anything on the internet as a "child" and I turned out just fine (with only a few mental issues). If you are a parent and don't want your kid getting on discord, maybe....just don't let your kid get on discord. WHOAAA....ground breaking, I know. You probably own the router in the house, (unless you rent one from your ISP, don't do that!) so just monitor your kid's internet traffic, and if they connect to discord, make them pick a stick out and beat the living fuck out of them. They probably won't get on discord anymore. That's how we used to keep kids off of discord back in the 1930s when men were men and women were for making babies. We don't need age verification as long as we still have trees (if we have no trees, metal bats also work, just avoid the head area).

Just kidding please don't beat your children. I can make offensive jokes like that because no one reads this newsletter (If you read this part, let me know in the comments!). Here is a tool on Github that will possibly get around Discord's age verification. I have not tested it DYOR.

Discord Support

@discord_support

OpenAI is also doing age verification now.

Reclaim The Net

OpenAI’s new “age prediction model” watches how people use ChatGPT to guess if they’re under 18. If flagged, users must verify their identity to regain full access.

“In the name of safety” has become the moral cover for surveillance. When a company claims it’s protecting users,

Reclaim The Net

OpenAI’s AI Age Prediction System Turns Age Verification into Widespread User Surveillance

reclaimthenet.org/openais-ai-age…

Washington State wants to spy on your 3D printer so you don't make anything cool.

/POLITICS\

When ICE isn't shooting people and kidnapping toddlers, they are spying on us to find new people to shoot and or kidnap. Check out this new zine about all the different ways they are conducting surveillance. (PDF file)

At least there are some people fighting against ICE's use of facial recognition

EFF

@EFF

The “ICE Out of Our Faces Act” would ban ICE and CBP agents, and some local police working with them, from acquiring or using biometric surveillance systems, including face recognition technology, or information derived from such systems.

eff.org

Yes to the “ICE Out of Our Faces Act”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have descended into utter lawlessness, most recently in Minnesota. The violence is shocking. So are the intrusions on

Illegal immigration is a great excuse for putting the AI control grid into place....test it on immigrants, than deploy it against everyone.

Leading Report

@LeadingReport

Palantir is reportedly developing a tool for ICE that displays a map of potential deportation targets, allows agents to pull up detailed profiles on individuals, and assigns a “confidence score” estimating how likely each person is to be at a given address, per 404 Media.

Bitcoin wasn't the only thing to get hit by the Epstein files release. The damage has been far and wide. We live in a society ruled by pedophiles and those who are protecting pedophiles. Rich and powerful and traffic underage girls? No problem. Not rich and sell some drugs less harmful than alcohol? Go straight to prison for a few decades. If you still haven't realize the state is a purely evil organization, you are burying your head in the sand. Oh and not that I am surprised, but Ron Paul came out of this clean, he was not liked by these pedo fucks.

ThePatrioticBlonde🇺🇸

@ImBreckWorsham

EXPOSED: Epstein files reveal the FBI, under Kash Patel and Dan Bongino’s direction, internally discussed “clear and specific guidance” to redact images of former U.S. presidents, a secretary of state, and other celebrities from the files.

Thomas Massie

Lutnick went to the island and was in business deals with Epstein, long after Lutnick says he parted ways and even after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. What else is Lutnick covering up with respect to his association with Epstein?

thehill.com

Massie calls on Lutnick to resign over alleged Epstein ties

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Sunday pushed for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to resign after his name appeared in files linked to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Trump’s Com…

Thomas Massie

A Sultan seems to have sent this.
DOJ should make this public.
justice.gov/epstein/files/…

Ro Khanna

@RoKhanna

Britain has dethroned a prince, forced Mandelson to resign, & lost confidence in Starmer because @RepThomasMassie & I forced the release of the Epstein files.

What is America doing to hold the Epstein class accountable?

We need to haul these powerful men before Congress.

A.P. Hill Legacy Foundation

@JohnnyReb1989

MASSIVE Epstein files thread. I've spent over 8 1/2 hours reading through the files for everyone. NO edits! Strictly just screenshots from the DOJ website! I will also continue to update and add more as I go.

ThePatrioticBlonde🇺🇸

@ImBreckWorsham

On the same exact day that the FBI opened a child sex trafficking case against Epstein in 2018, he ordered six 55-gallon containers filled with sulfuric acid delivered to his private island.

Gee. I can't IMAGINE what that was for.

Oh and Epstein is either not dead or was murdered. We don't know which yet...but we do know the FBI helped cover it up. Props to adamscochran on Twitter who analyzed every second of the security video last year and determined there was a cover up well before these files were released.

Luke Rudkowski

@Lukewearechange

Trust the FBI

Meanwhile it looks like the FBI knowingly deleted the Epstein prison footage, Bill Barr has some serious explaining to to.

@FBIDirectorKash what's going on here?

Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth)

1/25

The Smoking Gun: Proof the Epstein Footage was not just cut, but *ALTERED*

Beyond just the cut, the video contains duplicate frames and continuity skips, pointing to direct and purposeful tampering!

I think the Epstein scandal will go down in history as the biggest political scandal of all time and the death blow that destroyed any remaining faith Americans had in their Government. The ruling class is corrupt to the core and the entire system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up with voluntary systems. If this isn't obvious to you at this point, you have your head buried in the sand.

We also had some interesting news from one of my least favorite insitutions, the Federal Reserve. First, in mid January, Powell puts out a video when Trump threatens him with legal action over some expensive renovations at his office. Why exactly did the Fed need to spend any money on renovations anyways? Don't they know you can interfere in free markets, enrich the ruling class at the expense of the working class, and fund endless wars remotely now? They don't need a fancy building to devalue the dollar.

This man oversaw the largest expansion in the supply of US dollars in history, a Covid era money printing bonanza that was exponentially larger than any prior ones. The inflation we saw post Covid was a direct result of this.

Lots of American people would love a home renovation, or hell to even own a home at all, but they can't afford it. Everything costs too much now thanks to years of money printing by the Fed. I have no sympathy for central bankers.

Watcher.Guru

JUST IN: Jerome Powell says DOJ is threatening the Fed with criminal charges for refusing to follow President Trump's interest rate demands.

Later on in the month, Trump nominates Kevin Warsh as Powell's replacement. Warsh is considered Hawkish by some and this was a potential catalyst in the epic crash in gold and silver this month when an insane amount of wealth was destroyed in a couple of hours as 7 trillion dollars was erased from precious metals. Warsh is also a guest star in the never ending shit show that is the Epstein files.

Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth)

JFC!

Is every one in Trump's orbit on this fucking island?!?!

The front runner for Trump's pick for Fed chair "Kevin Warsh" came to Epstein's Island for Christmas...

and brought a guest who had to be redacted.... which is supposed to be for victims...

MeidasTouch

@MeidasTouch

Trump's new pick for Fed Chair makes an appearance in today's Epstein Files release:

When my boy Massie ain't busy bringing down huge parts of the corrupt ruling class by forcing the release of the Epstein files, he is also trying to keep creepy kill switches out of our cars. The feds want to put a kill switch in all new cars...if your car doesn't like how you are driving it just shuts down...I have to wonder if such a kill switch will have a back door for Law enforcement to shut down your car whenever they feel like it. The way things are trending, I can totally envision a future where your own car calls the cops on you and they just shut down your car to do a traffic stop. This will be abused by both law enforcement and hackers.

GODDAMNIT PARAGRAPH MORE DUPLICATE TWEET ACTION. I JUST WANT TO FINISH THIS NEWSLETTER!

Thomas Massie

Federal law says new cars after 2026 must monitor drivers and shut down if the car disapproves. Your dashboard should not be judge, jury, and executioner.

@RepScottPerry @RepChipRoy offered an amendment to defund the automobile kill switch mandate. Here’s our debate:

Thomas Massie

https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-resources/state-avs-laws/

And finally, this was incredibly disturbing...this dude sent one paragraph to DHS advocating for an Afghan asylum seeker and in response they subpoenaed his Gmail account and paid him a visit at his house. There may be more to this story, I didn't dive too deep, but on the surface it doesn't look good.

GenXGirl

@GenXGirl1994

THIS SHOULD ALARM EVERYONE

DHS subpoenaed emails & sent investigators to home of American for sending email asking for mercy for an asylum seeker.

No matter how you feel about immigration, we should all reject this Gestapo tactic of scaring Americans into silence.

(Link in 2nd

/Tools, Links, and Media\

xcancel.com is a working instance of Nitter, allowing you to easily view X posts without needing to log in. This is an increasingly important tool, especially when viewing "controversial" political content that you might not want X knowing that you are interested in.

kyc.rip is a dope site with tons of tools, including a handy dandy address checker. See if a crypto address is sketchy or not. It also has a burner email address service, a XMR street price tracker, a PGP messaging app, buy virtual gift cards with XMR, instant swaps, and much more. I have not tried any of these tools out yet, other than trying to do a swap on 2/5 but I couldn't get it to work. I think that was because the entire crypto market was on fire though. This site could be a honey pot, idk but goddamn the design of the site is absolutely beautiful.

Shakespeare is a front end for vibe coding Nostr applications.

jmail.world is a site where you can browse and search Epstein's emails for yourself as if you were logged into his Gmail account. This is a deep rabbit hole, and this is way easier than clicking random files on the justice department's unorganized mess of a data dump.

The Paznia Radio network is an agorist radio show that is live every Saturday at 4pm EST, check out the last episode here. Unfortunately the main guy behind this show, Rayo2, who has been tirelessly advocating for freedom and agorism for many years now, just lost his house to a fire. Show him some support by watching and sharing the show! Since Free Talk Live is no longer broadcasting very often, we needed a good call-in freedom oriented radio program and the Paznia people are stepping up.

That's it for this issue of Thought Crime Trap House, I gotta start releasing these more often because if I wait too long between issues than so much happens it's hard to include even 10% of it. The news cycle has definitely been accelerating lately, it seems like a year's worth of noteworthy developments happens every single month now. Am I the only one who feels that way? Let me know in the comments if I am not crazy.

Thought Crime Trap House #5 January 9, 2026

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:15:00 GMT

Welcome to the Thought Crime Trap House, no recording devices, snitches, or bootlickers allowed. I am the one and only Thoughtcrimeboss. Why should you listen to me? Well I have lived outside of the "system" for more than a decade now. In all practical terms, I don't exist, and I have learned a few things along the way that I can teach you.

You don't have to go to the extremes I have, but protecting your privacy is no longer optional. Criminals are getting data on crypto holders from data leaks and targeting them with kidnappings and armed home invasions. The state is implementing an AI powered mass surveillance network on a scale never before seen in history. Digital IDs and CBDCs are spreading like wild fire and the exits are closing. If you don't opt out and build a life outside of the system soon, you might be trapped in it forever. Subscribe to get the latest news on crypto, freedom tech, and privacy alongside actionable advice to help you opt out and protect yourself.

In this issue:

Avoiding online age verification and potential workarounds if you encounter it
Testing the new Monero/HyperEVM bridge
Do any of the zero KYC prepaid virtual debit cards work?
The ZEC governance drama
and more!

If you want to support me and my mission to help people protect their privacy and opt out of the system, please consider donating some crypto to the cause. Please excuse my bad language and rampant sarcasm.

Tip me in XMR on XMRchat

Send some ETH or any ERC-20 token on mainnet or any EVM layer 2 blockchain to thoughtcrimeboss.eth

Send me sats via Bitcoin mainnet: bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Or send me Bitcoin via lighting to burnedmitten671@minibits.cash

Send me SOL or any Solana token at 9uLhcY5AKHjYK3kySrgDnWqp5NFh9p1LQztT8iZUPdxZ

You can also support me by following me on Nostr npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

Or follow me on X and help me get to 1k followers!

Please share this with your friends and enemies, it's free and it helps me a lot.

/AGE VERIFICATION AND HOW TO AVOID IT\

Before we get to the news, I wanted to share my thoughts on and my personal experience with the latest threat from the surveillance state, online age verification, a threat that most people seem to be ignoring.

Online age verification laws are spreading like a plague across the world right now. In the United States for example, there were no such laws in 2022. Now, there are 25 states with a law on the books. Sold to the public as a means of "protecting children" from the evils of porn and social media, these laws have faced little opposition so far. I don't know why it is so popular these days to outsource parental responsibilities to the state. If you don't want your kids to watch porn or use social media, there are a million ways to do that without involving the state and imposing restrictions on adults.

I don't think these laws are really about protecting kids, it's just a sneaky way to lock down the internet. The freedom to be anonymous on a free and open internet is something that gives people power and takes power away from the state. Information and media used to be almost entirely controlled by the ruling class until we got widespread access to the internet, and everything changed. Now independent media is more popular than mainstream media, when before the internet independent media barely existed beyond maybe a few pirate radio stations, mail order publishing companies, and xeroxed zines with limited reach.

This is also the first step to a widespread "digital ID" that they will want you to use to be able to access the internet at all. If we allow this to happen, anonymity on the internet will disappear and every single thing you do will be tracked and recorded. This will stifle free speech, people will be scared to express controversial ideas and opinions if they know they will be linked directly to their identity. The internet as we know it will change forever and not for the better.

Beyond the false "protect the children" narrative, I know some people will also argue that we need some form of digital ID/verification to combat the proliferation of bots on the internet. That's simply not true. There are a myriad of ways to verify humanity and uniqueness without the need to verify identity.

Age verification was definitely a threat on my radar for awhile now, but it was always something to worry about tomorrow. That changed the other day for me when I tried to download Session, an encrypted messaging application on one of my normie phones (as in, not degoogled). Google informed me I would not be allowed to download this app from the play store until I verified my age. Although I knew I would probably encounter this eventually, once it was actually in front of me, it still made me very angry. I have been using the free and open internet since the dotcom bubble started and this new thing felt so wrong. I felt violated just looking at those words, "Verify your age". I mean I didn't even like the ol' "check this box if you are over 18", but at least it wasn't invasive.

Now the question that immediately came up for me, is why the fuck does Google think I am a minor? What did I do to trigger this? My theory is that I logged into the account from a Malaysian VPN server too many times and unbeknownst to me, Malaysia has made it illegal for those under the age of 16 to use social media. I guess Google considers Session to be a social media application.

Out of curiosity I clicked through to see what the options for age verification were.

The options included a selfie, scanning your ID, using your credit card, or using some third party service that does something with whatever email address you give it to determine if it thinks you are an adult or not. I am not going to show Google my face, so that eliminates selfie as an option, although not entirely because I could show Google someone else's face. The idea of paying a hard drug user 10 bucks to take a selfie for you is a good option to keep in one's back pocket if this bullshit becomes more widespread, but then you do risk linking your account to someone you may not necessarily want associated with it. The selfie method is supposed to just determine if you're an adult and then permanently delete the selfie, but you are trusting them to actually do that. This isn't open source tech, so there is no way for the user to determine if the image was actually deleted, of if it gets saved in a database somewhere. I want someone to try it with a mannequin or a picture to see how accurate it is, if anyone has done this please let me know.

Scanning my ID is also not an option, for one the ID wouldn't match the name on the account, and my ID has been expired for years which could probably be an issue when doing an ID verification, although I'm not sure. I already don't trust Google not to save a selfie, so I certainly don't trust them not to save all the information on an ID. Google doesn't need to know what my government name is. I also don't have any credit cards under the random alias name I gave to Google, so that also wouldn't work unless it would accept a prepaid debit gift card, which is possible. Maybe I can spin up a new Kemycard for this purpose and see if it works. (See the end of this issue for more about no kyc virtual prepaid debit cards)

So the only option I could try right away was the email address scanning, which I already knew wasn't going to work, because the only email address I was willing to use for this to avoid unnecessary linkages was the Gmail address associated with the Google account I was trying to age verify. It doesn't read your emails (well, they might with a Gmail address, who knows); it just looks at how old the email address is and what kind of accounts it is associated with. That Gmail address has had very little usage for anything, so I didn't expect the algorithm to decide it was enough to determine my adulthood. I was correct, it failed, and I proceeded to side load Session and bypassed the Play Store entirely.

It's great that I know how to side load apps and am willing to do so to get around this, but the average person is just going to comply because they want to have access to these age restricted apps. Google is going to have the ability to know exactly who owns every single Google account if we don't stop this age verification nonsense.

Google should just look at my app store downloads and check if Tik Tok, Instagram, or Snapchat are on my device. Since none are present, it should be plainly obvious that I'm either not a teenager or I am a very weird teenager with no friends.

Now age verification laws vary widely across jurisdictions, and this is doxxing me a bit but I don't currently live in a location with an age verification law that would even apply to Session. Session is not a porn app, it is not a gambling app, it is just a way to send private messages. To restrict this for minors is the same as telling them they can't talk to anyone privately. It's retarded. Kids will find a way around it because that is just what kids do. Also, a teenager is just as entitled to use encryption as any adult. In fact they should be encouraged to do so, the earlier a child learns the importance of protecting their privacy from corporations and the state, the less data will be harvested from them before they have a chance to stop it.

Also, I don't know how kids are these days, but when I was a young teenager the more rules and restrictions you threw at me, the harder I rebelled. I feel like that is true with a lot of teens, and doing dumb shit like banning them from the internet is probably going to backfire. You just know if you take away all their toys, some kid is just going to vibe code his own social network and say fuck y'all.

How to avoid getting flagged for Age Verification in the first place

The best option is to avoid Google altogether, get a Google Pixel phone and install Graphene OS to use Android without a Google account. Most apps will work on Graphene OS, and this will improve your privacy dramatically. Although Google might change Android one day to make it impossible for Graphene OS to update to the latest version of Android, and in that case you might want to still have an "adult" Google account lying around. If you don't want to buy a Pixel and don't own one already, there are alternative degoogled operating systems that are compatible with non pixel phones, such as Calyx OS. I haven't tried them yet, DYOR.
Do not get your account associated with any age verification jurisdictions. If you travel to one or live in one, make sure you have your VPN on and set to a server in a non age verification jurisdiction. If you don't live in such a jurisdiction, remember not to use any VPN servers that are in one.
Don't watch a bunch of videos on Youtube that might be popular with teenagers, such as gaming content or ...I actually have no idea what is popular with teenagers these days? Maybe videos on changing your gender identity?
You shouldn't be using Google for searches in the first place but if you do don't search for anything that a teenager would be likely to search for. If you don't use Google search, start throwing an occasional fake "adult" search out there such as "how to tell your kids that their mother is a whore" or "how to keep my prostate healthy". I don't know. Be creative.
Do random 'adulty' stuff? Apparently having new or "low activity" accounts can also get you flagged.

Potential workarounds if your account does get flagged

Some people have said if they just ignore it, the system unflagged them. This is what I am hoping happens to me now that I am no longer logging in from Malaysia.
Use someone else's face for the selfie. This is iffy, because this still can create a link to you so make sure it is someone who doesn't know you or your name, like a random homeless person. If they don't ever use the internet, that's even better. Yes people like that still exist, and they are probably going to become increasingly valuable in our new world.
Prepaid debit gift card. You can get these a number of ways, most grocery stores in the United States have them in the gift card section, look at the packaging and the Visa ones that have a registration website called "giftcardmall" work well. Theoretically, in Minecraft, you could register them on public WiFi without a VPN to avoid being flagged, and just use the name on the Google account that you want to verify the age of. Sometimes you can use a homeless shelter address for the address or a random house for sale. Now I am assuming shotgun KYC is a possibility with these cards because the fine print on the bottom of the registration page says they can ask you for your DOB and/or identity documents. Though I have used these cards many times and have never been asked for more than a phone number and email address. If you don't even want to give up a phone number or name to the debit card company, you can also use USDC to buy a prepaid virtual debit card like a Kemycard with no KYC at all and attempt to use that. (More info on these at end of issue) I don't know if it would work for this because there would be no name attached to it, just a billing address. Google just charges a small amount (less than a dollar) to the card to make sure it is valid, so you wouldn't have to put a bunch of money on it. Make sure the USDC you use to buy it isn't linked to your real identity or it defeats the entire purpose.
If you happen to have an email with some history that you don't mind associating with your Google account, that may be the easiest way to convince Google you are an adult. WARNING: You get ONE shot at this per account. If it fails, they don't let you try again with a different email, the option just disappears off the list.
Just make a new Google account from a non age verification jurisdiction VPN server, and start seeding it with those "adult" style searches we talked about above.
Bypass the Play Store entirely by side loading any restricted applications by using F Droid or downloading APK files directly. Now remember, VERIFY ALL APK FILES BEFORE YOU INSTALL THEM, if you don't want to get rekt.

There is no universe in which these age verification laws are good for society, they are just another way for the state to restrict access to the internet and the free flow of information which is a threat to the ruling class. Resist and avoid complying as much as you can.

To find out which states have age verification laws and how strict they are, check this site:

Here is a list of countries with age verification laws :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_age_verification_laws_by_country

/PRIVACY\

A Federal Judge just blocked the law in Texas that required you to verify your age to download any app, it didn't matter what kind of app it was. The judge rightfully pointed out that this was about as retarded as IDing people at the entrance to a bookstore.

Reclaim The Net

Texas tried to turn the App Store into a checkpoint, forcing digital ID scans to download anything.

A federal judge just froze the law, calling it a First Amendment violation. The state can’t run the internet like a DMV.

Reclaim The Net

Federal Judge Blocks Texas App Store Digital ID Age Verification Law, Citing First Amendment Violations

reclaimthenet.org/texas-app-stor…

You now have to upload ID just to use Google in Australia

Jason Bassler

Starting 2 days ago, Australians are now required to upload their ID to use a search engine.

Digital ID. Age checks. Biometric gateways.

Australia is the beta test for a world where freedom and privacy quietly die... and it won't stop there.

Supposedly this guy went to Walmart with no devices on him, bought a phone charger with cash, and still got tracked. I'm assuming this means Walmart is tracking purchases using facial recognition, which isn't surprising. Someone needs to repeat this experiment wearing reflectacles (anti facial recognition sunglasses) and a hat, and see if this still happens. That's a good idea for a POIDH social bounty....

HustleBitch

@HustleBitch_

AN ATTORNEY PAID CASH AT WALMART WITH NO PHONE - AND THEY STILL KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE BOUGHT

This man - a practicing attorney - walked into Walmart with no phone, no app, no Bluetooth, no smartwatch, no earbuds, nothing that could track him.
He paid cash for a USB cable and

The UK is continuing on it's descent into an Orwellian dystopian state, although America is not that far behind.

Riccardo Spagni

@fluffypony

This is insane

No to Digital ID

@NoToDigitalID

NEW: Under UK Legislation anyone developing end-to-end encryption is now labelled as a “hostile actor”

Another one bites the dust.

Reclaim The Net

Here is another disturbing example of the State not giving a flying fuck about the 4th amendment of the Constitution.

Virginia to Enforce Verification Law for Social Media on January 1, 2026, Despite Free Speech Concerns

reclaimthenet.org

Virginia to Enforce Verification Law for Social Media on January 1, 2026, Despite Free Speech...

Virginia’s push to police teen screen time edges the internet closer to an era where every click comes with an ID check.

Last July, Wilmer Chavarria, a U.S. citizen and school superintendent, was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gestapo agents in Houston for over four hours without any evidence of a crime or probable cause. He was isolated, denied access to his lawyer and family, and harassed until he finally gave in and handed over his smartphone, tablet, and laptop. Honestly, I am impressed he lasted as many hours as he did, most people just comply immediately, which is one of the reasons why our rights are deteriorating so rapidly. They lied to him and said he had no Fourth Amendment rights at the border. Your rights don't help you when a gang of armed thugs who don't give a shit about those rights have you locked in a room.

These agents were using the ridiculous concept of the "border exception" to the 4th Amendment. The government claims the Constitution doesn't apply within 100 miles of the border—a zone that includes two-thirds of the U.S. population. They think they can go through your texts, your photos, your medical history, your work files—without a warrant or even suspicion of a crime. These warrant-less device searches by CBP have quintupled since 2015, and they are copying the data and storing it in a government database for 15 years. Chavarria described the experience as being abducted by a violent gang, which is exactly what it was. He's now afraid to visit his own mother because he doesn't want to be detained or disappeared, but he is fighting back at least and suing these bastards.

There are now incidents of US citizens being snatched up off the street by masked men and having their face scanned without consent. This is literally a scene in every dystopian movie and TV show ever, the anonymous government agents rolling around town scanning and kidnapping people for no reason.

I don't care what you think about illegal immigrants, but there is no way you should be able to justify snatching CITIZENS up off the street with no evidence of a crime, no probable cause, no reasonable suspicion. The only thing that these agents are using is whether or not you "look" like a citizen. Given that there is no uniform visual appearance of US citizens, this is vast government overreach disguised as immigration enforcement.

If you want to avoid being kidnapped and having your face scanned by the Gestapo, I recommend that you look like a white person. Other than that I have no clue. Anti facial recognition sunglasses aren't going to help us when the Feds just rip them off our faces in the back of an SUV and scan us anyways. THIS SHIT IS GETTING CRAZY.

You know all those conspiracy theories about the WEF and globalists forcing everyone to use digital IDs and CBDCs, so they can track and control the entire world population? Well it's happening, and it's happening right fucking now. If you don't exit the system like I have soon, you might not ever be able to exit the system. I mean once they get your biometrics or DNA and link it to a digital ID, you are stuck bro. Get the fuck out NOW.

Bernie

@Artemisfornow

The EU and Canada have just signed a deal to “mutually recognise” digital IDs and nobody voted for it.

Buried in a technical memorandum, the governments agreed to align their digital identity systems, run joint pilots, and eventually treat each other’s digital ID wallets as

/CRYPTO\

Well Bitcoin ended the year with it's ass kicked by precious metals and the stock market, which is probably not what you were expecting to happen in the first year of a "Bitcoin President". Well turns out we didn't actually get a Bitcoin president but more like a "Max Extracting Memecoin Launching Shitcoin President". Now I find myself having to explain to random liberal normies why crypto isn't bad just because Trump likes it. So far the only crypto legislation that has passed was the Genius Act which basically protects incumbents in the stablecoin space and turns them into backdoor CBDCs. Don't lose faith yet though, this year also saw the rise of privacy coins as a narrative and Monero and Zcash outperformed the rest of crypto. At the same time that Bitcoin is becoming institutionalized and sanitized, crypto is returning to it's roots as freedom tech. I'm hoping the privacy meta holds up in 2026 and that more people get turned on to financial privacy. I think people have realized that most cryptocurrencies have zero actual value or utility and are looking for the few that do. I remember when I first came to this realization, it was tough to swallow that most coins were just memecoins, with some governance rights if you are lucky. We have to thank Federal Securities Laws for making most of our coins completely fucking useless. If it wasn't for the state, the entire world would probably be using crypto by now. Their laws prevented none of the scams, but did prevent lots of innovation. I still have hope for the future though, crypto isn't going anywhere, and even the state can't stop an idea whose time has come.

More from Nic Carter about the Quantum threat to Bitcoin, this post is an easier read than his original 2 part series if you just want a quick overview of why some people are concerned about this.

nic carter

@nic_carter

not one person that's calling me uninformed or ignorant about the problem has answered the points made in my 13k word article. I raise 10 specific points about why I think QCs are a risk. not one rebuttal to my article.

murmurationstwo.substack.com

Bitcoin and the Quantum Problem – Part II: The Quantum Supremacy

Why a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer undermines Bitcoin, and why I think it's likely one emerges in the next decade

MTG on why she voted no on the backdoor CBDC bill, aka the GENIUS Act.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸

@RepMTG

Very important read that most Americans have no idea happened this past year in Congress.

I voted NO on GENIUS Act because it hands power over to banks and federal regulatory framework of Stable coins, but opens the back door for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

I voted

Warren Davidson 🇺🇸

@WarrenDavidson

What's going on in crypto? Flat or declining markets. Definite vibe shift... A few thoughts.

Markets have stalled, in my opinion, because the disintermediation use case has been effectively destroyed in America. An account-based industry offers no distinct advantage over the

In the UK you now have to get permission to withdraw any cash at all now and tell your bank the purpose for the cash.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

This is coming to the United States sooner than later, Monero is more essential than ever. No one should have to do this to withdraw their own money, it's simply not anyone's business what you need your own money for. Notice how they frame this as something that's needed to

No to Digital ID

@NoToDigitalID

In the UK you can’t even withdraw cash from your own bank account unless they agree with the usage…

See what I/we have to live with? The world is laughing.

Wallet of Satoshi, a custodial mobile Bitcoin lightning wallet, is shutting down in the EU due to new regulations. This is yet another example of why custodial solutions shouldn't be relied on to scale Bitcoin, since they can just get shut down by the state easily.

The Rage

NEW: WALLET OF SATOSHI WINDS DOWN CUSTODIAL SERVICE IN EU

A little known tax-law came into effect on January 1st that is pushing custodial services out of the EU.

Full story

therage.co

Wallet of Satoshi Winds Down Custodial Service in EU. Here's The Laws That Affect It

A little known tax-law that went into effect on January 1st is pushing custodial services out of the EU.

Ledger leaked customer information AGAIN. Don't order hardware wallets to your house or even in your name if you would like to avoid 5 dollar wrench attacks in the future.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

As the latest Ledger leak demonstrates, good opsec when purchasing hardware wallets is essential. Yet @Ledger doesn't even bother to mention this during it's checkout process. There should be big fat red warnings about not shipping to your home address or using your real name.

Ignas | DeFi

@DefiIgnas

I received Ledger's email stating my name, postal address, email, and phone number got leaked.

I would be extremely worried right now.

Wrench physical attacks are getting more common and I believe if economy & world gets more unstable, these attacks will become serious issue

XMR on Hyperliquid?

XMR perps and even spot have been deployed on Hyperliquid, well kind of. Hyperliquid is an open protocol and anyone can deploy a perpetual futures contract based on any asset onto it. These perps are based on a token, XMR1, which is pegged to XMR's price because XMR1 is exchangeable for real XMR through a platform called Wagyu.

Wagyu also happens to have an airdrop points program...so I decided I had to test this process out and if it worked I might start doing my XMR DCA purchases through it. I'm only buying small amounts anyways, and I am getting fucked for fees and slippage on the various "instant" crypto to crypto swap services that are the primary means of acquiring XMR without using a KYCed CEX.

I wanted to see if I could get a better price through Wagyu, which is also my favorite food. I have no idea what kind of security guarantees this dev has set up for his or her little bridge, if any, so I would not stick your life savings into this! Make small purchases only until we know more. This is the first time I have personally seen any XMR token living on another blockchain since sXMR on Secret Network years ago. sXMR was a wrapped version of XMR and there was a working Monero to Secret Network bridge for awhile, it might even still exist. Now that was cool because Secret Network was also a private blockchain (or was supposed to be private anyways), so you could use your XMR in DeFi on Secret Network without having to give up your privacy. Unfortunately, Secret Network didn't really catch on and is pretty much a dead chain with very little liquidity at this point. So now people are trying once again to get Monero onto other blockchains, or at least Monero derivatives.

PerpetualCow.hl

@PerpetualCow

This is revolutionary.

How to get $XMR from Hyperliquid into your XMR wallet in less than a minute.

The risks:

Counterparty risk. Right now when you bridge in or out using wagyu.xyz , this random "Perpetual Cow" developer is your counter party risk. He or she doesn't exactly have much trust built up, because they just created their X account in December. But to be fair, if I was building a Monero bridge, I would be anon and using a fresh X account as well.

Depeg risk. You aren't buying actual Monero on Hyperliquid, you are buying XMR1, so you have the risk of it potentially depegging from the XMR price before you can bridge out. Although bridging was pretty fast, so your funds aren't at risk for long.

At first I thought I could just go on Hyperliquid's main front end and do this, but you can't. For whatever reason, currently you can trade the XMR1 perps on the main front end, but you can't trade XMR1 spot on that site. You can use the perps if you want to trade XMR with some leverage, but currently this is only good for very short term trading, short trades, or funding arbitrage trading because the funding rate is consistentally very high and positive.

So what I found out was that you have to go to a different front end at usefelix (NOT ANYMORE, SEE UPDATE AT END) to trade the XMR1/USDC spot pair. So I got some USDC and a little HYPE for gas fees and went to work to see if I could turn USDC on HyperEVM into fake "XMR1" and then eventually real XMR in my Monero wallet, without KYC or permission from anyone.

I ran into problems almost immediately. I started trying to place a limit order to buy $15.19 worth of XMR1. It bought me $13.29 worth even though there was supposedly plenty of liquidity at my order price according to the UI. You can't place an order for only $1.90, so to avoid getting stuck with change I sold the XMR and tried again.

This time I tried a market order which theoretically should have filled the entire order amount at whatever price it could get, but instead it only bought $4.48 worth. So I now had like $10.67, and on the main Hyperliquid frontend the minimum order size was $10. So I just kept clicking order to try and market buy the remaining XMR1. It would just say order processing, and then nothing would happen. There was no helpful error message, no pop up, no nothing except frustration. Interestingly the price in the UI didn't change the entire time I was doing this, the bid was 442 and the ask was 443 for like twenty minutes. Volume was so thin that my trades had been the only ones to occur in a little while. This shouldn't of mattered though, because there was liquidity available in the order book.

I tried limit orders as well and the same thing would happen. So I assumed it was something wrong on my end. I refreshed, cleared my cache, restarted my computer, and did all the things you do when a website isn't working properly. No matter what I did, I couldn't buy $10.67 worth of XMR1!

I guess I should of kept the original $13 worth of XMR1, because now I only had $4.48 in XMR1 and it would not let me buy any more. I had no idea why. So I decided to try bridging what I had managed to get out.

Turns out the minimum for bridging out is 0.01 XMR1, and of course I had 0.00998.

GOD FUCK SHIT! I just wanted some content for my newsletter and some airdrop points for fuck's sake. Why does the universe hate me?

After smashing buy on both market and limit orders repeatedly out of frustration for a while, I finally looked in order history and it said "minTradeNtlRejected", so I guess the minimum isn't $10 but higher? Unfortunately I couldn't sell the 0.00998 XMR back into USDC to get enough for the minimum order, so I had to deposit more USDC.

So I deposited more for the final final test and this is where things got even MORE super fucking confusing. At the time I deposited more USDC, I still had the 0.00998 XMR1. I lined up an order for 17.57 USDC and it said I was supposed to get 0.04 XMR1 for that. I compared this to a quote from the instant swap aggregator Trocador at the same time. Trocador's best price would have gotten me approximately 0.03869 XMR, which is 3.275% less. So I smashed buy, the order processed, and I should now have 0 USDC and 0.04 XMR1 in addition to the 0.00998 XMR1 I already had, right?

WRONG.

Wait...why the fuck did I now have 4.29 USDC and 0.04 XMR?

WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THIS STUPID SHIT? Was I losing my mind...? Even worse, I swear to god it said I had 4.29 USDC after this trade, but later I magically had 3.29 USDC and I have no clue why. Maybe I misread it, it's a possibility. I haven't done a full investigation into the transactions on the block explorer to see yet, because I really don't have any more time to devote to this bullshit.

I don't know why this fucktarded app couldn't handle filling a simple market order in full when there was liquidity. Was this a problem with the frontend or the protocol itself?Maybe these shenanigans is why the XMR1 spot pair is not listed on Hyperliquid's main site.

Or maybe I am just a moron who can't do simple transactions? That is a possibility. Please keep in mind that all of this could just be user error, but at the very least the UI needs to be improved to make it obvious to users why their orders aren't going through or are getting partial fills.

So after my final order, I said fuck the change and tried bridging off what I had managed to acquire. I went to Wagyu and put in my Monero address, and had zero issues. The XMR was transferred from XMR1 to real XMR almost instantly with zero bridge fees. I did have to pay the Monero blockchain's transaction fee, so 0.04 XMR1 was transformed into 0.03995971 real life XMR in my wallet, and it has survived the scrutiny of multiple blockchain confirmations.

Mission success, despite some difficulties I did successfully turn XMR1 on HyperEVM into real XMR on the Monero network using Wagyu. The Wagyu bridge worked great, no problems, but my experience with the usefelix dapp was absolutely horrendous. I have never had that much trouble making a simple market order in my 8 years of using crypto. I have no idea why it keeps splitting these market orders up and not filling the entire amount, because the order book was showing that plenty of liquidity was available. Normally, a market order should just gobble up the full amount at whatever price it can get. I have no idea if this problem would occur with larger orders as well, but be aware of it.

Despite the problems, it's still cool that I was able to buy XMR1 on HyperEVM and turn it into real XMR on Monero. CEX delistings don't really matter if you can just deposit USDC into HyperEVM and purchase XMR without any accounts, KYC, or permission. We need more of these permissionless cross chain bridges for Monero, as the more different ways one can purchase Monero, the better. That's one of the reasons ZEC just had such a wild pump, because of the NEAR Intents integration with Zashi wallet enabling people to buy ZEC using Solana or EVM chains like Base.

I hope that this process becomes easier and the bridge becomes more secure, so that Monero is fully integrated into the Hyperliquid ecosystem. As I am writing this, the XMR1 perps has done $1,786,395 in 24 hour volume with over 5 million in OI. The spot pair has done ...........wait a minute what in the fuck.

UPDATE: I just wrote all this, and I just wanted to check how much volume the XMR1/USDC spot pair did today on usefelix, AND it's gone. The link doesn't work anymore. The usefelix frontend is still up, but the XMR1 spot pair has vanished. And I thought I was done with this little article!

Apparently you now have to go to https://app.based.one/XMR1/USDC to trade this. I have not tested this one out. I hope it works better than usefelix did. Well at least we know the bridge works. I did check defillama to make sure this latest home for XMR1 is legitimate and it seems to be, having done 2.5 billion in 30 day volume across the whole platform and 616k in XMR1 volume in the last 24 hours. I'd spin up an account and shill my referal link but I am so over this, I'll save that for the next issue, if XMR1 still exists by then!

The latest home of XMR1 on HyperEVM

There has been some Zcash drama since the last issue. First there was the trademark incident in which the Zcash Foundation went after a website called Zcash Strategy which as far as I can tell is some kind of small DAT with only $36k in assets. They sent them a cease and desist and threatening legal action against them for trademark infringement if they didn't voluntarily transfer the Zcash Strategy domain to the Zcash Foundation. There was a swift community backlash and the optics of a supposedly "cypherpunk" privacy blockchain doing this was not good. This happened to correspond with a deep pullback in Zcash from it's local high at $744 to a low around $300.

Vini Barbosa |「 thecoding 」

@vinibarbosabr

Reporting from the trenches to @coinspeaker

Zcash Foundation Targets Small ZEC DAT Domain in Trademark Enforcement

Link below (in the comments)

The Zcash Foundation issued a cease and desist to Zcash Strategy over its domain name, dividing the community between those

Zcash's price would recover, getting back up into the 500's before pulling back again. The latest pullback was accelerated when there was a surprise announcement from the CEO of the Electric Coin Company, Josh Swihart stating the entire core development team was resigning and forming a new company due to a conflict with the board of Bootstrap which is a different non profit than the Zcash Foundation involved in the trademark drama. Bootstrap was created specifically to oversee the Electric Coin Company, and the devs at ECC have to rely on the board of Bootstrap for funding. Josh Swihart's initial tweet seemed very bearish in it's wording and caused a massive sell off in Zcash as tweets lacking context stating the entire Zcash development team had resigned spread across X like wildfire. In reality it seems like the devs are just ditching their non profit overlords so to speak and continuing Zcash development in a new company so that they can get paid more money.

Josh Swihart 🛡

@jswihart

Over the past few weeks, it's become clear that the majority of Bootstrap board members (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to support Zcash by governing the Electric Coin Company), specifically Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai (ZCAM), have moved into

Josh waited almost a full day before he clarified what this mass resignation actually meant, and the price has recovered somewhat.

mert | helius

@mert

there you go, official news (first of multiple)

josh is the ceo who built zashi and is behind ECC

he has now transitioned the company from a non-profit with a bureaucratic karen board

into a shipping machine fully focused on zcash

NO ONE quit, you got baited by AI

$10,000

Josh Swihart 🛡

@jswihart

We are all in on Zcash.
We need to scale Zcash to billions of users.
Startups can scale, but nonprofits can't.
That's why we created a new Zcash startup.

cashz.org

DefiIgnas did a good overview from probably a less biased perspective than Mert, if you want to know more check out their thread.

Ignas | DeFi

@DefiIgnas

$ZEC dump by 20% after yet another governance drama in crypto.

The entire team led by ECC CEO @jswihart resigned after "employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties."

The core issue seems to be $35m USD in $ZEC locked so the dev team team

Regardless of whether the final outcome of this drama is bullish or bearish for Zcash, I think it is a good demonstration of the advantages of Monero's pure community based governance model versus Zcash's corporate/nonprofit hybrid model. Maybe it's best to go either all the way community governed like Monero, or just be run by a corporation on the other end of the spectrum instead of trying to straddle the line between the two. There are various legal reasons as well for different governance structures. It frustrates me that onerous government regulations have such a big effect on crypto governance structures. You have to wonder what kind of innovation hasn't been able to happen because people are more concerned with what's legal over what works. You can't blame them for it either, considering the gun in the room so to speak.

However Monero's governance model has proven that a purely community run protocol can still fund itself, grow, and outperform the rest of the market. A corporation or foundation can easily be shut down by the state at any moment, a community can't be. Unlike Zcash, Monero has no dev tax for developers to fight over either.

If you need proof that the community model is working, Monero is on the verge of breaking all time highs with one of the best looking charts in crypto right now.

Crypto Cowboy

@Cryptocowboys6

Take a look at the $XMR #Monero monthly chart

Trying to break through the $460 ceiling for the 3rd time in the last 8 years!

Looks very bullish to me.

$2k for 1 $XMR

Monero has also resolved it's recent governance dispute, albeit one much less dramatic than the Zcash one. The Monero devs were trying to decide whether or not to put in place a temporary block size limit to prevent issues after the FCMP++ upgrade goes live. The impetus for this was that on the FCMP++ testnet very large blocks (over 100 MB) would break things. This means that theoretically post FCMP++ an adversary could try to spam the network to get the block size big enough to crash the network. Monero has a dynamic block size, so the blocks automatically scale with demand.

Placing any kind of block size limit on Monero was controversial because Monero is meant to be digital cash, which means the ability to scale is important. Unlike Bitcoin which decided to keep blocks small so that poor people in third world countries could afford the storage space to run nodes or something. You have to think, if someone can't afford to buy a slightly bigger hard drive to run a node, they probably are too busy trying to eat to run a node anyways. I never understood the Bitcoin small blocker's arguments and I have to wonder if the community was "influenced" by certain interests that were trying to prevent Bitcoin's adoption as an actual currency in competition with the dollar, which was the original path Bitcoin seemed to be on. Then the small blockers won, the narrative changed from peer to peer digital cash to digital gold, and Monero took on BTC's original mission to become permissionless, uncensorable, and peer to peer digital cash.

Initially a temporary 32 MB "sanity cap" block size limit was proposed, I think that was then raised to 90 MB. After much discussion, the Monero devs came to a consensus, there would be no sanity cap block size limit. Without a block size limit, it would take two to three years of aggressive growth on the network before we would start to see issues with FCMP++, so they should have plenty of time to prepare and find a different solution.

xenu

@xenumonero

This went under the radar, but the Monero Research Lab reached a consensus regarding scaling with the FCMP++ hard fork. There will be no sanity cap on block size, meaning it would take "2-3 years" of aggressive growth for things to break. This would give devs time to find a

Monero Research Lab (Unofficial)

The MRL debated scaling parameters for transaction volume post-FCMP, focusing on short-term multiplier (STM/MS), long-term median (LTM/ML) growth rates, the role of a sanity cap, and potential hard caps. Initial proposals: boog900 proposed 8x MS, 1.2x ML with optional sanity cap

/NON KYC PREPAID DEBIT CARDS?\

A while back I saw a bunch of tweet threads going around listing various supposed non kyc debit cards you could buy with crypto. I've tried two of them so far, Pay with Moon and Kemycard and have had mixed results.

With Pay with Moon I loaded up one of their digital visa cards using USDC with just enough to pay for a month of X premium. All they provided was the card information, there was no billing address or name attached to it, nor was there a way to register a particular billing address to it. Because of this, I didn't have much faith in it working but it did work for the first payment. I loaded a new card with enough for two months of X premium and that worked for the first month, but when it was time for the second month's payment, X informed me my payment had failed. So I checked Pay with Moon's website and it told me my card had been cancelled with zero explanation as to why it had been cancelled. Instead of a digital Visa card I now had $8 worth of moon credit which I couldn't even withdraw because it was below the $10 minimum to withdraw. A quick search on X revealed that many people had recently gotten their Pay with Moon cards cancelled, so you can file that one in the "doesn't work" category.

Next up was Kemycard, which had much higher fees than Pay with Moon, and the UI was a bit confusing. If you want a card without providing any personal information, you have to select "Basic Card" and it costs $20 in USDC to create one. Unlike Pay With Moon's cards, these Basic Cards are re-loadable digital prepaid VISA cards. After your initial load, if you want to reload it (minimum reload is $5, max is $500), the fee is $1.50 for under $100 or 1.5% for over $100. I was pleased to discover that although there was no name attached to the card, there was a billing address assigned to it which will probably help it work in more places. Some payment processors will reject cards that don't have a registered address, so this is an advantage. I used this card to pay for a subscription to Notesnook and had no problems, however the Pay With Moon card also worked for awhile so I will keep an eye on this to see if it continues to work.

Currently I only use these cards for something like a digital subscription to a service that doesn't accept Monero, although theoretically you might be able to load it into a Google Pay account and use it at a IRL store. If anyone wants to try that out, let me know how it goes. I'm going to slowly increase the usage and see at what point, if any, it triggers a shutdown or a KYC request. If you are experimenting with these cards, start small. Never load more than you're willing to lose to a frozen account. DYOR, all I currently know about this card is that it worked and it provides a billing address, don't put your life savings on it.

I get $5 if you get a Kemycard with my affiliate link and I think you get $5 too, but you have to claim it from an email they will send you after you sign up or it expires. If you prefer not to use my affiliate link here is the regular link.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment! I would love to know if anyone actually read this. Until next time, stay free my friends.

Thought Crime Trap House Newsletter #4

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 13:00:00 GMT

(To check out any of the X threads I reference, click the time stamp at the bottom of the tweet embed)

Welcome to the fourth issue of Thought Crime Trap House! Please consider subscribing if you haven't done so already, and don't forget to follow me on X or Farcaster. Hit me up in my DMs if you want to speak with me about anything.

If you like what you read, please SHARE with someone who also might like this kind of content. I need more readers! Thank you.

ALERT: Paywithmoon, a non kyc crypto based virtual visa card provider is cancelling many people's cards and no one seems to know why. Do not deposit any funds.

elsirion 🔅

@EricSirion

What's the matter with all my @paywithmoon cards suddenly being cancelled and the option to create new ones unavailable? Is this a European thing or did this also happen to people elsewhere?

If you like what I'm doing, a donation will encourage me to continue! You can send me XMR on XMRChat or send me ETH or any ERC-20 to thoughtcrimeboss.eth.

Send me sats via Bitcoin mainnet: bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Or send me Bitcoin via lighting to burnedmitten671@minibits.cash

Send me ETH or any ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, or any Layer 2 @ thoughtcrimeboss.eth

Send me SOL or any Solana token at 9uLhcY5AKHjYK3kySrgDnWqp5NFh9p1LQztT8iZUPdxZ

You can also support me by following me on Nostr npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

Or by sharing this with people......

/PRIVACY\

In the last edition we talked about the sentencing of Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez to the maximum sentence of 5 years in a federal penitentiary. Well now the other developer, William Hill, has also been sentenced to 4 years in prison for "operating an unlicensed money transmitting service". Why did he get a whole year less than Rodriguez? Well he played the "I'm old and I am autistic" card and it worked somewhat. Prison is no environment for an autistic 67 year old computer programmer, it's absolutely insane to put him there. At the base level this is fucking stupid, everything about it is stupid. If they are claiming he somehow either deliberately or negligently harmed someone financially or emotionally (I don't see how he could of physically harmed anyone) through his actions, then they can just determine how much harm he caused and charge him restitution in that amount. He shouldn't have to also pay with 4 years of his fucking life. Except he didn't harm anyone, so that doesn't even matter. Also, the very idea that you should have to get a permission slip from the government just to transmit value from point a to point b is also retarded.

There is now a petition to free them both.

Keonne Rodriguez

@keonne

I can't thank you enough for the 1,105 signatures in the last 24 hours

If you haven't signed yet please do. Please share with your friends and family

Show @realDonaldTrump that the war on crypto is still raging with these Biden era prosecutions

change.org

Sign the Petition

Stand Up for Freedom: Pardon the Innocent Coders Jailed for Building Privacy Tools!

Privacy isn't a "nice to have" anymore, it's a necessity for the safety of you and your family, especially if you own bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

On the morning of November 22, someone posing as a delivery worker broke into a San Francisco home, tied up the homeowner, and stole 11 million in crypto.

Jameson Lopp

@lopp

An armed robber posing as a delivery worker invaded a San Francisco home, tied up the homeowner, and took the victim’s cellphone, laptop, and $11 million worth of cryptocurrency on Saturday morning.

sfchronicle.com

S.F. thief posing as delivery person steals $11 million in cryptocurrency, phone and laptop

A person posing as a courier brandished a gun and tied up the victim at a home in the Mission Dolores neighborhood Saturday morning, police say.

I don't think American crypto holders are ready for what's coming in terms of targeted theft, kidnapping, or extortion using personal data leaked by both users themselves and companies with poor data handling (*cough coinbase *cough).

You've got people STILL posting shit like what city they live in, what car they drive, stuff about their kids, when and where they are on vacation, etc. Even little details can get you fucked. That's fine if you have say, less than 10k in crypto on transparent chains, you might be ok. Anything more than 10k is quite attractive for gangs of semi computer savvy youngins with no moral compass and no money to speak of. Especially with the economy going down the toilet and AI fixin' to drain all the job openings.

So just don't be surprised if you ever find yourself getting your ass beat until you give up your keys. It has already started to happen in America and it's only going to get worse.

Don't freak out yet though, it's never too late to start protecting yourself. Storing your wealth on privacy chains such as Monero or even shielded Zcash is a good start. This means a rando with a block explorer can't track down your balances.

If you have crypto sitting in doxxed wallets, tax loss harvesting might be a good opportunity to rearrange your funds to be more private. Let's say you are underwater on an asset in a wallet linked to your name in some way. You could sell the asset, write the loss off of your taxes, then redeploy the cash into a non kyced wallet by purchasing crypto p2p. Criminals will just see that you once had crypto, and you sold it. They aren't interested in your bank account $$$, they want crypto that can be sent out of your wallet and can't be clawed back. Something to think about that is definitely not financial or tax advice.

Lawmakers in several states are not only trying to force age verification on internet users, but now are also trying to ban VPNs in a major assault on privacy. I feel like I've seen stories every single day this year about some new law attacking privacy around the entire world, it's getting bad and it kind of feels like not many people care enough to fight it. Wisconsin's VPN ban just passed the house and is working it's way through the senate. Once one state bans VPNs, more will probably follow.

Speaking of VPN's, that brings us to our privacy tip for this issue, which is how to get a VPN without doxxing yourself to the VPN provider. Many people decide they want the extra privacy a VPN can provide, but make mistakes in getting the VPN that can harm their privacy.

Now in most cases your VPN provider is going to know what your IP address is but if you have signed up for phone service or internet service under an alias, that will protect you somewhat in that department, although the VPN provider can still see your location.

Secondly, if you use a reputable no log VPN provider, they don't save your IP address. You still have to trust them when they say they don't save it, but it's better to trust a reputable VPN provider whose entire business model depends on protecting their reputation by not selling user data, than to trust an ISP with all your internet data. One of the reasons Mullvad has a good reputation is that they have been raided by law enforcement before, and the cops left with nothing because Mullvad doesn't save any user data.

Finally, you can reduce your risk even more by paying for the VPN with a private crypto currency, i.e Monero. Mullvad VPN doesn't even require you give them an email address, you can generate a new account number every single month if you want to, very easily.

Here's some VPNs that accept Monero for subscription payments, the only one I can personally vouch for is Mullvad, although I have used IVPN without any problems, but it was only for a few months and several years ago. I tried to only include services on this list that I feel would be better for privacy you still need to DYOR! One thing to consider when doing that research is how many users does the service have. That is going to be the size of your anonymity set so the more the merrier (although now that I think about it, smaller VPNs could have some advantage in their servers not being flagged as VPNs as often). It could also be a good idea to use multiple VPN companies, one for each identity or group of identities, to help compartmentalize your separate online identities. Maybe you can use a faster but less private one for things like streaming video/music, and a more private but slower one for using cryptocurrency. Note: None of these VPN links contain reflinks, I will always disclose if I ever do share ref links.

To compare all of these, you can use Techlore's excellent VPN comparison chart.

Mullvad VPN -10% discount for Monero payments, fast, reliable, reputable, large user base means bigger crowd to hide in, proven to not keep logs (at least at the time of the law enforcement raid)

Obscura VPN -Accepts Monero, uses Mullvad's servers but adds a second layer of privacy in between so that Mullvad never is exposed to your IP address, currently only available on Mac OS and iOS though

Nym -Accepts Monero, offers both a 2 hop fast mode that they claim bypasses most VPN blocks as well as a 5 hop mixnet that creates random noise to further anonymize your traffic from things like packet analysis. More expensive than most VPNs though. They seem to collect a bit more data about their users than I would like though. I will be testing their service soon and will let you know what I think in a future issue.

ProtonVPN -Very recently began accepting Monero after a Monero community member collected petition signatures for them to do so, although I think the Monero payments are done through a third party rather than through Proton's website. This one also has a large user base, although I am a little cautious about Proton as a company because they are a little too mainstream/corporate for my liking, but I still use some of their products. I have not used the VPN though.

IVPN -Accepts Monero, is the only VPN I've found that is based in Gibralatar which might be good or bad I don't know, usually highly rated in the privacy community.

If you already have a VPN that you paid for with a credit card under your name, you're going to want to cancel that subscription and acquire a new subscription with Monero. It's a good idea to start with a month subscription and see how you like the VPN before buying a longer subscription.

If you don't have any, the easiest way to get some Monero is to download the Cake Wallet app on android or ios. For bonus points, download Cake Wallet and pay for the VPN on public WiFi or over TOR.

When you first start cake wallet, change connection and sync settings to use a trusted node. If you don't know any, a good option is Sethforprivacy's node.

node.sethforprivacy.com port 18089

It is best to send the VPN subscription transaction over your own node using churned funds for maximum privacy, if you don't have a device to run a node on, then a good alternative is using Sethforprivacy's Monero node instead of just a random public node. Bad actors such as chainanalysis run a few spy nodes on the network that record your IP address and other metadata if they route a transaction for you, although they still can't see amounts and addresses.

After picking your node, swap another crypto into XMR, such as LTC, SOL, or ETH, which can be done directly in the app. Swap more than you need to avoid linking transactions. For example if your VPN costs $5, swap into $20 of Monero. Let it sit for a couple hours or so, then send it to another account within your wallet. This is called churning and each time you do this, the XMR becomes harder to trace. Wait another random amount of time (a minimum of an hour) before paying for the subscription. What you DON'T want to do is swap $5 from a transparent blockchain like Solana into XMR and then buy a $5 VPN subscription immediately afterwards. That makes it kind of easy to create a trail from the VPN payment to the Solana transaction.

Monero wallets make you wait a minimum of 20 minutes before you can spend XMR you have received. Blockchain sleuths know this, so this is why you should wait a random amount of time longer than 20 minutes to spend any received Monero to avoid timing analysis.

Once you have some churned Monero ready to go, pick your VPN, generate an account, and make your payment. Congratulations you have just privately paid for a VPN!

Graphene OS left France due to smear campaign from French media and law enforcement. According to France, only criminals need privacy. Same ol' bullshit. Sorry for the Graphene devs, who should just be left alone to write code, instead they have to deal with this nonsense. Please consider a donation to these absolute chads.

AlternativeTo

@AlternativeTo

GrapheneOS has shut down operations in France due to pressure from law enforcement and media, citing risks for privacy projects and demands for a backdoor. Servers are being moved to Toronto and Germany, and developers are barred from entering France alternativeto.net/news/2025/11/g…

WhatsApp had a major flaw uncovered by researchers that would of been the largest data breach in history if it had been exploited in the wild . Luckily it was exploited by white hat researchers who deleted the data (they say anyways). Data included phone numbers, profile text, profile pictures, timestamps, and more.

Proton

@ProtonPrivacy

Security researchers say a design flaw in WhatsApp’s contact-lookup feature has enabled what they call the “largest data leak in history”, exposing billions of phone numbers without breaking encryption.

Normally the lookup process would incur rate limits, normally...

1/5

If you are using WhatsApp please consider switching to Signal (easy mode), Session, or SimpleX. Vitalik approves....since he recently donated almost 400 grand in ETH to both Session and SimpleX. I hope they make good use of it.

vitalik.eth

@VitalikButerin

Encrypted messaging, like @signalapp, is critical for preserving our digital privacy. Two important next steps for the space are (i) permissionless account creation and (ii) metadata privacy.

@session_app and @SimpleXChat are two messaging apps pushing these directions forward.

getsession.org

Session | Send Messages, Not Metadata. | Private Messenger

Session is a private messenger that aims to remove any chance of metadata collection by routing all messages through an onion routing network.

If you insist on continuing to use Whatsapp, maybe because your side piece refuses to use another messenger, do yourself a favor and at least don't put anything you don't want leaked in your profile information. I hear that eventually you will be able to message Whatsapp users directly from Signal, and then you can delete this horrible app.

So apparently a version of the controversial Chat Control bill passed in the EU. The version that passed isn't final yet, they can still negotiate the final text, but this version changed the adoption of the bill to "voluntary" for each individual country.

After more than three years of European Parliament in-fighting, EU governments have finally agreed on a controversial new law that gives a backdoor to reading text messages and viewing photo messages on private individuals phones for the purpose of fighting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. Critics call it "Chat Control” and say it is potentially a serious threat to everyone’s privacy.
The European law is officially called the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR). Its most controversial part would let companies scan private messages through a kind of tech backdoor into your phone – even on apps with strong end-to-end encryption like Signal or WhatsApp, in order to look for illegal pictures and videos.
For years the plan was to make this scanning mandatory. In early November 2025, however, the Danish government amended the text: scanning is now “voluntary” for individual EU states to decide upon. That small word change was enough for the 27 EU countries to agree on November 26.

Even though the scanning is now "voluntary", some people are worried that this still means companies will be pressured to build backdoors into their applications to avoid fines or being blocked from EU markets. If we don't have the ability to privately message each other, we don't have freedom. It's that simple. This is Orwellian nonsense using the old "protect the children" excuse to take away freedom from EU citizens. The change to "voluntary" adoption doesn't help the citizens of the countries that do decide to adopt this, also if a few major countries in the EU do implement it, then are tech companies going to make 2 different versions of their software or are they just going to stick the backdoor in and call it a day?

I'd like to give props to Slovenia, the Netherlands, Poland, Luxembourg, Germany, Estonia, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Austria for opposing this. The rest of the countries that either are undecided or in support are no longer suitable for free individuals to live in.

So X decided to dox everyone's locations without warning, not their exact location but the country they live in. Luckily X has no idea what country I live in, so that's good, except I don't like the new little warning next to my location that says something about the possibility I am using a VPN or proxy to hide my true location. A lot of people were understandably very upset about this. One interesting side effect is now you can see just how many people are weighing in on US political issues that live in places like Nigeria without mentioning that they are not American. It's kind of like everyone's masks got ripped off at the same time, and pandemonium has ensued.

"Elon Musk’s X unveiled a feature Saturday that lets users see where an account is based. Online sleuths and experts quickly found that many popular accounts posting in support of the MAGA movement to thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, are based outside the United States — raising concerns about foreign influence on U.S. politics.
Researchers at NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation, identified several popular accounts — purportedly run by Americans interested in politics – that instead were based in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa.
The accounts were leading disseminators of some misleading and polarizing claims about U.S. politics, including ones that said Democrats bribed the moderators of a 2024 presidential debate."

This is just another good reason to get on decentralized social media like Farcaster and Nostr and began building a following there that you control and can't be taken from you.

To finish off the bad privacy news, Meta is pushing for mandatory age verification at the app store level in Canada.

Reclaim The Net

Meta Pushes Canada for App Store Age Verification ID Laws

reclaimthenet.org

Meta Pushes Canada for App Store Age Verification Laws

Meta’s proposal to move age checks to app stores would tighten Big Tech’s grip on digital identity, giving a handful of companies new power over who gets online.

/CRYPTO\

Monero is back on top, outperforming the majority of the crypto market. It has taken back the position of largest privacy coin by both price and market cap from Zcash, which has dropped more than 50% from it's recent highs. It couldn't even pump on Tuesday when the entire market was ripping, I'm not sure why. Keep in mind this price performance is despite Monero being delisted from most major exchanges. It's organic demand for real world usage continues to drive slow steady growth in Monero. If Zcash wants to sustain higher prices and and not just be a late cycle pump and dump, it needs to focus on this kind of IRL adoption and usage. Monero has people all around the world on the ground onboarding people and businesses to use Monero for what it was designed for, private digital permissionless payments.

One of the catalysts behind the latest selling in Bitcoin was worries about MSTR potentially having to sell some Bitcoin to stay solvent. I have never been a fan of Micheal Saylor or the whole DAT thing, I think Micheal Saylor is a douchebag honestly. He tried to block funding for Bitcoin development and talked shit about crypto anarchists. Who could of guessed that giving up your principles to cozy up with Wall Street would end badly for Bitcoin? The Bitcoin community was so focused on number go up that they lost their way and now we are paying for it. Bitcoin should be focused on upgrading to deal with the quantum threat, not on making itself appealing to institutions and governments. On the plus side, maybe I don't have to listen to people talking about how much MSTR and MSTY they have in their portfolios at the Bitcoin meetup anymore. Looks like they should of been buying something cool like Monero instead of a regulated KYCed ponzi scheme.

Now, since I wrote that last paragraph, it seems that they have sold a bunch more MSTR shares to raise a "cash reserve" of 1.4 billion dollars, which probably will help keep them from having to sell any Bitcoin for at least a while.

Spreek

@spreekaway

You don't get it. It's not a pyramid scheme, it's a flipped spaceship scheme

Rohan Hirani

@rohanhirani

The most requested chart is finally live…

MSTR’s mNAV since the beginning of their BTC strategy.

It shows market cap vs BTC holdings with a whole new layer of context.

Triple catalysts arrived on Tuesday, December 2nd to pump the entire crypto market just in time (well almost the entire market, ZEC got left behind).

Vanguard is finally allowing Bitcoin ETFs and Bank of America is recommending investors allocate between 1 and 4 percent of their portfolios to Bitcoin (Fidelity also did something similar a while back I believe), all of which gives even more legitimacy to Bitcoin as an asset and simultaneously makes it way less cooler than Monero which your bank will not be recommending ever. Fuck the banks, I'm my own bank, and 4% is way too low for Bitcoin anyways. This will make number go up though and that's all that matters anymore right? More and more Bitcoin is going to be held by regulated custodians and less by plebs, so hold on to what you got in self custody for dear life.

Watcher.Guru

JUST IN: $11 trillion Vanguard officially lists BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF, with trading set to go live tomorrow.

Bitcoin Archive

@BitcoinArchive

JUST IN: Bank of America now recommends a 4% Bitcoin and crypto allocation to wealth management clients

Imagine hearing this five years ago

And the third catalyst was a bunch of large players buying Bitcoin, when they were previously net sellers.

MarcusMinesBTC

@MarcusMinesBTC

Whale alert: Wallets holding 1,000+ BTC are BUYING the dip aggressively. Over 102,000 transfers above $100K recorded this week alone. Smart money accumulating while retail panics. #Bitcoin #Whales

Vitalik weighed in on the Zcash governance debate, he is firmly against token voting rights in the protocol. I would have to agree with this. Some ZEC whales may have priorities other than privacy and freedom and will vote accordingly.

vitalik.eth

@VitalikButerin

I hope Zcash resists the dark hand of token voting.

Token voting is bad in all kinds of ways (see vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/0… ); I think it's worse than Zcash's status quo.

Privacy is exactly the sort of thing that will erode over time if left to the median token holder.

Darklight Z 🛡️

@DignityCipher

Markets are indeed plutocracies, which is exactly why they are terrible at preserving civil liberties.

A plutocracy optimizes for 'number go up' in the short term. If removing privacy pumped the bag 20%, the market would vote for it tomorrow.

The 'virtue signaling' you dismiss

As the recent Balancer hack demonstrated, the AI threat to smart contracts in DeFi is very real. Although don't freak out too much yet because the tech works both ways and AI can be used to defend against AI. I would love to see protocols using both humans and AI in their audits, and pray to whatever God you believe in that Aave v3 doesn't fall victim to any of these hacks. You don't have to worry about any of that if you just hold Monero, but it's hard to resist using DeFi for me personally. So far I have managed to dodge many bullets over the years and despite using probably 100 different DeFi protocols I have only lost money to a hack once in a tiny BSC protocol. I lost way more from FTX's fake wrapped bitcoin on Solana but that wasn't really a hack. Check out this article on Decrypt about a recent test of AI frontier models on smart contract exploits.

AI agents matched the performance of skilled human attackers in more than half of the smart contract exploits recorded on major blockchains over the last five years, according to new data released Monday by Anthropic.
Anthropic evaluated ten frontier models, including Llama 3, Sonnet 3.7, Opus 4, GPT-5, and DeepSeek V3, on a dataset of 405 historical smart contract exploits. The agents produced working attacks against 207 of them, totaling $550 million in simulated stolen funds.

/SOFTWARE\

Found a new tool that seems like it could be very helpful. It's extremely dangerous, especially on any device you use for crypto, to open attachments like PDFs or even image files like PNGs. This dangerzone software allows you to open such files safely in a sandbox, which then produces a visual copy of the attachment for you to look at without handling the original file. (Note this requires Docker, but Docker is easy to set up). I have not tried it out yet, but Techlore recommended it so I feel comfortable sharing it.

Tor Browser has a new update, version 15.0.2 is now available.

The Tails OS also has a new release, version 7.2 is now available.

The Monero GUI and CLI wallets have a new release, version 0.18.4.4 "Fluorine Fermi" is now available.

/POLITICS\

It was recently confirmed that the American defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, authorized the military to kill two helpless survivors clinging onto the burning wreckage of their boat, although a top Navy Admiral gave the actual order. So far the military has killed at least 80 alleged drug smugglers in these strikes in the Caribbean Ocean. This is just murder plain and simple.

If they are "terrorists" as the state claims, wouldn't they want to capture the survivors and interrogate them for intel? So far no evidence linking the boats or victims to terrorism has been shared and no drugs were seized, but according to Grok the US is claiming these boats are linked to Tren de Aragua and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Meanwhile, when the US Government smuggles cocaine like the CIA has done many times, it's all good. I have little doubt that the organizations smuggling this cocaine are violent organizations and if we really want to stop them, all we have to do is legalize drugs and the price of cocaine will drop 90 or more percent overnight. Legitimate businesses will take over the industry and these criminal organizations will lose their funding and power.

Anthony Pompliano is someone who I had some respect for, only because his podcasts about bitcoin helped turn me from a crypto experimenter into a believer back in the bear market of 2018/19. That's why I was even more disturbed by this tweet of his:

Anthony Pompliano 🌪

@APompliano

It is objectively hilarious that some people are upset about the US government killing terrorists caught in the act of breaking the law.

What the hell do you think the rough men ready to conduct violence on your behalf are doing on a daily basis?!

War is a nasty, ugly place

My response to his tweet:

You can justify it a thousand different ways, killing men who aren't actively threatening you with actual violence is still murder. That's why when a cop finds a murder suspect they try to arrest them, they don't just execute them without a trial (usually). They not only blew up the boat that wasn't attacking them but they then shot the helpless survivors in cold fucking blood. There is no universe in which that is okay.

Breaking the law that says cocaine is illegal? It's a stupid fucking law and a century of the war on drugs has done nothing to decrease drug use, but it has gotten a lot of people killed for no fucking reason. Do you know why it is illegal? Look it up. Why is ok for the CIA to smuggle it, I guess they get a pass? Does the harm cocaine causes outweigh the harm of prohibition?

Should we be shooting liquor store owners? Alcohol kills way more people than cocaine does, maybe we should execute liquor store owners without a fucking trial. If you actually want to stop the cartels, legalize drugs, and the problem is solved overnight. Cut off their funding. People are going to do the drugs anyways, at least they would be doing drugs they knew the contents of and won't be funding cartels in the process.

If not then they need to lock up a shit ton of politicians for the cocaine they are doing on the weekends, at least make it fair.

In case you think I only call out idiots on the right, the left is also still full of idiots, many of whom are very anti-crypto. It doesn't help that Trump has become so closely intertwined with the industry, which makes me worry about post midterm crypto regulations. It seems the left has already started their FUD campaign in preparation. I have been seeing a lot more stories in the news about Bitcoin ATM scams and there was this ridiculous NYTimes hit piece that the Rage talks about here.

L0la L33tz is more fun on Nostr

@L0laL33tz

The ICIJ has published a series of articles on Bitcoin's use in money laundering, and it mainly operates from the premise that any transaction that is operated without KYC/AML is suspicious of a crime.

These are dangerous generalizations that leave absolutely zero room for the

Spencer Woodman

@spencerwoodman

We used a combo of undercover reporting and blockchain analysis to reveal a system of crypto-to-cash courier services quietly operating operating all around us — and opening a new frontier in money laundering icij.org/investigations… @ICIJorg

The question you have to ask yourself is, if the state ever makes self custody or using privacy coins a crime, will you comply or resist? The thing about the state is most of it's power depends on people believing in that power, because there are way more citizens than members of the state. The military is mostly made up of regular folks who can also stop believing in the legitimacy of the state. Crypto enables nonviolent resistance to the state's oppression by offering an alternative to their money system. We must do everything possible to protect that alternative.

/Playlist\

Here is a good interview with the crypto OG and fellow voluntaryist Erik Voorhees, founder of SatoshiDice, Shapeshift, and Venice AI. One good point he made is although governments accumulating Bitcoin might be good for price, it's not good for the world. We want the people to have Bitcoin, not governments. Any of the money governments are using to accumulate Bitcoin was stolen from the people and should be returned to them. I thought this was an important reminder.

Unchained interviewed Aztec Network, a private Ethereum L2, about their long awaited Ignition Chain release. Although I am still mad at Aztec Network at the moment because they wouldn't let me participate in their testnet without KYCing. Yes that's right, so I have to wonder how aligned these guys are with true privacy and freedom if they are KYCing testnet participants. I asked someone and they said something about "they gotta be compliant" and I was like no the fuck they don't, not on a testnet, it's fake money. This was still an interesting interview though.

In case you missed the latest episode of Monerotopia, be sure to check it out.

More great content from Ungovernable Misfits, with the theme of this Freedom Tech Friday being digital minimalism. It's time to reclaim your life from your phone! In this episode I discovered O launcher for android which is a great minimalist launcher.

And that's all for issue 4 of the Thought Crime Trap House! Thanks for reading, please leave some feedback, what did you like, what didn't you like, and what would you like to see more content about? Don't forget to subscribe and share!

Thought Crime Trap House Newsletter #3

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 13:00:00 GMT

(To check out any of the X threads I reference, click the time stamp at the bottom of the tweet embed)

Welcome to the third issue of Thought Crime Trap House! Please consider subscribing if you haven't done so already, and don't forget to follow me on X or Farcaster. Hit me up in my DMs if you want to speak with me about anything.

If your wondering why it's been like two weeks since I put one of these out, it's because I haven't decided how often I am going to publish yet. I will probably start out publishing every 2-3 weeks, than move to weekly if I get some readers. Thank you to my subscribers I appreciate every one of you!

Well the crypto market's been shit, except privacy coins. Monero and Zcash have outperformed the majority of coins this year. Love to see it. The Monero outperformance is even more notable because it's mostly fueled by organic spot exchange due to there not being very many places to trade Monero perps on leverage.

Crypto is returning to it's roots. Fuck the fartcoins and dogs with hats, I want permissonless, censorship resistant, private, digital cash that will help me opt out of the servile society and resist the oppression of the ruling class.

You don't have to have something to hide for it to be a good idea to stack some value outside of the system, and the best wealth is wealth noone knows about so that you don't get your skull cracked in by a 5 dollar wrench attack. Everybody talks about how Monero protects people using dark net markets, but the truth is, it also protects normal people who just want some security. Transparent blockchains are just plain dangerous, and attacks on crypto holders continue to increase every year. If you use them you need to use bolt on privacy tools and one mistake can link your identity or location to your stack. You can't rely on companies like Coinbase to protect your information either, as they have proven with their lax data security. If you want to store wealth safely, the best way to do it is on a private blockchain.

Criminals are not the only threat privacy can protect you from, in France they have started taxing "unproductive wealth" including crypto holdings! This is straight up theft, I mean capital gains taxes are theft too but at least you have to make a profit before you get taxed instead of getting taxed for simply holding an asset. At any time your Government could decide to start stealing your stack, the time to prepare for this is now and not after they start doing so.

/PRIVACY\

Privacy lost a big battle with the sentencing of Samourai wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez who was given five years in a cage by a 79 year old judge who shouldn't even be assigned any kind of technology case, or any case at all honestly. Your mental acuity is definitely in decline by the time you are 79 fucking years old. She didn't like his clemency letter and gave him the maximum sentence.

The Rage

"The judge did not seem particularly sympathetic to the financial privacy argument."

Key take aways from Keonne Rodriguez sentencing, who will serve the maximum of five years in prison for developing a Bitcoin privacy wallet

If that wasn't bad enough......

The Rage

NEW: ROMAN STORM SHOULD NOT BE ACQUITTED, GOV SAYS

"The jury reasonably concluded that Tornado Cash transferred funds," according to the prosecution.

Full story

therage.co

Roman Storm Should Not Be Acquitted, Government Says

"The jury reasonably concluded that Tornado Cash transferred funds," the Government states.

One of the most serious threats to our freedom, privacy, and right to travel is the Flock Safety surveillance network consisting of automated license plate readers and surveillance cameras all over the country.

The Supreme Court has ruled that tracking you via cellphone location requires a warrant. No such restriction exists for tracking via automated license plate readers. Law enforcement can get this data from Flock Safety's massive surveillance network, and if you audit these LE requests, the reasons given for needing to track a particular license plate include such important things as "lalala" or "asdf". They don't need an actual legitimate reason, they can put whatever they want on the data request form. The places you drive to can reveal a detailed picture of your life. There have already been instances of cops misusing this data for non law enforcement reasons, and it is incredibly dangerous to allow them to access this kind of information on any citizen at any time for any reason.

This new surveillance network should not be tolerated by the American people. It is nobody's business where you go throughout the day, and I would love to see some kind of anti license plate movement go viral. Imagine if even a third of people just ripped their license plates off or covered them with mud. There isn't enough cops to pull over that many people for driving without a visible license plate number. The people could instantly destroy the power of this Flock Safety surveillance network, but it would only work if enough people were willing to do it.

Would you be willing to obscure your license plate if you knew others would do the same? Do you have the guts to stand up to this mass surveillance? Or should we just roll over and continue to let America grow more dystopian with every passing day? Now is the time to resist, not when it gets even worse and any dissent is immediately crushed by armed drones reading your brain waves (that's not even a joke any more, mind reading tech is gaining more accuracy every day).

You have a right to keep your personal life private, but it's a right you are probably going to have to fight for. We can bitch about this government overreach all day, but unless we are actually willing to do something about it, nothing will get better and it will only get worse.

We all need to opt the fuck out and throw our license plates in the garbage. Make it a Tik Tok challenge or something, make it viral. How do we make people care enough about this to commit a small act of civil disobedience?

*I posted the above on Nostr and someone pointed out the obvious point that I had missed, that even if we all obscure our license plates, these cameras are also recording other things about our vehicles such as the make/model, bumper stickers, presence of tool boxes, bike racks, etc. So obscuring your license plate would only help if you made your car look like every other car of that model with no disctinct features. Then your anonymity set would consist of every other car of that make/model and color that also didn't have any distinct features. In other words, while it would be an improvement over doing nothing at all, it wouldn't be as effective as I intially thought.

When we obscure our license plates, it will get us pulled over (perhaps unless everyone is doing it), but if ICE agents do it so that they can't be identified, it's all good. They expect privacy for themselves but not for anyone else. They don't think you should be able to travel from point A to point B without being tracked and ocassionally forced to identify yourself.

Camouflaging cars and swapping license plates: How agents make immigration arrests

Immigration enforcement officers are sometimes forgoing license plates or otherwise masking their cars while apprehending migrants across the U.S.

https://www.npr.org

There have been more ChatGPT leaks that serve as yet another reminded to be very careful what you say to ChatGPT.

..."it appeared that “ALL ChatGPT prompts” that used Google Search risked being leaked during the past two months. OpenAI claimed only a small number of queries were leaked but declined to provide a more precise estimate. So, it remains unclear how many of the 700 million people who use ChatGPT each week had prompts routed to GSC."

This leads me to our privacy tip of this issue:

If you want to use AI in a more private way, there are basically four options that I can think of at the moment:

Self host an open source LLM: This way you control the model and all prompts are being processed locally on your system instead of being sent to a company which will often use them to further train their model.
Use Venice's private AI, a product created by crypto OG Erik Vorheez (creator of Satoshi Dice) that offers a ChatGPT-like experience except they actually respect your privacy and aren't logging your chats. I use this personally and I like it a lot. The product has also improved significantly since I first started using it in 2024. (link uses my ref code)
If you want to access almost any AI model, but want to do so anonymously without being required to create an account, you can pay per prompt using NanoGPT to access them. It's kind of like connecting to these models through a proxy, and instead of having to pay with a credit card linked to a name you can pay with cryptocurrency including Monero. Keep in mind your chats are still being logged and will likely be used as training data, but it just makes it much harder to link those chats to your real world identity if you use this (and pay using Monero).
Finally, the new kid on the block that I haven't tried yet is Maple AI which offers end to end encrypted chats with their model. I'm assuming this works in a similar way to Venice, but don't quote me on that. I know you can pay using Bitcoin though.

CBDC's are spreading across the globe like a virus, they will infect free markets and turn them into dystopian nightmares.

Desiree Fixler

@desireefixler

Central Bank Digital Currency means total state control of your money.

The state has access, surveillance and control to financially completely shut you down.

Europe, you should be freaking out about this and resist

European Central Bank

@ecb

The Governing Council has decided to move to the next phase of the digital euro project.

A digital euro would preserve Europeans’ freedom of choice and privacy and strengthen our sovereignty and resilience.

The EU's coming adoption of a CBDC has been preceded by a ban on cash transactions over 10,000 Euros. People should be rioting in the streets over this nonsense, but most people just ignore it.

Monero Matteo, CPA

@moneromatteo

War on cash continues. This comes as reports have increased over the years of people having issues withdrawing sums of cash from banks.

Also - just like with classic bank secrecy act regulations...these thresholds will likely not be indexing inflation. So this threshold in real

unusual_whales

@unusual_whales

BREAKING: The EU has agreed on a uniform, bloc-wide ban on cash transactions over €10,000.

After decades of draconian financial surveillance in the United States, they don't even know how many people they have arrested. Was it worth it?

Cato CMFA

@CatoCMFA

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is unable to identify how many arrests its surveillance regime has led to.

Reform is long overdue.

@EconWithNick explains why it’s time to stop the surveillance and restore financial privacy.

cato.org

How Many Arrests Were Made? FinCEN Director Doesn’t Know

FinCEN is unable to justify the $59 billion surveillance regime that required banks and other financial institutions to report their customers to the government more than 27.5 million times last year.

/CRYPTO\

Well it didn't take long for ZEC to follow Bitcoin's path to join the suits on Wall Street......the Winklevoss twins or maybe just Tyler Winklevoss launched a DAT for ZEC. Kinda makes me want to puke a little bit honestly.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Now that ZEC has a DAT you can get exposure to ZEC without any privacy whatsoever in your regulated KYCed brokerage account that the state can seize from you if you sneeze too loudly in our overcriminalized society. Goes great with Bitcoin ETFs that allow you to get exposure to

Tyler Winklevoss

@tyler

Privacy is the precondition for many of our freedoms. It’s the point at which government and corporate reach end and our individual freedoms and self-sovereignty begin. As our lives have moved online, privacy’s become a rare, vanishing commodity.

That’s why we founded Cypherpunk

The US Government doing it's best to get people out of self custody and into crypto ETPs, now your paper ETH that you don't really own can be staked.

Watcher.Guru

JUST IN: US Treasury & IRS issue new guidance granting crypto ETPs "a clear path to stake digital assets and share staking rewards."

The SEC also clarified that digital collectibles and network tokens are not securities. I wonder if this will have an affect on any potential future efforts to get XMR relisted?

Tall

@tall_data

Per SEC Chair @SECPaulSAtkins

“Network tokens are not securities.”

“Digital collectibles are not securities.”

SimpleX, the encrypted chat application, is launching a utility token. The move was controversial in the privacy community, or it least it was controversial on Twitter. Check out the Monerotopia episode in the media section for an interview with SimpleX about this and other issues.

SimpleX Chat

@SimpleXChat

You can get a free NFT on our new website.

It will provide access to the SimpleX utility token testnet after launch - planned for 2026.

/Politics\

The US military continues to execute suspected drug smugglers without even attempting to arrest and try them first. They aren't even fentanyl smugglers, they are smuggling cocaine, either way if they aren't actively attacking someone you don't have any right to execute them in cold blood. Today they made the murder official and gave it an op name, albeit an op name that they already used not long ago, in January. The US Government has murdered so many people around the world that they ran out op names.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

@SecWar

President Trump ordered action — and the Department of War is delivering.

Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR.

Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our

Justin Amash

@justinamash

Thank you for documenting your crimes.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

@SecWar

Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO).

Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known

Republicans snuck a paragraph in the spending bill that effectively bans hemp growing in the United States. They say that stores are selling THC derivitatves such as Delta 8 to minors. You can just target the stores that are doing that and punish them instead of outlawing an entire industry and hurting farmers and everyone else this industry provides income to. They say you can still grow hemp as long as it has less than 0.3% of THC, which is not even possible with current hemp varities. So Rand Paul objected to this nonsense and then proceeded to get blaimed for holding up the reopening of the Government, despite his objection having no actual affect on the timing of the bill.

High Times

@HIGH_TIMES_Mag

THE HEMP BAN, EXPLAINED:

How Congress used a shutdown to outlaw a $28B plant economy — overnight.

If you missed what just happened (or how it happened), here’s the breakdown:

Johnny Chesney

@JChesney1657

Mitch McConnell has taken almost a million dollars from the alcohol lobby to ban hemp and co wrote the bill to do it, how is this not illegal?

The Epstein saga is getting spicy again with the combination of the release of a massive trove of Epstein emails and the 218th signature from newly elected representative Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) forcing a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.Res-581) that Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) proposed alongside Ro Khanna (D-Calif). The act would force the government to release all Epstein Files, minus redactions of the names of victims, and is likely to pass.

This tweet thread goes over a lot of the emails that mention Trump.

Brian Krassenstein

@krassenstein

BREAKING THREAD - Here is a Thread of all the awful things that surfaced Yesterday in the Epstein Emails:

Keep sharing them all:

Epstein to Larry Summers:

"I have met some very bad people. None as bad as Trump. Not one decent cell in his body."

/Playlist\

Checkout the latest Politics Channel stream from the Policast team. Policast is a prediction market application within Farcaster.

*I don't endorse cummunism.

The latest episode of Monerotopia was a banger despite lacking the news section which is usually my favorite part. They had a great discussion with the SimpleX guy about why Monero may need it's own advocacy organization to represent interests of Monero users worldwide. Because Monero is entirely decentralized with no leaders or CEOs, there isn't really anyone standing up for us against things like exchange delistings. I mean we all shout really loudly on X about it, but as far as actually doing shit IRL we are kind of unorganized. A little organization isn't a bad thing, it doesn't have to mean the project becomes a centralized entity.

The latest episode of Cloak and Dagger on Paznia Radio's Self Liberation Saturday has arrived.

I'm not a Mert/Zcash fanboy but I thought his interview with Balaji was interesting, although he doesn't get him to talk about crypto and privacy until the very end.

Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving some feedback and let me know what you like and don't like about Thought Crime Trap House.

Thought Crime Trap House Newsletter #2

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 12:00:03 GMT

Welcome to the second issue of my new newsletter! Please consider subscribing if you haven't done so already, and don't forget to follow me on X or Farcaster. Hit me up in my DMs if you want to speak with me.

If you like what I'm doing, a donation will encourage me to continue! You can send me XMR on XMRChat or send me ETH or any ERC-20 to thoughtcrimeboss.eth.

Send me sats via Bitcoin mainnet: bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Or send me Bitcoin via lighting to burnedmitten671@minibits.cash

Send me ETH or any ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, or any Layer 2 @ thoughtcrimeboss.eth

Send me SOL or any Solana token at 9uLhcY5AKHjYK3kySrgDnWqp5NFh9p1LQztT8iZUPdxZ

You can also support me by following me on Nostr npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

Or by sharing this with people......

A special thanks to khori.eth for their donation last week!

And I want to apologize to the email subscribers for the formatting errors with URL embeds last week. Apparently Paragraph doesn't do a very good job with URL embeds, although tweets look fine. This is when I learned why you should send a test newsletter to yourself before sending it out to everyone. Alright let's get into it, we will start with privacy, then crypto, the playlist, and finally I will save the political stuff for last so you can easily skip it if you want.

/PRIVACY\

Random privacy tip of the week: If you use Monero, the safest way to do so is by running your own node. To run your own node is easy, you just need enough harddrive space to hold the blockchain (You will want to allocate a minimum of 300 GB for this, I think the current size of the chain is around 240 GB). Then just download Monero GUI from getmonero.org (always verify you are downloading the legitimate software, don't trust me, verify it by checking the PGP signature of the software), and it will start up a node for you automatically when you open it.

Once your running your own node on your computer, you can connect to it through Cake Wallet or any mobile wallet on your phone. This way if you have to do any XMR transactions on the god, you know and trust the node processing them since you own it.

If you can't run your own node, don't just connect to any random node because there are some malicious nodes out there who want to log your IP address. Either connect to a node belonging to someone you know and trust, or you can also use Seth For Privacy's node which has been around for a while and can be relatively trusted. I think he's a good actor in the space, so connecting to his node is a good stopgap until you have the ability to run your own.

The legendary ZachXBT finds a privacy flaw in Zashi wallet related to NEAR intents. Read this to learn how to get around it if you are swapping to or from other chains in Zashi. I was thinking how much it would suck to get doxxed by this bug if you were someone who just bought ZEC for the first time to try and gain some privacy only to have your wallets linked to each other. I'd imagine there are good number of people who might of been affected by this since everyone and their mom has been buying ZEC lately. I like how ZachXBT handled this though, he messaged Zashi and told them he was going to post this before he did so they would be prepared for it, and he presented it in a way that was informative and fair. Zashi said they are going to fix it by implementing ephemeral transparent addresses for NEAR Intents, and that doing so is now their number one priority.

ZachXBT asked if we want to see more posts like this about privacy topics, and fuck yeah we do. ZachXBT is a goat. Don't forget that he also uses Monero regularly, and the world's number blockchain analyst using Monero for his payments is all the endorsement you should need.

ZachXBT

@zachxbt

1/ As part of my work I like to test out privacy products and figure out what works and what doesn’t so I can abuse any design flaws for my investigations.

With the recent hype around Zashi & its Near Intents integration I tested it for Zcash.

The renewed interest in privacy has also affected the Ethereum ecosystem as well and the Ethereum Foundation recently announced the formation of a 47 member "Privacy Cluster", coordinated by Igor Barinov.

From the cryptonews article,

"The Ethereum Foundation announced Wednesday the formation of a 47-member Privacy Cluster coordinated by Blockscout founder, Igor Barinov.

The initiative expands on efforts dating back to 2018 through the Privacy and Scaling Explorations team, which has built over 50 open-source research projects and released key primitives, including Semaphore for anonymous signaling, MACI for private voting, and zkEmail.

The cluster unites top researchers, engineers, and cryptographers to tackle five key areas.

These areas include private reads and writes for seamless payments and interactions without surveillance, private proving for portable verification, private identities through selective disclosure, privacy experience improvements, and institutional adoption through a dedicated task force.

The foundation is also developing Kohaku, a privacy-preserving wallet and open-source SDK designed to make strong cryptography accessible for mainstream users.

The move follows a September rebrand of the Privacy and Scaling Explorations team to Privacy Stewards for Ethereum, which shifted focus from cryptography exploration to problem-first solutions addressing surveillance vulnerabilities.

That transformation introduced a roadmap warning that without robust privacy protections, Ethereum risks becoming “the backbone of global surveillance rather than global freedom.”

The team emphasized that institutions and users would migrate elsewhere if private transactions, identity, and data remain compromised by public blockchain transparency. "

The article also references Vitalik Buterin's blog post, "Why I Support Privacy", and a privacy roadmap for Ethereum that he published back in April.

Let's talk about DNA for a second. I always tell people never to voluntarily give up their DNA to ANYONE unless you are forced to to avoid arrest. Definitely don't send it in to some tech start up to find out how much Native American blood you have. Even more so than your fingerprints, your DNA is not only unique but can't ever be changed. You are stuck with your DNA forever. There are some ways to alter your fingerprints, there is no way to change your DNA. That's why the governments of the world want it so bad, they would love to have a DNA sample of every single person.

This article from reason reveals the disturbing extent of the United State's DNA collection campaign at the border, from citizens and non-citizens. Oftentimes, they will trick people into giving up a sample when they aren't required to. This massive amount of DNA collection occurring at the border doesn't even include the DNA sample collection that occurs in the criminal justice system in many states and in the Federal system from anyone arrested of a felony, regardless of whether that felony actually was a crime with a victim or not. This means all the State has to do to get your DNA is make a bogus felony arrest, and they can take it from you. It doesn't matter if you actually are guilty or not guilty, this is pre-trial. Innocent until proven guilty is thrown out the window and the state can violate your personal sovereignty in order to catalog you like cattle.

The CODIS database that stores all this DNA is growing a rapidly increasing pace. If this pace continues, when you combine it with all the other state run DNA databases around the world, it won't be long before the majority of humanity has been cataloged and put into these databases. All sorts of very evil things can be done with that kind of information.

I would do whatever you can to avoid getting your DNA collected, it may save your life one day.

It won't be long now before the State tries using AI as an excuse to require mandatory digital IDs for all citizens to even access the internet. Not only should we be advocating against digital IDs, but we should be advocating against all mandatory government ID. I can understand the need to verify one's identity in certain situations, however I believe that service can be handled by private organizations and businesses rather than under the centralized control of the state.

The Rage

NEW: Posts are claiming that a ChatGPT generated AI Passport passed KYC Checks at notable cryptocurrency exchanges. That's not true, the posts author tells The Rage.

How AI Passport scares are pushing for Digital IDs

therage.co

AI-Passport Scares Are Pushing For Digital IDs

Posts are claiming that a ChatGPT generated AI Passport passed KYC Checks at notable cryptocurrency exchanges. That's not true, the posts author tells The Rage.

I'm going to take you back in time a little bit to explain why digital IDs are so dangerous. In Afghanistan before the Taliban regained power, the United States pushed digital ID with biometrics there. When the United States split town, the Taliban was able to use the database to hunt down anyone who had helped the United States. When you gather biometric and other personal identification data into a centrally controlled database, you create a massive security risk for everyone in that database. You have no idea who will be in charge of the Government or what kind of Government we will have in ten or twenty years. If the wrong kind of people get into power, they can use a database like that to easily track down, imprison, and even execute anyone who opposes them politically.

/CRYPTO\

The Bitcoin filter debate continues, and now the Knots team has proposed a soft fork.

The FUD that Luke and the Knots supporters were pushing when Ordinals were more popular was that "spam" was clogging up the Mempool and making it more expensive for regular Bitcoin transactions. Now that the Mempool is way less crowded, that narrative wasn't working anymore so they switched to "If we don't filter out transactions with arbitrary data then someone will put CSAM on the blockchain to make it illegal to have a copy of the blockchain". There are a lot of flaws in the Knots supporters thinking and I don't think they know what is best for Bitcoin. In my opinion, allowing arbitrary data on Bitcoin is a good thing. Storage is cheap, the modest increase in state size will not affect decentralization. If someone is too poor to buy a bigger hard drive to run their Bitcoin node on, then running a Bitcoin node probably isn't on their priority to do list anyways.

You can read about the new soft fork proposal here. Although this article is someone inaccurate because the soft fork, now known as BIP-444, was originally proposed by PortlandHODL, not Luke Dashir Jr, although he is all for it.

There was a good article from Nic Carter about the Quantum threat to Bitcoin, which is in his opinion the most serious threat to Bitcoin at the moment. What worries me is that the pace of Bitcoin development is so slow thanks to the ossification crowd (those who are scared of changing a single line of code in Bitcoin because they don't want any risk to their bags), that they will not address the Quantum threat in time. Nobody knows when this threat will arrive, they can only make educated guesses, and when it does there will be no time for arguing about it on the internet. The solution has to be in place BEFORE it arrives or there will be potentially catastrophic consequences to the network. I'm not trying to FUD, but I think people have been talking about the Quantum threat for so long that it kinda feels like it's never going to happen to some folks. Unfortunately, it probably is going to happen, and now that AI can accelerate things, it may happen sooner than we previously thought it would.

Speaking of which, Monero is working on it's quantum security.

Monero (XMR)

The Monero Research Lab is actively researching post-quantum encryption for Monero!

'CARROT already brings several forward-secrecy improvements. The purpose of Jamtis is to provide forward secrecy against a quantum enabled adversary even if a wallet address is publicly known.'

Monero Research Lab (Unofficial)

Tevador just updated the Post-Quantum Encryption GitHub issue discussing the post-quantum encryption algorithm selection for Jamtis - the next addressing scheme for Monero. The purpose of Jamtis is to provide forward secrecy against a quantum-enabled adversary even if a wallet

Meanwhile on Z-Cash, if I am correct, shielded transaction's privacy is quantum secure, but the network is not yet. They have a Quantum Security upgrade called NU7 on the roadmap though. Here is a blog post about ZEC and quantum threats from Sean Bowe.

There is a new POS system on Android for Monero. Onboarding businesses to private cryptocurrency is essential for building the second realm. To do this we need POS systems with excellent UI. I haven't tried this yet, but hopefully it works well.

CR1337

@cryptonator1337

New: XMRpos Client, FOSS Monero Point of Sale (POS) Android App

Enables fast, simple Monero (XMR) payments withquick amount entry and real-time payment status display.

Deep dive into how the new Cupcake feature on Cake Wallet works. It lets you turn any old phone into an offline signing app for extra security. Kinda of reminds me of the seedsigners for bitcoin.

Monero (XMR)

https://reason.com/2025/10/20/scotus-will-consider-the-constitutionality-of-the-federal-ban-on-gun-possession-by-illegal-drug-users/

How Cupcake Actually Works: A Technical Deep(ish) Dive - by @cakewallet

Cake Wallet

@cakewallet

"But is Cupcake actually secure?"

We get this question a lot. So we wrote a deep(ish) dive into exactly how Cupcake (our offline signing app) works under the hood. From secure enclaves, to offline keys, animated QR transactions, and more!

Farcaster is back on top, they acquired the AI powered token launching platform Clanker, and started buying $CLANKER with 2/3rds of the fees generated by Clanker. This led to a huge pump in $CLANKER and various coins that had been launched on Clanker. There were a bunch of new Farcaster Pro sign ups too. Did you know you can read this newsletter directly within the Farcaster client using the Paragraph miniapp? Just go to my profile, and click read in the pinned post. If you don't have a Farcaster Account, signups are now free, if you sign up please use my referral code and you will get 20% cheaper swaps if you do any trading on the platform .

Dune | We are hiring!

@Dune

@farcaster_xyz’s on fire

• Oct 23: Acquires @clankeronbase for memecoin launches. Clanker registers ATH $140M volume on Oct 24-25
• Oct 25: Opens free signups
• Oct 26: Warplet NFT mint frenzy

Farcaster Pro added 21K+ new subs in 48h, netting $400K+ in revenue.

/PLAYLIST\

My favorite channel on Farcaster /Politics now has their own show! If you use Farcaster, be sure to come check the channel out. They also have a miniapp called Policast where you can place bets on prediction markets based on current events, using the official token of the Politics channel BUSTER.

Apparently the US Government needs better data security...interestingly the hackers that are targeting ICE apparently aren't doing so for "hacktivism" or political reasons.

Podcast: Hackers Dox ICE

Hackers targeting ICE and other agencies; Wikipedia's AI problem now has some data; and OpenAI's inevitable pivot to sex bot.

https://www.404media.co

Xenu went on Vlad's podcast to debate Monero versus Zcash. Warning they had audio issues throughout this episode but it was still good. I think both of them did a good job honestly, I can find merits to arguments on both sides although I lean towards Monero. Vlad annoys some people but his podcast is pretty good, he has scored some big interviews before and they go deep. If you ever need something to listen to, the archives contain many hours of crypto discussions.

/Politics\

I don't believe the fact that you consume a plant such as cannabis should preclude you from the right to bare arms. It's just as absurd as saying if you have a beer after work on occasion that you should lose your 2nd amendment rights. Now if you get wasted on booze, cannabis, or any other drug, and then use a firearm to hurt someone who isn't attacking you, then you should be punished. But simply getting wasted in of itself shouldn't mean you have less rights than anyone else. The Supreme Court is going to be deciding a case based on this very issue, does banning gun ownership for drug users violate the 2nd amendment?

Here's a good example of the ridiculous extent of immunity laws for US federal agents that let them get away with all sorts of tomfoolery, such as just making up a fake sex trafficking ring in order to keep a woman in jail unjustly.

https://reason.com/2025/10/26/police-abuse-protected-by-federal-immunity/

Did you know that there are currently FIFTY different emergencies declared by the Federal Government of the United States? The amount of power these so called emergencies give the executive branch is mind blowing.

"The emergency is now the default. Most of the knobs and levers a modern president uses to bully companies, police speech, or move bodies around aren't new laws—they're standby powers that switch on with a magic word: emergency. Congress littered the U.S. Code with these shortcuts; the Brennan Center for Justice has cataloged 137 statutory powers that spring to life the moment a president declares one. (Many never fully turn off.) As of mid-2025, there were roughly 50 simultaneous national emergencies still in force; they are renewed annually, spanning everything from sanctions to tariffs. That architecture lets the White House reach for trade controls, financial blockades, and tech blacklists without returning to Congress. If you like your powers separated, this is the opposite."

https://reason.com/2025/10/25/how-to-ruin-a-shutdown/

In better news, the Javier Milei's libertarian experiment in Argentina lives to fight another day as his party did very well in the midterms. Not long ago it wasn't looking so good for him, now it's looking a lot better. People were saying oh look Argentina got a bailout that means Libertarianism doesn't work. Well for one, Milei had the presidency but his party had a minority in the legislature, which hamstrung his ability to make changes. Also, he inherited quite a fucking mess to be honest, and maybe we should actually give him a little time to work his way out of it before writing him off. Reform of a system as broken as Argentina's was is going to take time and likely involve some pain before the gain. Not financial advice but probably a great time to take a look at investing in Argentina's stocks.

Students For Liberty

@sfliberty

A month ago, Javier Milei looked politically dead.

Congress overturned his vetoes. Markets were in freefall. The peso was collapsing. Polls showed voters turning against him.

On Sunday, he won a landslide that shocked everyone.

This is how he pulled it off.

I don't know much about German politics but I did find it weird that 7 of their opposition party politicians died in the run up to the election....

Mario Nawfal

@MarioNawfal

7TH AFD CANDIDATE CONFIRMED DEAD AHEAD OF GERMAN LOCAL ELECTIONS

A 7th AfD candidate has died ahead of the September 14 local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to Politico and WELT TV.

Hans-Joachim Kind (80), a direct candidate in Remscheid, reportedly died of

Mario Nawfal

@MarioNawfal

SIX AFD CANDIDATES NOW CONFIRMED DEAD IN GERMANY AHEAD OF ELECTIONS

Six candidates from Germany's AfD party, four primary candidates and two reserves, have died within 13 days before September 14 local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The deceased include Ralph Lange

Please let me know in the comments what kind of content you liked and didn't like, any feedback is appreciated! Spread the word that there is a new newsletter in town.....

That's all folks, see you next issue, in the mean time stay free.

Thought Crime Trap House Newsletter #1

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:00:07 GMT

\INTRODUCTION/

Published October 22, 2025

Disclaimer: These are opinions, nothing I say should be considered financial advice.

I have done a few "weekly round up" newsletters before just for fun. But I have decided to get more serious about the newsletter, so this is the official launch of the best newsletter ever. I was encouraged to go ahead when I recently read another newsletter, a paid one, that covers privacy and realized it was 90% fluff and 10% actual content. I can do better than that.

I had also been hesitating on this because I don't know if Paragraph is the platform I want to grow my audience on. Once I told the founder of Paragraph that I thought having regular ol' paid subscriptions as a feature was more important than having "creator coins" or "content coins". He said that Paragraph wasn't going to make it as just the "crypto version" of Substack. He said they needed to differentiate themselves if they wanted to grow. I can respect that, but I also think that the world needs a decentralized censorship resistant alternative to Substack. That quality alone would differentiate Paragraph. Paragraph should put the basics in first and add all the fancy shit later, in my humble opinion. I should be able to easily let someone subscribe to a premium version of my newsletter and pay with crypto. They shouldn't have to buy an illliquid coin just to support me that I then have to dump on them in order to actually receive any support. I may be jaded from getting rugged from like 300 versions of crypto social media over the years, but I really don't like the coin everything approach (feel free to buy my creator coin though I'd rather you just send me the ETH directly to thoughtcrimeboss.eth).

Paragraph forged ahead with the creator coins and post coins, and so far it doesn't seem to be working out for them. I'm not seeing any significant volume on any Paragraph tokens at all, and this is several months into this experiment. Could it end up working better than normal subscriptions? Maybe, I don't have a crystal ball, but I doubt it. Keep in mind that it is easy for me to criticize from the sidelines, I don't know anything about running a start up, and I get the feeling that Paragraph felt it needed to innovate or die so they made a move.

If people start reading this free newsletter, then at some point I want to start a paid newsletter, and I hope Paragraph offers that option by then. If not I am just going to export my subscribers and start publishing elsewhere. The only problem is I can only export the subscribers that signed up using their email, many of my subscribers signed up with a crypto wallet. I don't have any way of exporting those but I guess I could try to contact them onchain.

Here is my vision for what the newsletter will eventually become;

*Free version that is basically just a digest of my tweet threads from the last week or so.

*Paid version for anywhere from $5-$15 a month where I share interesting content from others, commentary on that content, and exclusive content of my own such as;

~actionable guides to opting out of and avoiding the system entirely, protecting your privacy, security, homesteading, and using cryptocurrency.

~commentary on recent events

~reviews of protocols and products

~some sweet, sweet alpha

Why should you listen to anything I have to say?

~I know what I am doing, for the most part, although there is always more to learn and as I learn more I can teach more.

~I have lived outside of the system for a long time successfully. You can just opt out, there are ways around everything, and I know many of them. I haven't had a bank account in over a decade.

~I know how to protect my privacy online and offline and I can teach you how to as well. I went full anon online many years ago and have learned a whole lot in the process.

~I started dabbling in crypto in 2017 and progressively increased the time I spent in the space. I cut back my day job to weekends only two years ago to immerse myself in crypto even further. You learn a lot over 3 cycles, but I am not rich yet so apparently I have more to learn. That's okay at least I can tell you with certainty what NOT to do, even if I don't know what TO do.

~Not really a reason but just so you know, I have a dark sarcastic sense of humor you may or may not enjoy. I always forget to use emoticons when I'm being sarcastic so people often think I am being serious when I'm just being an ass.

~I have a deep passion for these topics and will do my best to bring you content you can use to improve your own freedom and privacy.

If you like the idea of a newsletter like this, please support me to let me know! If you donate $10 or more, tell me your email, and I will send you some issues of the premium version when it launches. (scroll to the bottom for how to support me)

Ok, let's get to it. I'm going to put the political rants at the end of the newsletter now so that if you are just here for the crypto and privacy content you don't have to suffer through my slightly unconventional thoughts on politics.

\CRYPTOCURRENCY/

Well I survived the worst crypto crash ever in terms of liquidations. I did get liquidated on a small perps account in the process, lost some ETH paying insane gas fees to add collateral, and of course got wrecked on my shitcoins. But it could of been much worse for me, as it was for many people, so I am grateful.

Those insane gas fees weren't even on mainnet either, they were on an L2. One thing I did notice during this crash/liquidation event and others is that out of all the Ethereum L2s, Optimism always seems to be the most stable with less gas spikes than any other L2. I don't know why that is, especially considering Base and BOB are both based on the same tech as Optimism (I think, OP stack right?).

Another thing the crash reminded me of, is always have some dough ready to go and stink bids in place, to take advantage of insane opportunities like this. I did not have any stables on an exchange ready to go, and anything on chain was dicey during the event, so I got to just watch and when it got really bad I just kept saying to myself, I need to buy these alts that are getting nuked 75%. I did not though, and missed out on generational wealth again. However, I also went to sleep that night without wanting to blow my brains out, thanks to the fact that the majority of my portfolio is Bitcoin. I have kept it that way for years now. I know Bitcoin will be here tomorrow, and the next day, and even with the worse liquidation event in crypto's history Bitcoin didn't even get below 100k. Just think about that for a second.

Now that every bit of leverage has been ripped out of the system, crypto has had a hard reset of sorts. Maybe we will get a nice Santa Clause rally in December, but I think we might be chopping sideways for a while while we heal from this nonsense. A whole lot of traders, even ones who weren't completely degen and were using conservative leverage, got completely wrecked. I have never seen so many "I lost everything" posts on my timeline before (I also realized how many people don't know about the age old wisdom of "don't keep all your eggs in one cross margin basket"). We need new money to come in, because a lot of the money that was in the system has been evaporated.

Here is an interesting, possibly biased, take on the Binance depeg that caused the flash crash:

Haseeb ＞|＜

@hosseeb

Did Ethena Really Depeg?

I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the Ethena depeg during the market mayhem this weekend. The story is that USDe briefly depegged to ~68c before recovering. Here’s the Binance chart everyone is quoting:

But digging into the data and talking to a bunch of

G | Ethena

@gdog97_

While we share these suggestions privately with any partner we work with across both DeFi and CeFi, want to surface this publicly so there is zero doubt going forward on what we view as appropriate oracle design and risk management for USDe:

Considering the focus of this newsletter, I have to at least mention the absolutely massive rally in ZEC (Zcash) that has taken place. ZEC was trading as low as $20 as recently as April but in late September it broke through $60 and proceeded to rally almost 500% from there in just two weeks. It topped out at almost $300 the day after the flash crash when the rest of the market was wrecked. (Update it made a new high above $300) I did a post on why I thought ZEC would moon when it was still around $117. Almost the entire privacy sector in crypto has also done well as the new meta seems to be privacy. This was kicked off by the ZEC pump which was in turn kicked off seemingly by Naval and Mert starting to shill it, combined with a major decrease in ZEC inflation and sell pressure. Not going to lie, I am enjoying this because every other meta I have traded in crypto doesn't excite me like "protecting privacy to resist the oppression of the state" does. I mean think about how lame some of the other recent metas have been, "BNB chinese character meme coins, onchain pokemon cards aka Real World Assets", "creator coins", "content coins", crypto ETFs, centralized decentralized perp dexes, etc etc. None of these have much to do with why crypto exists in the first place or why it is really important. They are just ways to extract more money from people. Is the ZEC pump just a ploy to extract money from people too? Maybe I don't know, but it has gotten the entire fucking timeline talking about privacy and that's a good thing. ZEC has plenty of issues but I think a lot of their community has their hearts in the right place and instead of hating on them we should be working alongside them.

I have to say I am kinda disappointed in the endless ZEC hating coming from the Monero community right now. I would consider myself a member of that community. XMR is my favorite cryptocurrency, has been for a long time, and I use it almost every day. My opinion on the matter is that there isn't that many people in the world that even give a shit about privacy and freedom AT ALL, so the ones that do need to be united and working together not arguing with each other. Constructive debate is fine, but a lot of these posts I see just make me think, "Oh this person is just pissed they have a bunch of Monero and it didn't have a massive pump." Monero is still one of the best performing altcoins out there, and it is okay if someone else's privacy coin pumps more than your privacy coin. Price is not the only metric after all, Monero still has more usage than Z-Cash, a larger market cap, and is the preferred token for Darknet Markets for a reason. Z-Cash has good privacy tech too, and trust me, there is room in the world for many privacy coins. The thing about privacy is that various people have very different threat models, and different coins can cater to different threat models. Also keep in mind that because of Monero's larger market cap, it is harder for it to have a massive pump like ZEC did. It requires more money and Monero isn't listed in very many places. ZEC was starting from a very low point, so it was easy to pump it. Don't worry though, Monero's day will come.

thoughtcrimeboss on Farcaster

ZEC's rally is a good example of why I should find assets everyone hates on and buy the shit out of it then and not after everyone is shilling it again. When everyone was constantly hating on ETH not long ago it was a good time to buy. Same thing happened to PUMP. Go against the consensus. No this doesn't mean your memecoin that died 6 months ago is going to rally because everyone hates it now. Find something that everyone hates on AND has some kind of actual use/revenue/etc. Even though it's up bigly, I think ZEC's rally might continue, I thought $100 would be a resistance but it blew through it like it was nothing. Looking to buy a dip for sure. -It's on almost every exchange so any normie can ape in -All the ZEC people have to do is push the narrative that it's like buying Bitcoin for $100 w/ some privacy since they have the same supply 21 million. Normies who missed BTC but are too risk averse to ape into memecoins might jump on this. -Bitcoin is boring now, it's wall street, it's corporate. ZEC is just cypherpunk enough to be "cool" but not cypherpunk enough to get delisted like Monero. -They suddenly have big names on Twitter shilling it (Naval and Mert) -There's the whole NEAR intents thing too, interoperability... -BCH has the same supply and widespread availability but no real narrative. It has a 11.7 billion dollar market cap and ZEC is currently 1.8 billion. Room to run... All this together sounds like the necessary ingredients for a face ripping multi month rally. What do yall think....... And what's the next hated asset I should be buying NFA I have no idea what in the fuck I am doing

Farcaster

I also made a good call on $NPT, a much smaller privacy coin. I got in around $4 and it 3xed from there. It was the only altcoin that I noticed was almost entirely unaffected by the flash crash. That is probably because it is only listed on one small non kyc exchange, Safetrade. I wouldn't deposit your life savings on there if I were you, but it's still worth a look, even at the current price of $11. One of the founders has done some foundational research in the field of cryptography, and his papers are cited quite often.

Here's a post on why I still think Monero will continue to do well compared to other altcoins. Full Chain Membership Proofs are live on testnet now, and this post also goes into more detail about that.

thoughtcrimeboss on Farcaster

Apparently it's that time in the cycle where I'm buying obscure microcap privacy coins on weird exchanges. No liquidity you say? I'm a degenerate pleb buying $50 clips I don't give a fuck about liquidity. Just bought something called Neptune Cash (@seagodcrypto on X) today. I am not reccomending you buy anything I have no idea what the fuck I am doing. This is purely for fun because I enjoy geeking out on different protocols especially POW ones. My 5 minutes of research determined that they aren't a scam. Their website literally looks like a website designed by real cryptographers who are too busy doing cryptography to worry about marketing and pretty websites. POW privacy coin with some interesting quantum resistant cryptography. Currently trading at around 10 million market cap. High FDV because most of the supply is unmined. I might start mining it for kicks idk. Now that it's privacy coin szn I am going to have fun researching random privacy coins like it is 2017.

Farcaster

Here is a much better post on the Monero bull case by some guy I just discovered on X and it is the most well articulated and insightful investment thesis for Monero that I have ever heard. Read all of it, than go stack some Monero.

Satoshi Van Saberhagen

@saberhagen_xmr

My Monero Investment Thesis

First of all, while I position myself within the Monero community for ideological and cultural reasons, my investment decisions aren't based on how revolutionary I find an investment or how much I like the people around it. If I were convinced there

Paxos accidentally minted 300 trillion PYUSD. Yes that's trillion with a T. I think this is a great demonstration of the hidden dangers of centralized stablecoins. If every PYUSD is supposed to be backed by a dollars worth of assets, one person shouldn't even be able to mint 300 trillion unbacked PYUSD with a single transaction. You would think that in the year 2025, they would have some kind of safe guard mechanism built into a smart contract that prevents minting unless reserves are proven. Apparently, that is not the case, and a rogue employee could completely destroy the value of PYUSD with the click of a button. Don't forget that they can freeze your PYUSD anytime they want for any reason that they feel like, same as most stablecoins.

sam ramirez

@sram1337

Some forensics on the the PYUSD token mint today. Its worse than I thought.

Looks like Paxos tried to transfer 300M PYUSD between wallets, but accidentally burned 300M instead.

So in order to undo their mistake, they tried to remint the 300M they burned back into the original

zoomer

@zoomerfied

[ ZOOMER ]

PAYPAL'S PYUSD MINTS $300T ON ETHEREUM

So North Korea is storing it's malware directly on the blockchain now.

John Scott-Railton

@jsrailton

NEW: DPRK has begun hiding malware on blockchain.

Result, decentralized, immutable malware.

Nearly impossible to remove.

Research by @Mandiant

Brazil is, still, going after self custody of cryptocurrency. This time they are targeting stablecoins. If you can't self custody your stablecoins, what is the fucking point? This kind of dystopian nonsense is happening all over the world.

What we desperately need is a decentralized private stablecoin backed by native crypto assets such as Bitcoin that is uncensorable and impossible to mint without collateral. Maybe we need a "slightly unstable" stablecoin that doesn't market itself as a stablecoin to get around regulations. It's more a wink wink this isn't a stablecoin kind of thing, it's a value storage coin. Back it with Bitcoin collateral, make it entirely decentralized, private, and censorship resistant. You can redeem it for real Bitcoin at anytime. Well actually that might work better with Monero and some kind of second layer built on top of Monero since Monero has no smart contracts or tokens. Otherwise the state can just blacklist any Bitcoin associated with the unstable stablecoin. People need a way to store value privately without volatility. Some volatility is ok, even if the unstable stablecoin fluctuates by +/- 5% as the value of the collateral moves up and down, that is ok. People will be willing to accept that for the benefit of being able to have a completely private stablecoin. I think Zano has a private stablecoin called FUSD but it has no liquidity (very little anyways), and Zano's privacy tech needs some work. I don't know, I'm just trying to think of some solution to the financial surveillance state, and privacy L1s are only one piece of the puzzle.

CCN

@CCNNews360

Brazil’s central bank is proposing new rules that could ban stablecoin withdrawals to self-custody wallets & require exchanges to get FX licenses + comply with strict oversight.

Speaking of self custody.....the banks, wall street, and the state all want your Bitcoin. The last thing they want is people self custodying Bitcoin. That's probably one of the reasons why the SEC approved in kind transactions for Bitcoin ETFs. What does that mean? It means that you can send your spot Bitcoin to Blackrock or whoever and receive shares of their Bitcoin ETF in exchange, without taking a tax hit in the process. I can see why this is tempting to some people, managing your own Bitcoin security isn't the easiest task in the world. Trying to keep your Bitcoin safe on your own can be scary. It seems so much safer to just let Blackrock keep it safe for you, right?

Wrong.

This will make it extremely easy for the state to seize your Bitcoin for any arbitrary reason. The state seizes people's assets and cash for ridiculous bullshit reasons all the time today, and in the future it will probably get even worse as we slide deeper into tyranny. The only way to keep your Bitcoin safe from the state is with self custody and not KYCing your wallets. Do not be tempted by the custodians...ETFs take away most of the value proposition of Bitcoin. It neuters Bitcoin's ability to resist state oppression. Not your keys not your coins.

BlackRock Facilitates Over $3 Billion in Bitcoin-to-ETF Conversions for Whales

Large investors are increasingly converting their Bitcoin holdings into ETFs, with BlackRock alone facilitating over $3 billion worth of BTC-to-ETF conversions.

https://thecryptobasic.com

Monero is getting added to Thorchain, so soon you will be able to trustlessly swap Monero into several other cryptocurrencies on their DEX. Thorchain is doing this entirely on it's own, without any funding from the Monero community. I remember back in the last cycle or so, Thorchain was supposed to add Monero and backed out because they were scared of compliance risks or some bullshit. I don't remember the exact details, but hopefully this time around they follow through with it. I used to own RUNE, the token for Thorchain, but thankfully I sold it for a nice 5x because its gone down 90% since then. I am interested to see if Thorchain finishes it's Monero integration before or after the Serai Dex is launched by Luke Parker. Serai has been taking a really long time to come to fruition, so it's good to see that another option is coming.

ᴜɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴇᴀʙʟᴇ

@DontTraceMeBruh

The @THORChain co-founder just submitted a proposal to the Monero Crowdfunding System to integrate Monero into its DEX for native swaps.

This is monumental.

@jpthor

This is done.

No more excuses, time to get it. Please support and give feedback

$XMR

repo.getmonero.org/monero-project…

More developments in Monero, dealing with spy nodes.

CR1337

@cryptonator1337

Monero tackling spy nodes:

"The Fluorine Fermi update tackles this challenge by implementing an improved peer selection algorithm that reduces the chance users connect to multiple nodes within the same IP subnet, a common spy node tactic."

One of the best use cases for private digital cash like Monero is microtransactions. XMRchat is enabling this with excellent UI, allowing anyone to tip creators and leave messages easily and quickly. The tips and messages appear immediately, which is perfect for streamers. Imagine Youtube super chats, except decentralized and XMRchat doesn't take a cut. I created a XMRchat page if you are feeling like showing me some love.

https://xmrchat.com/thoughtcrimeboss

/PRIVACY\

Random Privacy Tip:

If you have a Linked In account, your data is going to be used to train AI models if you don't opt out.

To opt out navigate to Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.

Toggle off "Use my data for training content creation AI models."

Germany has decided not to support the draconian chat control law in the EU, which would of required a backdoor to scan all encrypted messages in apps like Signal and Whatsapp. This was one of the most insane anti freedom measures I have seen this year, and there has been a bunch. Thankfully, without Germany's support, the Chat Control proponents no longer have a majority.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Good job to everyone who was fighting this draconian chat control bullshit.

This battle has been won, and the war for freedom continues.

Tuta

@TutaPrivacy

We did it: Germany will OPPOSE Chat Control!

Thanks everyone for writing to the ministers.

#ChatControl will not get a majority in the EU Council - at least for now.

Ring cameras are adding facial recognition and giving footage to law enforcement. At one point Amazon said they were no longer going to be sharing footage with the police, but 18 months later they teamed up with our least favorite company Flock Safety, to do exactly that.

Ring cameras are about to get increasingly chummy with law enforcement

Amazon's Ring partners with company whose tech has reportedly been used by ICE.

The UK is trying to force Apple to put a backdoor into their encryption, again.

UK once again demands backdoor to Apple's encrypted cloud storage

New order in September narrowed access request down to data of UK citizens.

https://www.androidauthority.com

Big news from Graphene OS! I am very excited about this. Graphene is breaking out from being solely available on Google Pixels. If you don't know what Graphene OS is, it is a degoogled FOSS version of the Android operating system that currently only works on Pixels. It makes your phone very private. Without it, even if you tweak your privacy settings, Google still gets a lot of information about you and everything you do on your phone.

GrapheneOS is finally ready to break free from Pixels, and it may never look back

The makers of GrapheneOS have confirmed they are partnering with a major Android OEM to bring the OS to Snapdragon-powered flagships.

This gentleman, No Name Coder, developed his own AI police detection camera that is supposed to be able to identify police officers and vehicles. He tried to do a Kickstarter but they said nope, "too risky for their platform", but he didn't give up. I have not tried this out and have no idea if it works. It is $300+, but if I get one I'll let y'all know how it goes. This is a great example of why I have hope for humanity despite the transition we are seeing into a dystopian surveillance technocratic state. The same advanced technology the state uses against you can also be used to defend against the state. It just takes brave people willing to develop these defensive technologies.

Another great example of an anti surveillance tool is the Reflectacles. I finally got a pair of the IR Cloak model. They are very well made, durable sunglasses that will help protect you from facial recognition cameras. I may have shilled these before but why not shill them again.

IR-Cloak - Reflectacles Privacy Eyewear & Sunglasses: Anti Facial Recognition Glasses since 2015.

Frame is not reflective to cameras (works with IR-blocking lenses only) Full wrap around design provides maximum protection of eye measurements being analyzed Polycarbonate frame with flexible silicone temple ends and adjustable nose pads for comfort One size fits pretty much everybody Conforms to ANSI Z87.1 safety standards More Frame Info Lenses: IR-light lenses are for day/night & indoor/outdoor use IR-dark lenses are for day/outdoor use.

https://www.reflectacles.com

And yet some more people fighting the good fight, here is a great video about some anti license plate reader tech this very smart gentleman developed. Shoutout to @barrydyne on farcaster for reminding me about this video.

In less hopeful privacy news, in 2026 Texas will began to require age verification to download ANY application from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Since this post I have seen reports that Google and Apple are suing Texas over this. If this goes through, you will have to use a FOSS app store like F-droid to download apps without KYCing (if F-Droid is still available in 2026, Google is trying to kill all avenues for sideloading including F-Droid). I think people should be doing that anyways, but they shouldn't be forced into it. Many apps aren't available on F-Droid which means you would have to sideload the APK, and sideloading might not even be allowed on Android in the future. I don't think you can sideload Iphone apps, so you would just be fucked if you have an Iphone. Also, if you are forced to sideload every app you want to use, that opens you up to attack if you accidentally sideload the wrong APK. (an APK is just a android phone application file, and sideloading is directly installing the APK without using the Google Play Store or FDroid.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Things like this is why I think Bitcoiners who think Texas is some kind of mecca for freedom minded people are mistaken. Texans will have to KYC just to download a bitcoin wallet or ANY APP on their phone starting in 2026. It is not the State's job to protect your kids from bad

Techlore

@TechloreInc

Texas is trying to destroy app privacy for everyone.

Starting 2026: Texas law requires age verification for all app downloads. Want to check the weather? Hand over "sensitive, personally identifiable information."

Apple and Google are complying, but calling it out as bad.

Techlore

@TechloreInc

And just like that, Apple & Google are suing Texas for their 'censorship regime' and ' oppressive laws' for KYCing app stores It's not common to agree with them, but this is nice to see!

Would you want to see coverage of this in a video update?

Remember when Vietnam froze 3 million bank accounts of anyone who refused to provide biometric information? It's not going so well.

Camus

@newstart_2024

Thailand: The Blueprint for Digital Control & Why It Failed

Analyst Max Igan reveals Thailand has become a chilling, real-world case study for the dangers of a fully integrated digital ID and biometric control grid.

The system, sold as a convenience, placed every citizen's

Aztec Network wants you to KYC.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Wow. Overwhelmed with the irony of a Ethereum "privacy" L2 in testnet asking me to have a valid ID to join that testnet....

I don't give a fuck what ZK magic you use to KYC me, it is still KYC.

More than a billion people don't have valid ID.

I also don't have an ID, by choice.

Discord had a massive leak, proving once again why IDing everyone is stupid and dangerous.

Basil the Great

@Basil_TGMD

PROOF OF AGE I.D PHOTOS HACKED - 70,000 STOLEN

This doesn't bode well for Digital I.D does it.

It's not Discord itself that has been hacked but the company it uses to verify people's ages with an I.D check

The Government's online safety bill has mandated this must be done

Flock Safety is one of the scariest companies I have ever encountered, I would put them in the top 5 of companies that are leading us to a dystopian 1984 style surveillance state. They already have a huge network of security cameras, license plate readers and gunshot detecting microphones. Now those microphones are going to start detecting human voices, if it hears someone scream for instance, it will call the law. This sounds like an absolute recipe for disaster and overpolicing. People scream all the time without an actual crime or any danger taking place. But what might of been a peaceful situation with a mildly upset person can quickly get violent and fucked up when you add trigger happy cops to the equation. Any technology that calls the police without human input is extremely dangerous because many of our police officers are extremely dangerous individuals with little accountability.

Also why do I have the feeling that in ten years there are going to be armed Flock Safety drones zipping around murdering people for littering? I mean who built this fucking company anyways? Out of all the start up ideas you decided on "help build a dystopian police state" as the one you were going with? What is wrong with you? I bet they do coke with the Clearview AI people on the weekends and spy on random people for kicks.

Flock's Gunshot Detection Microphones Will Start Listening For Human Voices

Flock Safety, the police technology company most notable for their extensive network of automated license plate readers spread throughout the United States, is rolling out a new and troubling product that may create headaches for the cities that adopt it: detection of "human distress" via audio.

https://www.techdirt.com

Digital IDs are spreading rapidly across the globe, soon you will be required to have one just to work in the UK and Switzerland has also approved them. I wrote a good thread about how dangerous this is, check it out.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Most people simply don't comprehend the extent of the surveillance police state that is currently being built out with AI, facial recognition, gait recognition, age verification, drones, digital IDs, targeted spyware, and compliant stablecoins.

ICE (Immigration Customs and Enforcement) in the United States has been building a massive surveillance system. Whether you support Trump's immigration policy or not, this is dangerous because I doubt a surveillance system this powerful is only going to be used against illegal immigrants. When the state gets power like this, it always ends up getting used on people outside of the original target groups. At the same time, they are cracking down on counters to ICE. Meta closed a Facebook group where 80,000 people were sharing information on ICE agent sightings, and Apple removed an app that tracked ICE agents. They are allowed to track us and violently kidnap innocent people but when the people try to protect themselves by sharing information, they are shut down immediately.

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

https://www.404media.co

ICE wants to build a 24/7 social media surveillance team

ICE plans to hire contractors to scan platforms to target people for deportation.

https://corbettreport.com

Apple Took Down These ICE-Tracking Apps. The Developers Aren't Giving Up

"We are going to do everything in our power to fight this," says ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron after Apple removed his app from the App Store.

https://www.wired.com

Facebook takes down page that Justice Department says was used to harass ICE agents

The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday that Meta had complied with its request to take down a page on its Facebook platform that the agency said was being used to harass ICE agents in Chicago.

https://www.reuters.com

/MISCELLANEOUS\

I'm kind of regretting finally getting rid of my hoard of old magazines and newspapers. At least I kept the books. I think those old magazines and newspapers may have represented valuable training data for AIs. I had no idea so much of the world's data is undigitized in 2025, and getting destroyed at a rapid rate. We are losing so much because idiots like me are throwing it in dumpsters. I was obsessed as a kid with recording and saving everything (I was a weird kid). Everyone should hoard information and data if they can. The new normal is to keep all data on the cloud, and stream all media from the cloud. This makes it easier to lose things forever because nobody has a copy of them.

Brian Roemmele

@BrianRoemmele

98.5% of data from 1870-1970 has NEVER been digitalized!

It is an unfortunate assumption by some of the most brilliant minds in AI engineering that “all the human data is online already, and AI trained on it, so now we will use ‘synthetic data’”.

This is assumption has caused

Brian Roemmele

@BrianRoemmele

Each dumpster I dive leaves me with such mixed emotions.

After I wipe away my tears, I dive in I do the best I can to save.

I can’t take everything—and time is not on my side.

Some nights I think of the 1000s of dumpsters I did not save.

These thoughts haunt me.

Some examples of why you should download everything:

One day without warning Micheal Bazzell, the world's number one expert on all things privacy and author of Extreme Privacy, decided to delete most of his old Extreme Privacy podcast episodes (I still have a bunch of them saved somewhere, but only because at the time I was trying to save data and wanted something to listen to on the way to work, not because I thought he would erase them). If you didn't download them when you had the chance, you lost access to some of the most valuable privacy related information from the fields most skilled expert.

During the height of cancel culture a few years ago, some episodes of Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and many other shows, were deleted from streaming services forever. There was no warning. They were just erased from the collective consciousness like they had never existed. What was the reason? They were too "offensive". It's a fucking comedy show, it's supposed to be offensive. I don't remember the justification behind all the deletions, but a few episodes in particular were deleted for containing blackface when the characters were reenacting a parody of the Lethal Weapon movies.

Archive.org does it's best to save web pages as often as possible and to preserve as many books as possible. But they are a small non profit with huge bills and are constantly under legal attack. It's almost as if someone somewhere doesn't want people having accurate history. The less data people save, the easier it is to change history and the narrative about history to suit those in power's desires. Without offline knowledge, the State can just flip the kill switch on the internet and you would be cut off. Which they just did in Afghanistan, cutting off the only source of education for the women who are stuck there under Taliban rule. Hard drives are cheap, use them. For extra points, stick a few in a good faraday bag to protect them from EMPs or Solar events.

/Recommended Podcasts\

[P.A.Z.NIA RADIO NETWORK] Cloak & Dagger w/ Thane Riddle + Vonu Podcast LIVE + MORE! (CALL IN)

MAIN LINK: https://paznia.com/radio DONATE MONERO: https://xmrchat.com/pazniaradio Join us for another LIBERATING Self-Liberation Saturday transmission! Schedule: -Cloak & Dagger with Thane Riddle (4p

https://rumble.com/

Interview 1980 - Ascent Out of Madness on Forbidden Knowledge News | The Corbett Report

via Forbidden Knowledge News: James joins Chris Mathieu of Forbidden Knowledge News to discuss the most recent Corbett Report documentary feature, Dissent Into Madness.

/Politics and Economics\

The US Government is very skilled at propaganda and are known to use it and to help dictators use it throughout the world. If you don't think they are also targeting Americans with propaganda and disinformation, I got a bridge in Alaska to sell you. Here Reason talks about the recent Washington Post article exposing some of this propaganda machine.

The U.S. military is helping Arab dictatorships run psyops

The Pentagon spends a lot of taxpayer money on propaganda worldwide. Some of it is coordinated with Middle Eastern dictators, 'The Washington Post' revealed.

I keep seeing signs of economic problems ahead for the United States....normally that would just lead to a normal ol' recession but when you combine it with trade wars and extreme polarization and unrest among the population, what you get is a powder keg waiting to explode. When people aren't able to feed their families, when it gets to that point and god willing it doesn't, that is when people get desperate and start burning shit down. I don't like it.

Dynamic Wealth Group - Brad Barrie CFP, ChFC

@DynamicAlphaSol

One-third of Americans now possess more credit card debt than they do savings, a late-cycle sign.

Resilience persists, but buffers are thinner.

#DynamicWealthGroup

The Trump administration is now blowing up boats without even trying to arrest the occupants first. They just skip straight to murdering them. They say they are "narcoterrorists" smuggling cocaine. I say human life is more valuable than stopping some cocaine. Does cocaine hurt some people and occasionally kill someone? Yes. So does alcohol to a much worse degree. Nobody wants to execute liquor store owners without a trial, even though the alcohol they sell creates more misery and death in the world than cocaine does.

The war on drugs is a very important issue to me, that's how I eventually came to believe the things I believe today. When I was 12 or 13 years old I discovered erowid.org at a time which I knew so little about drugs that I thought marijuana and pot were different drugs. All I knew was that drugs were all bad and would kill you, I went through DARE like many of my generation. One day I discovered a text file online that went over psychoactive plants that were legal such as morning glory seeds, kratom, and kava kava. My mind was blown, there are just plants out there that are drugs but aren't illegal? This led to erowid.org and me discovering that my school and the government were just outright lying to us about cannabis by saying it was an addictive and dangerous gateway drug.

Once I realized they were lying about this, I started to question everything. At the time there was very little support for ending the war on drugs despite it being the obvious solution, but there were these people called "Libertarians" who supported ending it. By the eighth grade I considered myself a Libertarian because they seemed to be the only ones who weren't falling for the bullshit. (I have since moved on from Libertarianism to Voluntaryism, but I still have a fond place for it in my heart)

Support for ending the war on drugs is much more widespread today than it was when I was in middle school, back then you got laughed at for even suggesting the idea. Reforms started to take place here and there, but too many people make money off of the war and politicians are now using the new boogeyman of fentanyl to ramp the war on drugs back up, just like they used crack to do so in the early 90's. The Trump administration has taken this so far that they are now just blowing up suspected cocaine smugglers without even trying to arrest them first. They have added drug cartels to the list of "terrorist" organizations. This is the recipe for a new forever war. I mean the war on drugs was already a forever war in a sense but now it's becoming an actual armed conflict between two very well funded opponents that could go on literally forever. Hurt a cartel and it might temporarily raise the price of drugs. That rise will give other cartels more profits and power that they can use to defend themselves with. It will never end. As long as there is demand, there will be a supply, it's just a question of how many dead bodies will be created in the process.

Trump erroneously thinks killing suspected smugglers is the key to winning the drug war

Until now, the president concedes, interdiction has been "totally ineffective." Blowing up drug boats won't change that reality.

Rand Paul

@RandPaul

The U.S. should not be blowing up boats without even knowing who’s on them.

There’s no due process in that — no names, no evidence, no oversight.

I’ll be co-sponsoring a War Powers resolution to make sure military action abroad has congressional approval. We can’t drift into

So maybe you don't like the way things are going in the so called "land of the free", and are considering leaving for greener pastures. Oh you think you can just leave? You are a slave, you can't just leave the plantation without the master's permission. Roger Ver found that out the hard way, even though he paid his exit tax when he renounced his citizenship, the state still came after him for more money years later. The second round of extortion ended up yielding 48 million dollars for the government and Roger Ver can now finally be a free man. Regardless of how you feel about Mr.Ver, you should still recognize that he didn't do anything deserving of the kind of prison time he was facing. You see, if you leave the United States and don't renounce your citizenship, you will still be taxed on any income you earn. The United States is one of two countries in the entire world that continue to tax their citizens who live abroad. It is free range slavery. There is no other word for it. If you do renounce your citizenship you have to add up the value of all your assets, and pay a percentage of the value to the state. It's like a capital gains tax on gains you haven't realized yet. I am glad that Roger Ver will stay out of prison considering he didn't actually harm anyone, but I am disappointed that the state has 48 million more dollars to fund their criminal activities with.

CR1337

@cryptonator1337

Roger Ver is free!

For the small sum of $48M to the US government...

The 9th Circuit just overruled the lower court's ruling blocking Trump from deploying National Guard Troops in Portland, OR. Meanwhile the 7th Circuit has upheld the lower court's ruling their blocking deployment of troops to Chicago. The idea that Portland is a war zone in need of domestic troop deployments is absolutely ridiculous.

The justification for the Portland deployment was a protest at the ICE building back in June in which some glass was broken and ONE federal agent was injured. Most of the protests have been peaceful. Apparently one officer being injured plus maybe a few hundo in property damage is now justification for DOMESTIC TROOP DEPLOYMENTS! What in the fuck. I don't know if some people realize how quickly this can go horribly wrong. This is how authoritarian regimes take and hold power, by using the military to quell dissent. By using jackboot masked thugs to snatch people off the street based solely on how they look. Pushing the laws to the absolute limit to maintain the appearance of legitimacy while exploiting loopholes to gain more power. Suppressing speech and using threats to silence enemies.

Art by Nikkolas Smith

Military troops are only meant to be deployed domestically in emergencies, such as a natural disaster. They aren't meant to be policing protests and doing domestic law enforcement ops. What those on the right who are cheering this on don't understand is that the precedent set by court rulings such as the 9th Circuit's ruling gives the executive branch too much power over the states. That might be great when your team is in charge, but what happens when the Democrats are back in charge? They can use that newfound power against you. More power in the hands of the Federal Government is always a bad thing, this isn't a right versus left issue, it is a people versus the Government issue.

9th Circuit court rules on Trump's National Guard deployment in Portland

Federal appeals judges weighed Trump's plan to deploy Oregon National Guard troops to Portland, a key test of presidential power that could soon reach the Supreme Court.

https://www.foxnews.com

There was a massive "No Kings" protest in which everyone and their mom showed up to protest Trump and pretend like they care about the constitution all of a sudden. I like the spirit but many of these people unfortunately think the solution is to switch one corrupt party with another corrupt party. I prefer "no rulers" at all thanks.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Better late than never I suppose. I just hope more people realize that the foundation for what Trump is doing was built a long time ago.

Where were the massive protests when the Government increased it's power exponentially during every other administration?

Now people care

/E-Begging\

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, please support me in any of the following ways. Receiving tips from my readers helps me judge if I am providing value or not. Comments, follows, and subscriptions are also great and cost nothing! I spent a lot of time on this and I want to know if anyone enjoys it. Remember a $10 or more donation will get you one or more issues of the paid version of the newsletter when it launches, just be sure to let me know your email.

Tip me XMR on XMRchat

XMRChat - Tip thoughtcrimeboss with Monero

https://xmrchat.com

Send me sats via Bitcoin mainnet: bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Or send me Bitcoin via lighting to burnedmitten671@minibits.cash

Send me ETH or any ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, Base, Optimisim, Polygon, or any Layer 2 @ thoughtcrimeboss.eth

Send me SOL or any Solana token at 9uLhcY5AKHjYK3kySrgDnWqp5NFh9p1LQztT8iZUPdxZ

By following me on Nostr npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

Follow me and hit me up on X or Farcaster if you want to ask me anything.

Weekly Round Up Of Privacy and Freedom News

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 16:46:49 GMT

A whole lot of crazy shit has gone down since my last round up:

Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill, the Samourai Wallet (a Bitcoin privacy wallet) developers changed their plea to guilty after fighting the case for more than a year. This was a sad day for bitcoin, for crypto as a whole, and for freedom itself. I don't blame them for a second for folding, it is entirely likely the Feds threatened their families to get them to take a plea deal, they do fucked up shit like that all the time. The only good thing is that they won't get more than five years in prison, but any amount of prison time is unacceptable. They did absolutely nothing wrong.

AilliA

@AilliaLink

They* don’t care about jailing the Samourai devs anymore; they’ve already ruined their lives, killed their spirits, and stolen their young, productive years. Now, they aim to set a legal precedent to crush more rebellious spirits moving forward.
*They = the state coercion &

The Rage

JUST IN

Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill have notified the court of a change of plea – expected to plead guilty. Hearings scheduled for tomorrow 10:00 and 10.30

Here is a good essay about Samourai Wallet and lessons we need to take from it;

Colonial

@neo_colonial

I benefited tremendously from Samourai Wallet. Without them, I'd have left bitcoin behind years ago. Their cypherpunk spirit and willingness to build the tools were and will always be an inspiration. We move forward.

sovereigncolony.com

Sovereignty Requires Privacy: Lessons from the Fall of Samourai Wallet

There are moments that define an era. Not because they shock us - though the arrest of the Samourai Wallet developers certainly did - but because they clarify the terrain of struggle. In the clash...

As if that wasn't enough, after a dramatic trial that lasted weeks, a verdict has finally arrived in the Federal criminal case against Roman Storm, the Tornado Cash developer.

He was found guilty for one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business under 18 US Criminal Code Section 1960.

On the other counts, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate international sanctions, the jury was deadlocked and couldn't reach a unanimous verdict. Thank god for the holdouts on the jury who refused to switch their vote to guilty even though I am sure everyone just wanted to get it over with and go home.

So what does this mean? It means it's a mistrial on 2 of 3 charges, and the government has a choice whether they want to retry those charges or not. It also means Storm is facing a max of 5 years on the charge he was found guilty on. 5 years is a lot better than the serious time he was facing, but it's still FIVE YEARS OF A MAN'S LIFE JUST FOR WRITING SOME CODE TO PROTECT OUR PRIVACY.

Sadly normies don't even know shit like this is happening. I wonder if normies did know what this means for our freedom would they be rioting in the streets over it? Or would they just accept it and continue being good little slaves? This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about writing about things like this, in the hope that I can wake even one person up to the evil that is being committed every day by the state.

The defense did a great job in my opinion defending Roman Storm. They poked so many holes in the Fed's case that it was looking like Swiss cheese by the end of the trial.

For example. the Fed presented a supposed "victim" of Tornado Cash and claimed that funds stolen from her were sent through Tornado Cash to be cleaned. The defense managed to prove that this was not actually true which made the Feds look like either liars or idiots. This cast doubt on the Government's entire case. The defense also showed that one of the Government's expert's, an IRS agent in charge of tracing crypto, didn't even know the difference between a blockchain and their own asshole.

Juries, especially in Federal cases, are statistically more likely to convict than acquit. So the fact that there were holdouts who refused to convict on 2 out of 3 charges is demonstrative of both the weakness of the Fed's case against Roman Storm and the strength of his defense.

Shout out to everyone who has donated to Roman Storm's legal defense fund, good lawyers are not cheap and these donations were absolutely essential. Roman Storm got to walk away today instead of going to prison, and that at least is a victory. He may still be going to prison for up to five years on the lesser charge, and he could be retried on the more serious charges, but the judge refused the prosecution's motion to remand him to custody while he awaits sentencing. However, the fight continues and appeals are expensive. We are talking a million dollars minimum for his appeal! So we still need to donate more to his legal defense.

Notably, the judge made some comments about how there were several interesting legal questions related to the one charge he was found guilty on. This leaves it wide open for an appeal. This means the judge that tried the case thinks there is at least a chance of winning on appeal which gives me a bit of hope. So overall this was not a great outcome, but not a horrible outcome either.

Pray for Roman Storm.

Here's a recording of a twitter spaces The Rage hosted right after the verdict that dives deep into it.

The Rage

Join us in one hour to discuss today's verdict in US v. Storm. With @amandatums @valkenburgh hosted by @davidzmorris x.com/i/spaces/1vAxR…

Here's Coin Center's take on the verdict.

Peter Van Valkenburgh

@valkenburgh

Coin Center’s Seven Takeaways from the Storm Verdict:

1. The sole conviction—unlicensed money transmission (18 U.S.C. § 1960)—turns mainly on legal/regulatory interpretation (“does this count as money transmission?”), not jury fact-finding.

2. The court, at the

Hester Pierce delivered a speech on the importance of financial privacy, quoting the cypherpunk manifesto like she doesn't work for the federal government.

Laz

@LazPieper

SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce delivered an amazing speech today on financial privacy, which included references to Phil Zimmermann’s Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Eric Hughes’ A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto.

She stated: “Rather than something to be feared, we should embrace these

Unfortunately despite Hester's speech, the Trump administration has thoroughly demonstrated that they actually don't care about privacy and freedom to transact at all and their dedication to crypto doesn't extend much further than making sure Trump can't ever be prosecuted for Trumpcoin. How do we know they don't care about privacy and freedom? Read the new long awaited much hyped Digital Assets report that came out of the White House last week. In it is some very disturbing stuff, which would make using crypto privately illegal and make people flash digital IDs to use DeFi. Read all about it in the Rage's article here.

In better news, the SEC has confirmed that liquid staking tokens are NOT securities! Kraken was fined 30 million dollars over this, I wonder if they can get that back now?

Watcher.Guru

https://www.counterpunch.org

JUST IN: SEC declares crypto liquid staking activities are not considered securities.

This Russian man getting sentenced to 3 years in prison for a 20 dollar donation to an "unapproved" non profit is yet another example of the dangers of allowing governments to have financial surveillance tools. You may think this can't happen in my country, that's what everyone always thinks until it does happen. The freedom to donate to any organization privately is absolutely essential for a free society.

Russia sentences man to prison for donations to Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation

The Moscow court sentenced on Tuesday a father of five to three years of imprisonment on the charges of financing a terrorist organization. Dmitry Marsov was arrested in April this year for donating t...

https://www.jurist.org

El Salvador is quickly becoming a dictatorship.

Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡

@gladstein

RED ALERT!

The UK is also getting really bad, very quickly. The UK's misleadingly named Child Safety Act is leading various big tech companies to implement age verification measures on their platforms. Spotify, Youtube, Reddit, etc all immediately rolled over like lil' bitches because why do they care, they have never cared about user privacy and aren't going to start now. Even if you don't have to verify your age in your jurisdiction yet, this is laying the foundation for a dystopian nightmare and other countries likely will attempt passing similar measures to "protect the children". If you think a bunch of corrupt politicians give two fucks about protecting children I got a bridge in Alaska to sell you. This is purely about control. If everything we do on the internet is linked to our identity, they can just turn off your access if you do anything they don't like.

Misusing the Children: The UK Online Safety Act, Privacy and Censorship

The United Kingdom can always be relied upon to supply us with the eccentric, the admirably dotty, and the odd extreme bit of adventure in policy.

Decentralized permissionless alternatives to these services are more essential than ever. If there is no company to go after, they can't be fined and punished for not implementing this ridiculous age verification.

Daniel Prince

@Princey21M

1. Pretty based response @AskVenice

To underscore the gravity of this situation, Wikipedia is currently fighting the UK government to stay accessible without age verifying. I think people under the age of 18 should be allowed to access any information they want. It's actually more important for a minor to have free access to Wikipedia than an adult, because without it the minors will be forced to get all their information from authority figures pushing propaganda during a crucial time in which they are most susceptible to brainwashing.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Photo ID for wikipedia.....just let that sink in for a minute.

Dr Ruby (she/her) jaboukies everything

@PaperWhispers

Photo ID for spotify, photo ID to read Wikipedia (which Wikipedia is fighting). I hope you realise that 'protection of children' was a ruse for censorship and to collect your data.

Free and open access to the internet is what enabled me as a young lad or lady to first realize that the government and my teachers were lying about certain things, such as the dangers of cannabis. This opened the door for me to start questioning the world and educating myself. If this is taken away from the kids of today, the next generation is going to be a bunch of obedient drones who will willingly let the state take all their remaining freedoms away.

Parents are the ones who should be guiding a minors access to the internet, not the state. A 13 year old can go to the library and check out any book they want, but you are going to block them from the internet and by doing so open the door for surveillance of all online activities for all users young and old. We need to push back on this before it spreads far and wide. The UK is the canary in the coal mine, a dystopia awaits us if we don't stop this.

btc sessions did a tutorial for sparrow wallet, which is the best desktop bitcoin wallet and the one you should be using for any significant amount of bitcoin.

The Monero/Qubic drama continues, with the Qubic project claiming they would 51% attack Monero starting on August 2. They failed to do so.

The Qubic founder is the cofounder of Iota, remember them? Yeah noone else does either. I think he is attacking Monero to try to bring attention to his shitcoin that noone cares about other than his twitter bot army. Whatever doesn't break Monero only makes it stronger, so if you care about privacy and freedom please contribute to Monero's decentralization by solo mining or mining through p2p pool. We do need more miners for sure. We can not let Monero fail, it is essential in this age of CBDCs and mass surveillance to have an alternative private digital cash.

Here is a good breakdown on the drama in the latest Monero Monthly podcast from Ungovernable Misfits featuring Seth for Privacy

Ungovernable Misfits * Monero Under Attack | MONERO MONTHLY 08 * Listen on Fountain

A monthly show where Max and Seth take a trip down memory lane to see what happened in the last 4 weeks of Monero.What to knowSupposedly launching a 51% attack on August 2ndTheoretically have shown the ability to deploy ~30% of the network hashrate for a 6h period, and only

https://fountain.fm

Another privacy tool under attack right now is kycnot.me which is being DDOSed, what kind of jackass would do that to such a valuable resource that helps so many people? Probably the state or whoever else hates freedom.

kycnot.me

@kycnot

The attack is still ongoing, peaking at >15 billion requests in 4 days, but intensity has dropped. Thanks to server optimizations, cache improvements, and anti-DDoS measures, the site is now mostly usable, though downtime may still occur.

kycnot.me

@kycnot

kycnot.me has been under a DDoS attack for over 8 hours. We had to turn on Cloudflare protection as no other solution was working. We're working to remove Cloudflare and bring the site back to normal.

TradeOgre has been down for more than a week now. Nobody knows if it is an exit scam or what happened. TradeOgre was a decently reliable place to buy and sell crypto with no KYC for a long time. I saw some people on X claiming that wallets connected to them were depositing ETH into Binance not long before the site went down but I haven't confirmed this. If you were a TradeOgre user and you are looking for a new exchange, I have been using nonkyc.io for awhile now and have had zero problems other than the spread being wide at times. On average you are going to be paying 1 to 2 percent more for XMR on there than the spot price listed on coingecko. I think this is the part where I am supposed to shill you my ref link, but then that would link my nonkyc account to my social identity and that sounds dumb to me. I guess the solution would then be to make an entirely fresh nonkyc account just for shilling on social media and earning referral fees. But I'm too lazy to do that right now. If you do end up getting benefit out of it, send me a nickel or something.

Personally I refuse to deposit more than $500 at a time into any exchange, that number can change obviously based on your risk tolerance. Just don't deposit more than whatever amount of money you can lose and it not be devastating to you. Saving a couple bucks on fees is not worth the risk! Also remember, when depositing into a new exchange, always do a test first! Deposit $20, withdraw that $20.

TradeOgre went down not long after Majestic Bank announced it was shutting down....

AilliA

@AilliaLink

Heartbreaking news: MajesticBank is shutting down. A true Monero champion, their mission-driven journey ends.
"MajesticBank was not created to make profit but to complete mission, a Monero mission"
Thank you for everything, MajesticBank
github.com/monero-project…

This pissed me off, Louisiana has outlawed another plant. Kratom is now illegal in the not so great state of Louisiana and you can get up to 6 months in jail for a fucking plant. Kratom is a plant from Southeast Asia that has been used by many people for pain relief or to treat opiate addiction. It is relatively harmless, although it can be habit forming the withdrawals from it are mild. At low doses it is stimulating and at high doses it is more like an opiate. Because it affects your opiate receptors, Heroin addicts have literally gotten off of heroin by using this harmless plant. Workers in southeast Asia use it to help them tolerate long days of work in the jungle's heat and humidity. The state doesn't want addicts getting off of heroin by using plant medicine though, they would much prefer those addicts to use dangerous pharmaceuticals such as methadone that are even more addictive than heroin. The state also wants you to treat your pain with highly addictive pharmaceutical opiates such as hydrocodone or oxycodone rather than Kratom.

The very concept of making a plant illegal is so evil and disgusting it makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs. Interestingly, I think Kratom is the only plant ever to manage to avoid being scheduled by the DEA years ago due to the amount of public backlash that occurred during the "comment period". Usually when the DEA wants to schedule something (make it illegal), it flies through with almost no opposition from anyone, but not Kratom. It was a rare victory against drug prohibition which is now being undone in the jurisdiction of Louisiana.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

How many of the Louisiana lawmakers that outlawed another plant go home after work and drink booze? Hypocrites.

Police The Police 2.0

@PoliceThePolic1

Starting today, Louisiana will criminalize a leaf. Not fentanyl. Not meth. Not synthetic opioids that kill over 100K Americans every year. No, lawmakers have decided to outlaw kratom — and those caught with it could face 6 months in jail and a $1K fine.

thefreethoughtproject.com/war-on-drugs-b…

Notable cryptoanarchist Frank Braun has a new blog post about the need for base layer privacy in crypto.

Privacy needs to be baked into L1

Privacy is the absence of information leakage and that implies it comes from value at rest, not value in motion. And privacy at rest can only be ga...

https://frankbraun.org

Anything you say to ChatGPT can and will be used against you;

Globe Eye News

@GlobeEyeNews

BREAKING:

ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.

Interesting interview about stablecoins being used as backdoor CBDCs

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

Interesting interview with Mark Goodwin about stablecoins being a backdoor CBDC. One thing I learned was that Palantir started as the anti fraud algorithm at Paypal.

Episode webpage: corbettreport.com/interview-1964…

Media file: corbettreport.com/mp3/2025-07-18…

corbettreport.com

Interview 1964 - Stablecoins Are WORSE Than CBDCs! with Mark Goodwin | The Corbett Report

Whether you know it or not, this new stablecoin regulatory regime is going to transform your life and the entire global monetary order

Another ridiculous anti privacy measure is being floated in the EU. Now they want to force messaging apps to scan every message, photo, and video you send. INSANE.

I see so much crazy bullshit in the EU like this and I gotta wonder, does the average EU citizen care? Do they even realize their freedom is slowly being destroyed and they are about to be living in a total dystopian nightmare? They should be rioting in the streets at this point. How do these politicians trying to do things like this sleep at night? EU citizen messages are nobody's business, especially not the government. And no, it's not about protecting anyone, it is about control.

Wall Street Mav

@WallStreetMav

Free speech in Europe is disappearing.

A controversial European Union proposal dubbed “Chat Control” is gaining momentum, with 19 out of 27 EU member states reportedly backing the measure.

The plan would mandate that messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram,

Privacy Tip

To avoid timing analysis, don't convert transparent cryptocurrencies such as BTC or ETH to XMR on an as needed basis for spending. Instead keep some amount of XMR ready to go for spending and replenish it occasionally. You don't want to be swapping $100 of BTC to XMR and buying a $100 Amazon card twenty minutes later. If you then order some shit straight to your house, that would make it pretty easy to connect the dots and dox your wallets. Instead occasionally buy some XMR on a day you are not going to be buying any giftcards or anything IRL, buy more than you'll need for a couple of weeks or so. Then spend out of that like a checking account.

Although, that amazon gift card example reminded me of another tip....use amazon lockers instead of using your home address to receive packages. It is not very difficult to have an amazon account under an alias that only uses amazon lockers so that your name and home address are never revealed to Amazon.

Thanks for reading! I'll try to get another Round Up out for you next week! Or maybe the following week...we'll see what happens.

If you like this kind of content and want to see more of it, please consider a donation! I'd rather you just do that than buy a "content coin" for this post but you can do that too whatever's clever.

On Monero

88tKLms1QD6LBaS1LBMyNF87iEZ9xypPXRht5tZAY4ctjbfaMVb2EGcLFCx6US85GE5s9Ef1cyKb4WiY3jFN69ifQZawGEH

On Bitcoin

bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Zap me or follow me on Nostr

npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

On Ethereum or any Ethereum Layer 2's such as Base or Optimism

0xF63317d519C2e4F1b12cF96d893aF292e7298e4D

Follow me on Twitter @bitcoinrenegade

and on Farcaster @thoughtcrimeboss

Cool Shit, Fucked Up Shit, and Dog Shit

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 23:48:21 GMT

What a week! Roman Storm's trial for Tornado Cash started, the Genius Act was signed into law, Ethereum decided it was finally time to run hard and teleported to 3600. Every dog shit token you have forgotten about went up too. Oh and don't forget about that doctored Epstein surveillance video drama. The world got a little less free and a little more surveilled like it does every week.

I got some new subscribers, welcome my friends! I hope you enjoy the latest Round Up of Cool Shit, Fucked Up Shit, and Dog Shit (working title)! I try not to take the round up too seriously and don't obsess over every word like I do sometimes with my regular articles, so if there are any errors I'm sorry!

The Rage (great example of real journalists) has continued it's excellent reporting on the Tornado Cash case, they have boots on the ground at the trial of Roman Storm which started on the 17th. So far we have discovered the Feds suck at math, they wrongly attributed a TG chat message to Storm when it was from a reporter, and the prosecutors don't want Storm's defense bringing up privacy at all. I never understood how in a so called "free society" with enshrined freedom of speech why you can be prohibited from speaking on certain topics during a criminal trial. Maybe someone can explain that one to me please.

Some highlights

The Rage

The Government's forensic accounting reports presented as evidence of Storm's financial motives do not add up.

“You testified that you were trained by the FBI?”

Full story by @davidzmorris

Government Doesn't Want Storm Talking About Privacy, Kidnappings

The defense asked the Jury how they would feel if someone published their bank accounts on the Internet. The Government isn't happy.

https://www.therage.co

Also here is an interview with Roman Storm

Roman Storm 🇺🇸 🌪️

@rstormsf

"I thought it was just going to be another project that would end up sitting in our junkyard. As a software engineer, we have so many projects like that."

Watch full interview here:
youtu.be/DYEA6h_HfMU?si…

Crypto In America

@CryptoAmerica_

WATCH our exclusive interview with @rstormsf out on all platforms NOW!

One of crypto’s most consequential criminal trials begins July 14 and Roman Storm will be in the hot seat. The outcome could set a standard for how the U.S. treats open-source software developers and

Looks like the Government did a botched cover up once again. Honestly, they probably don't really care if we find out they are lying, because they assume we can't do anything about it. The problem with having so much power is it makes you feel invincible, kind of like you can just off someone and get away with it by just using Adobe Premier on the surveillance video! It was not long after the release before the video was confirmed as altered, but even before that was confirmed @adamscohran noticed lots of weird things about the video and has some good threads about it.

Here's his first thread on the video if you missed it

Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth)

1/25

Well I am now firmly on team Epstein didn’t kill himself after the mistakes they made in this release.

Let’s break it down:

1) This 10 hour video does not show Epstein’s cell.

It is across the entire hall from Epstein’s section.

We can see that in the attached image.

Breaking911

@Breaking911

BREAKING: DOJ releases 10+ hours-long surveillance footage they say proves no one entered Jeffrey Epstein's cell prior to his death

FULL VIDEO: justice.gov/video-files/vi…

More great analysis of the Epstein surveillance video from @adamscochran, apparently there wasn't just footage removed, the footage was doctored as well.

Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth)

A brief rant about the Genius Act passing:

I've been watching CT celebrate stablecoin and crypto regulation like it's a good thing. What we really needed was a bill that just says - math is math, code is speech, do whatever the fuck you want with code as long as you aren't causing direct physical harm or violating property rights. Like you probably shouldn't be allowed to launch a decentralized tokenized network of killer attack drones, or be allowed to outright steal someone's crypto. Other than robbing or hurting people, you should be able to do whatever. If I want to launch a tokenized unregistered securities offering to anyone with crypto to spend, I should be able to. If I want to create an unregistered online casino with no ID verification/KYC, why the fuck not? If I want to offer NFTs made out of illegally downloaded academic papers, that should be cool too. How about a decentralized 3D gun printing operation in which token holders get a cut of all gun sales? A token offering partial ownership in a decentralized Silk Road 2.0? Yes sir please thanks.

Unfortunately the crypto legislation that just passed is nothing cool like my imaginary freedom maximalist bill. Instead we get a bunch of regulations that protect incumbents, stifle innovation, and attack privacy. A good rule of thumb is, if it passes Congress, it's almost always a net negative for your freedom some how some way. It might not always be obvious how it does, but there is a 99% chance.

The main good thing I can say about the passage and signing of the Genius Act and the passage in the House of the other crypto related bills is that at least cryptocurrency developers have something to go by now. When you have a clear set of rules, we can immediately start to figure out how to work around those rules. You can look for loopholes and hover on the very edge of legality. Before we had legislation, the Government was doing regulation through enforcement, which just meant crypto developers had no idea what was going to get them in trouble and what wasn't, they were flying blind. The Government was arbitrarily making shit up on the fly and picking and choosing who to go after for imaginary violations of imaginary rules. At least now you can point to the law and be like no asshole, you said this was legal, so get off my back. This means it will be easier for developers to know exactly how to stay out of prison and to avoid getting fined. It's hard to develop freedom tech if you are broke and/or in prison.

Of course that also means that developers will make decisions about their software and tokens partially based on what's legal instead of what is best for users. What's best for the project from a technological perspective is often different than from a regulatory perspective. Because regulations make people and businesses alter their behavior, they often lead to unintended consequences regardless of good or bad intentions. Only time will tell what unintended consequences will result from the Genius Act.

The Genius Act (S.1582) basically turns USDC into the CBDC we were trying to avoid and creates a regulatory moat around the incumbents that prevents any new stablecoins from entering the United States market without jumping through a lot of hoops. Post Genius Act stablecoins aren't allowed to give users yield either, because the Government wants you to be as poor as possible because poor people are too busy just trying to pay rent they don't have time to be troublesome to the state or question authority.

As a joke they also passed the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (H.R. 1919) to win over the last few holdouts for the Genius Act. This bans the Federal Reserve from ever issuing a CBDC. The joke is that doesn't actually matter because the Genius Act puts USDC and other stablecoins under Federal oversight. USDC is already freezable and trackable, now it's under federal oversight as well instead of just Circle. Mass adoption of USDC is not far off, and once everyone is using it instead of using something decentralized and permissionless, it will be incredibly easy for the Federal Government to freeze and control funds. Let's say you attend an unapproved protest and get your face scanned by surveillance drones. You might wake up the next day to find that all your USDC is frozen and you won't be able to do a damn thing about it.

By giving it's blessing to existing centralized US Treasury backed stablecoins like USDC that will be fully compliant with KYC/AML regulations, they are ensuring demand for US Treasuries continues which will fund war and a massive surveillance state. We should be using stablecoins that are decentralized and backed by crypto assets like Bitcoin, not US debt. Developing new stablecoins will become very expensive because of all the regulations you now have to deal with to be allowed in the United States.

Everything that people were worried about happening with a CBDC, such as the government tracking payments, freezing funds, and controling what you can spend or not spend and on what, is now potentially being replicated with private stablecoins that are now under Federal oversight. It is just a CBDC under a different name. It's a brilliant and evil rebranding move. Why waste time and resources developing a CBDC and pissing off people, when you can just use USDC, regulate it, and pretend like it's not a CBDC simply because Circle developed it and not the Fed? It still has all the features of a CBDC, everything the Federal Government needs to create a dystopian financial surveillance state in which most transactions are traced, taxed, and tightly controlled. Circle has (whether they intended to or not) created the de facto CBDC for the Federal Government and the Genius Act seals the deal. USDT will enable the same thing, except internationally so that the United States can also extend it's financial surveillance worldwide because they use usually use USDT overseas rather than USDC.

The solution is build and adopt alternatives to these centralized US treasury backed stablecoins. We need to create privacy preserving alternatives, backed by Bitcoin, and we need to do it now. Thank God we have Monero at least, which does function as private digital cash, but like most cryptocurrencies it's relatively volatile. Obviously, a lot of folks want something that is going to be worth the same amount tomorrow as it is today, that's why stablecoins are so popular. There have been several attempts at a private stablecoin, but all of them have either failed outright or failed to get any adoption. We need to keep trying though, this is really important.

Bitcoin ATM data breach, yet another example of the dangers of KYC. 57,000 users are now at risk of 5 dollar wrench attacks thanks to the state forcing Bitcoin ATM operators to collect unnecessary personal information on their customers.

Also Bitcoin ATMs are now banned in New Zealand because of "money laundering" which is code for "we want to control every aspect of your life".

Dogecoin corporate treasuries is either a top signal or a signal to buy DOGE, idk which.

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

https://bitcoinmagazine.com

Eek. I think Nasdaq will delist stocks that trade for less than a dollar for too long? The company $BTOG went up bigly on this news but is still currently trading for well under $1. Seems like a hail mary "please buy our stock before delisting" move. And it may just work.

TylerD 🧙‍♂️

@Tyler_Did_It

Just In: Our first Dogecoin TreasuryCo is here

And they're coming out swinging

Bit Origin (BTOG) announced agreements in place to raise $400M in equity and $100M in convertible debt to buy DOGE

BTOG stock up 30% on the day to $0.43 ($23M market cap)

If you tried to buy the pump dot fun ICO on a CEX it probably failed, whereas onchain transactions worked.

John Wang

@j0hnwang

CEX APIs all failing for the PUMP sale is the clearest indicator that for the future all you need is distribution directly onchain

Offchain crypto is a vestigial of the past

European authorities are misrepresenting GrapheneOS as a tool for criminals rather than what it is, a tool for anyone who cares about personal privacy.

GrapheneOS

@GrapheneOS

European authoritarians and their enablers in the media are misrepresenting GrapheneOS and even Pixel phones as if they're something for criminals. GrapheneOS is opposed to the mass surveillance police state these people want to impose on everyone.

xatakandroid.com

"Cada vez que vemos un Pixel pensamos que puede ser un narcotraficante". La policía apunta al móvil...

Los Google Pixel son los máximos representantes de Android, con permiso de Samsung. Es por ello que convencen a los usuarios entusiastas del sistema...

Trump signs an executive order to allow people to invest in Bitcoin, Gold, and other alternative assets through their 401ks. That only opens up, oh you know just a measly....NINE TRILLION dollars in potential bitcoin investment. You don't have enough sats. Neither do I. I also don't have a 401k or even a bank account, but I do have a Bitcoin wallet.

President Trump Plans To Open 401(k)s To Bitcoin, Crypto, Gold, And Private Equity: FT

The executive order, expected this week, aims to unlock the $9 trillion retirement market by allowing 401(k) plans to invest in alternative assets.

If you have a Brother printer might want to take a look at this new vulnerability and update your firmware. I know, only nerds update firmware on their printer but in a world where every device connects to your home internet network, that means every device is a potential attack vector. So update your firmware, regularly, on everything! Maybe also think twice about your next smart device purchase..do you really need a smart fridge?

More age verification rolling out, this one is Bluesky in the UK. Age verification will fuck up the internet, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to resist age verification if you think a free and open internet is important.

Don't snitch, as this story demonstrates the government won't protect you because

a) they are incompetent and

b) they don't give a shit about you beyond what they can use you for!

Drug cartel hacked FBI official's phone to track and kill informants, report says

Official was connected to FBI probe of cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Now they are using routers to track motion inside your house. This is why you should consider using your own router and not your internet company's equipment.

This is old news but in case you missed it Ledger will no longer be supporting Nano S's, which happens to be one of the wallets I still use (I know I know). Supposedly it doesn't have enough memory to continue supporting it or something.

Beanie

@beaniemaxi

Seriously fuck Ledger.

Tails 6.17 released

Dark Web Informer - Cyber Threat Intelligence

@DarkWebInformer

Tails 6.17 was released... update!

tails.net/news/version_6…

Rand Paul trying to audit the Fed, like father like son.

Eric Daugherty

@EricLDaugh

BREAKING: Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Rand Paul (R-KY) file legislation MANDATING A FULL AUDIT of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors and all regional Fed Banks.

"It’s long past time for Congress to stop shirking its duty and hold the Federal Reserve

Fiat found more addictive than Meth!

Although meth is irresistible, 'The New York Times' says, addicts often prefer small cash rewards

The success of "contingency management" belies the notion that addiction is an uncontrollable disease caused by a drug's impact on dopamine levels.

The Vonu Podcast: Cloak & Dagger with Thane Riddle: Episode 5, Ross Ulbricht’s OpSec Still Sucks, Other News, Fan Mail, & Shane/Coordinator Rayo Joins The Show

New Cloak and Dagger episode:

Thanks for reading! I'll try to get another Round Up out for you next week! Or maybe the following week...we'll see what happens.

If you like this kind of content and want to see more of it, please consider a donation!

On Monero

88tKLms1QD6LBaS1LBMyNF87iEZ9xypPXRht5tZAY4ctjbfaMVb2EGcLFCx6US85GE5s9Ef1cyKb4WiY3jFN69ifQZawGEH

On Bitcoin

bc1qlewp9p426pe3t70fdwx0sg84dfqhnwae20unc5

Zap me or follow me on Nostr

npub1uqxkqdq3xngndgwlck03hje0u25uu7ql9nakh63yjk2m63thczkszeffca

On Ethereum or any Ethereum Layer 2's such as Base or Optimism

0xF63317d519C2e4F1b12cF96d893aF292e7298e4D

Cool Shit, Fucked Up Shit, and Random Shit 6/25

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:52:20 GMT

Weekly Round Up

Well the United States bombed Iran and the markets shrugged it off. Personally I am not ok with the United States government robbing it's citizens through both taxation and inflation and then using some of the proceeds to kill people overseas. Fuck that shit. If you also don't support killing people, opt out and stop using the dollar as much as possible. We have alternatives, let's use them and through using them we will make them stronger than the dollar. If enough people opt out of the fiat monetary system, the state loses it's power that mainly comes from being in charge of the money printer. We have our own money printers, CPUs and ASICS. Mine crypto, use crypto, earn crypto. Might want to stack some more sats before all these Bitcoin treasury companies buy it all right? Although if we ever have a bad enough bear market and all these treasury companies become forced sellers at the same time, us plebs might be able to get some more BTC at a steep discount.

Anyways on to some cool shit, some fucked up, and some random shit from the previous week or so in completely random order.

This guide by StellarSand seems like a good guide to privacy settings in your browsers and many other apps. Be forewarned I haven't done a deep dive into this yet, some of the choices might be controversial such as whether you should turn on safe browsing mode in Brave Browser or not. Safe browsing mode protects you from malicious websites but it also sends information, albeit anonymized information, to Google to check URLS. That's the thing with privacy settings, you have to consider your own threat model and sometimes the most private option isn't the most secure option. But guides like this are a good starting point and you can tweak it to your liking, there was another good one that I used awhile back but I have no idea where I stored the link to it, if I ever find it I'll share it.

privacy-settings/Privacy Settings at main · StellarSand/privacy-settings

Guide to privacy settings for most major software and services. - privacy-settings/Privacy Settings at main · StellarSand/privacy-settings

https://github.com

On a side note, Github actually flagged one of my accounts because I wasn't doing any coding even though I was helping out projects by pointing out documentation errors. I appealed and they said Github is only for software development you don't belong here. Isn't documentation an important part of software development? I feel like there is a place on Github for people who don't necessarily code and only help with documentation. I guess I should of just used Cursor to vibe code some bullshit and then they would of let me keep my account open.

My appeal message:

"I'm not sure why I got flagged, probably because I take steps to protect my privacy such as using a VPN, but I am a legitimate user of the platform and I would like access to it. I want to use Github mainly because although I am not good at coding, sometimes when I am reading project documentation I notice grammar, spelling, or clarity issues and want to help correct them. Its a small thing but I would still like the ability to contribute to open source projects in this way. I am a FOSS advocate and I don't intend on using the platform in any malicious ways, I am just a normal user. Please unflag me thank you!"

Github's lame response:

"Hello,

GitHub is meant to be used as a collaborating and hosting tool for software developers. We're unable to see activity on your account that indicates that it's being used for the intended purpose. For this reason we will not be removing the restrictions from this account at this time."

NanoGPT

I've heard about this for a little while but I finally tried it out after listening to the recent Monero Talk episode with the founder. It is a tool that allows you to pay per prompt to use many different AI models. Why is this cool? Because you can pay with Monero, and many other cryptocurrencies. You don't even have to make an account at all to use it, you can just pay as you go with Monero and privately access the most powerful models that are available to consumers. Anyways I tried it, it works, you can just send throw a couple bucks at it and use it all day long. So add another thing to the long list of stuff you can buy directly with Monero, AI compute. And if you suck and don't have any Monero, you can also pay in a transparent cryptocurrency just don't ask the AI anything you don't want to link to your wallet until the end of time.

NanoGPT | Every AI model | Privacy-first | No subscription | Text, Image, Video

NanoGPT offers access to every AI model on a pay-as-you-go basis with no subscription needed. Generate videos (Kling, Veo and more), create images (Flux Pro, Kontext, GPT Image, Hidream), and access ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Deepseek, and other top AI models.

https://nano-gpt.com

New speech by Ross Ulbricht, if you haven't seen the one at Bitcoin 2025 go watch it too, here is Ross speaking at Freedom Fest

Ross Ulbricht

@RealRossU

In a speech I just gave at @TheFreedomFest, I reveal the conditions I went through in federal prison. You need to know what's being done in your name behind locked doors.

This was cool, Ross finally got to go to Porcfest after many years of being locked in a cage and he gave a speech at the main pavillion to his many supporters that were there. Some of the people in attendance have been fighting very hard to get Ross home for a long time, even when it seemed almost hopeless after he lost his appeals. The only copy of the Porcfest speech I have seen so far is on the latest episode of Monerotopia, although the audio kind of sucks.

MoneroTopia

@monerotopia

LIVE at MoneroTopia Tent at PorcFest25! | EPI 219 x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Speaking of Ross, I just wanted to give a shout out to his mom's new non profit which I support the mission of whole heartedly (and which accepts XMR/BTC donations), called Mothers Against Cruel Sentencing. There is a lot of cruel sentencing in the United States and around the world including for nonviolent victimless crimes. It's disgusting and it needs to stop, please support them. I mean fuck you can still go to prison for cannabis in many places in 2025, as well as any one of a long list of "unapproved" substances because the state thinks it owns your body to the point where your not even allowed to decide what substances you consume.

MACS

Since the 1980's and the Drug War, U.S. prison sentences have too often violated the 8th amendment's prohibition of cruel punishment, condemning prisoners to years, decades and lifetimes in prison, far beyond what fits the crime. This has destroyed lives, not only of the incarcerated, but families, children and whole communities-while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

https://mothersagainstcruelsentencing.org

The battle continues for Alexey Pertsev, check out The Rage if you haven't already, they do excellent reporting on financial surveillance.

L0la L33tz

@L0laL33tz

Looks like there's interesting times ahead for Chainalysis again.

Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer convicted last year for money laundering in the Netherlands, has requested access to a Chainalysis Government license as well as insights into how Chainalysis clustering

The Rage

SCOOP: Tornado Cash developer Alexey Perstev is demanding insight into Chainalysis software to prepare for his appeal

Full story: therage.co/pertsev-defens…

Apparently the privacy coin Zano is having some issues? I know little about Zano other than the fact Aaron Day has been advocating for the FUSD private stablecoin that lives on Zano. We need a private stablecoin badly, there have been several failed attempts in the past. I'm going to wait and see how it goes before I even consider using it. I think FUSD is at like a million dollar market cap or something ridiculously tiny like that. Everyone has got to start somewhere though. If you are using Zano though, make sure you are using a VPN at least, apparently only 2% of you are which is insane to me for users of a privacy coin.

xenu

@xenumonero

Zano has been hit by a major deanonymization attack which reveals the origin IP address of every tx on the network and de-anonymizes users balances who stake funds. Incredible research. Fortunately, the actor behind it is not leaking sensitive data. Read at:

@xenumonero also discusses the Zano deanonymization attack on his latest episode of antimoonboy news

xenu

@xenumonero

A brand new episode of Anti Moonboy News is now available! In this one, I talk about my involvement in Monerokon 25 and I give a full breakdown of the Zano network privacy attack.

odysee.com/@anti_moonboy:…

rumble.com/v6v822x-anti-m…

youtube.com/watch?v=SLMcDw…

Xenu has been busy...he just released his manifesto DarkNet Market Maximalism and also presented Rucknium and Boog900's research on defeating spy nodes on the Monero network at MoneroKon.

As well as Rucknium's research on optimal ring signatures...

There were a lot of other interesting presentations at Monerokon 2025, check them out on the Monero Community Workgroup's youtube channel in the coming weeks as more are released. These people are doing God's work by working on private digital cash, without which our world will become very dystopian.

The not so genius Genius Act passed the Senate.

thoughtcrimeboss on Farcaster

Regulating stablecoins under the Genius Act is not a win for crypto. It is a win for draconian KYC/AML financial surveillance and will protect Circle/USDC and other big corporate issued stablecoins at the expense of innovation in the stablecoin space. USDC will be the backdoor CBDC. Maybe it is time to create more stablecoins backed by assets other than the dollar. It saddens me that there are people cheering for this like we just won some kind of victory for crypto. https://reclaimthenet.org/senate-advances-genius-act-stablecoin-regulation-crypto-privacy

Farcaster

In honor of the new war I did some quick calculations on US foreign aid to Israel:

The United States has stolen an estimated 310 billion inflation adjusted dollars from taxpayers to give to the Israeli government in foreign aid. To put that in perspective, you could of given every...single...one of the estimated 771,480 homeless Americans $401,825. That could buy an entire house in many areas or rent a $1200 a month apartment for 27.9 years.

I rant about how No Kings should just be No Rulers

ThoughtCrimeBoss #FreeSamourai

https://censorshipresistant.com

No kings should just be no rulers. Millions of people realize something is wrong with the things the state does, but those people think the solution is to just switch the people in power with different people.

The new P.A.Z.NIA Radio Show Cloak and Dagger released it's 3rd episode, all 3 are worth listening to if you are interested in a little casual subversion. Listen live every Saturday.

Cloak & Dagger with Thane Riddle: Episode 2, Work Privacy + Distributed Computing [P.A.Z.NIA Radio Network] | The Vonu Podcast

On this third episode of Cloak & Dagger, Thane Riddle comes to you again with hard-hitting news and practical information in the realms of privacy and security. Specifically, Thane covers the topic of work/employment privacy in the modern day: what do to, what not to do, and various strategies therein;...

https://vonupodcast.com

The whirlpool is back baby! This is thanks to some very based anon Ashigaru (fork of Samourai Wallet) devs forking the protocol and relaunching it. Previously Ashigaru only had the other privacy features of Samourai Wallet without the whirlpool. The whirlpool is a coinjoin implementation that uses a centralized coordinator to play matchmaker with users who want to coinjoin their BTC which, if done correctly, can obfuscate the origin of the user's coins.The last whirlpool shut down when the Samourai Wallet devs were arrested. The Ungovernable Misfits tested the new one out and give a run down on their podcast.

UNGOVERNABLE 🖕🏴‍☠️

@UGMFPodcast

Whirlpool is back!
We pulled an all nighter to test it.

Episode live.
fountain.fm/episode/EbrMbX…

The return of the whirlpool made me wonder, if one had some KYCed bitcoin, would it be overkill to coinjoin them and then swap into monero before spending said coins rather than swapping the KYCed coins directly for monero? I think that is probably a reasonable course of action. Better safe than sorry, although the best course of action is not to KYC in the first place.

I found this censorship resistance calculator on @aeonBTC 's website which is pretty cool, if you want to know how many guerrilla miners are needed to keep the Bitcoin network censorship resistant. Guerrilla miners are home miners, black market miners, any miners operating outside of regulatory oversight. They are absolutely essential and you should consider contributing to the cause by spinning up some miners. You can heat your house with them too if you want to play the lottery with your heat in the winter. Solo miners do win blocks, it happens on a semi-regular basis.

Bitcoin Censorship Resistance Calculator

Calculate how many guerrilla miners are needed to keep Bitcoin censorship resistant.

The state's goons have been out in full force, rounding up innocent people who crossed an imaginary line in search of a better life and stuffing them in detention centers that are already full. 65% of those they have detained have no criminal record whatsoever and 93% have no violent convictions. I thought the point was to get rid of the criminals? Instead Trump set a fucking 3000 deportations a day quota and ICE agents are just deporting anyone and everyone to meet the quota. What kind of losers go work for ICE anyways? So many ways to make money in this world and you choose being a jackboot for a corrupt overreaching federal government? Same goes for all federal law enforcement agents, you all lack something I like to call morals.

This military wife and mom is part of the 65 percent of ICE detainees with no criminal record

The recent immigration-related arrest shows that ICE is more concerned with targeting all immigrants than with ensuring public safety.

Two brothers were arrested after allegedly exploiting the Ethereum network for 25 million.

Breaking news! Bitcoin will be able to be used as collateral for mortgages! I wonder if anyone is still calling Bitcoin a scam these days?

Bitcoin Magazine

@BitcoinMagazine

JUST IN: US Federal Housing Finance Agency issues order to count Bitcoin & crypto as an asset for a mortgage.

Ok folks that's all for this week, if the 3 people that open my newsletter emails could let me know if they enjoy this or not I would appreciate it, if so I will keep doing weekly dumps of random shit, cool shit, and fucked up shit! Although I might call it something else because the title is kind of shitty.

Follow me @bitcoinrenegade on Twitter and @thoughtcrimeboss on Farcaster

Fight For Your Right To Use Bitcoin As It Was Intended To Be Used

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Tue, 20 May 2025 23:13:15 GMT

By thoughtcrimeboss

This article is about the state's war on bitcoin, financial surveillance, and six ways that you can easily help fight back to help preserve the essential freedom to exchange value peer to peer without permission from anyone. As a group we have more power than you may realize.

*The original version of this article was published on Hackernoon, but I wasn't satisfied with it and rewrote it entirely. I was targeting Bitcoiners in particular because I entered it into the Rootstock Bitcoin content contest, but I would just like to point out that many of the things in this article apply to Monero as well. Buying and spending XMR peer to peer rather than on centralized exchanges is just as important as doing so with BTC, if not more so because of the recent delistings. Because of it's privacy, fungibility, and scalability Monero is a very important tool in the fight against oppression and financial surveillance. I may write a future article about how to use Monero as a tool to privately spend your Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency.

This article is 100% human produced content, support humanity by reading it and subscribing!

Don't be fooled, the war on Bitcoin isn't over

With Bitcoin having made impressive new all time highs recently and a pro-Bitcoin administration in power in Washington, I see many Bitcoiners understandably breathing a sigh of relief and celebrating. It may feel like we as a community have finally won the war and that Bitcoin is poised to take over the entire world and replace fiat currency with a Bitcoin standard. However, I believe that we have not won the war, only a major battle. Now is not the time to become complacent and stop fighting. Even with Donald Trump in the White House, you cannot forget that the state is bigger than Donald Trump, and the world is bigger than just the United States. Bitcoin's number one adversary is still what it has always been, the nation-state. It is a direct threat to state power, which is largely derived from the state's control of the money supply and a massive financial surveillance apparatus. In four years, Americans may very well elect an entirely anti-Bitcoin administration, and if we spend this entire time sitting on our asses mesmerized by the "number go up", then we will have wasted a valuable opportunity to strengthen the Bitcoin community. We must use this reprieve to prepare for when the state inevitably decides that it wants to fight us again. You may think you have no power to make a difference as just one person, but there is so much you can do to help the fight for freedom. In this article, I go over why financial surveillance is so dangerous, why Bitcoin is "freedom tech", and the different ways you can fight back to help protect this valuable tool from those who want to neutralize it.

The state's war against Bitcoin is not over until every person who is currently locked in prison or facing prison for victimless Bitcoin or cryptocurrency related "crimes" is released. A victimless crime is one in which there is no victim because no one was harmed. There is no moral basis behind the prosecution of these crimes, they are solely a result of governments trying to control you and control what you do in your private life. We can not afford to ignore that there are people in prison or facing prison for these so-called "crimes". Ian Freeman, Roman Storm, Roman Semenov, and the developers of Samourai Wallet are just some examples. Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to five years in a cage (thankfully, he was granted bail onto house arrest while he appeals) in the Netherlands for deploying some immutable code in the form of a smart contract that can and was used for legitimate purposes. The illicit activity that went through Tornado Cash was a very small proportion of its overall volume. This didn't matter to the prosecutors though, if you follow their flawed logic it would also dictate a prison sentence for the manufacturer of a hammer that was then used for a murder. Ian Freeman is doing an 8-year prison sentence right now for simply selling bitcoin to consenting adults. The Samourai developers are also facing serious prison time for the "crime" of developing a Bitcoin wallet with built in privacy tools. Why did the state go after these individuals? The answer is simple, if you control the money you control the people.

Cryptocurrency, which allows people to create and use money outside of centralized financial systems, is a direct threat to this control. The state has spent decades building a vast dystopian financial surveillance and control apparatus and simultaneously normalizing it. Now, the average person doesn't think twice about things like the fact that you can't even withdraw or deposit too much of your own money without triggering a "Suspicious Activity Report". There was a time, not that long ago, when you could open a bank account without even showing government-issued identification. By slowly introducing a myriad of laws and regulations over time, the State has made it so that you need their permission to use your own money. Bitcoin fixes this. Anyone can set up a Bitcoin wallet without needing any permission from any entity. You can use Bitcoin to send millions of dollars in value anywhere across the planet without permission, and store your wealth outside of the state's control. This technology is an incredibly powerful countermeasure to the state's attacks on your freedom.

But what if you have nothing to hide? Why should financial surveillance concern someone who follows the rules? The Government currently holds the power to arbitrarily restrict your access to the financial system at any time. You might be thinking, ‘That could never happen to me—those laws exist to target criminals, right?’"

Wrong, sadly even someone who makes a legitimate effort to follow the rules should still be wary of this. For one, there are simply so many laws and regulations that following them all perfectly is impossible. If they want to get you, they can always find something to go after you with. On top of that, even if the original intention of these laws was only to fight crime, they can be weaponized against anyone the Government doesn't like. Regardless of your politics, the debanking of the Canadian trucker protesters in 2022 was an important reminder that a state can easily target anyone for any reason, including simply having the wrong opinion. One of the most important parts of a free society is the right to transact freely, to be able to transfer value without the need to inform anyone or get permission. In a society in which the government has control over your transactions, they have de facto control of your entire life. Imagine if you post something on the internet one night, and the next morning you wake up to discover that your bank account has been frozen. Your rent is due tomorrow, but you can't pay it. You can't buy food, pay for internet access, or put gas in your car. You don't even know if you will ever get the money you had in the bank back. Maybe you have your entire life savings put away in the bank. All of a sudden you are shut out from society because of having the wrong opinion. This is why having a decentralized permission-less currency and store of value like Bitcoin is absolutely essential and must be protected at all costs.

In the United States and many other countries, the government wants to know exactly how much money you have, where every cent came from, and the details of every single transaction you make. There is a reason why it's considered rude to ask a stranger how much money they make or have. People like to maintain their financial privacy because this kind of information can reveal all sorts of personal details about you. It can even put your life in danger if it falls into the wrong hands and you become a target for criminals. Do you think you can trust some incompetent bureaucrats to safeguard every detail about your finances and protect you from this? It's even worse when these laws force third parties such as cryptocurrency exchanges to collect and store sensitive information about their customers and their transactions. If you have any significant amount of bitcoin, you become more vulnerable to potential attack with every party that stores data on you, making compliance with KYC/AML(see below) regulations a legitimate threat to you and your family's safety.

G. Henry Scavacini(BTC FAM)

@Scavacini777

Attempted kidnapping of a "crypto" billionaire's daughter

Her father owns a major crapto exchange in Europe

This problem was highlighted recently when an armed gang attempted to kidnap a crypto exchange CEO's daughter and grandson in France, during the middle of the day. Armed teenagers also kidnapped a Las Vegas man and robbed him for 4 million dollars worth of crypto as he was returning home from a crypto conference. These kinds of attacks are becoming more common. Not long after both of these high profile crimes, Coinbase announced that it had leaked sensitive personal information about some of it's users, including home addresses. Criminals are looking for crypto holders to target, and the easiest way to get this information is from a KYC exchange. All that data makes these exchanges an attractive target for criminals. These leaks are going to keep happening, the best way to protect yourself is to not use KYC exchanges in the first place. Even if you don't care about any of the other reasons to not KYC, protecting yourself and your family should be motivation enough.

Coinbase 🛡️

@coinbase

Cyber criminals bribed and recruited rogue overseas support agents to pull personal data on <1% of Coinbase MTUs. No passwords, private keys, or funds were exposed. Prime accounts are untouched. We will reimburse impacted customers. More here: coinbase.com/blog/protectin…

This worldwide attack on our financial privacy, freedom, and safety has been going on for decades but has recently accelerated dramatically with the legal actions taken against Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and the individuals and companies that are in the crypto space. So how did we get here? How did we get to the point in the supposed "land of the free" where people are being prosecuted and imprisoned for selling Bitcoin or coding legitimate software?

Well, before Bitcoin was even an idea, the first major blow against American's financial privacy was struck in 1970 with the Bank Secrecy Act. With the passage of this law, banks were now required to file a SAR (suspicious activity report) with the government anytime a transaction over $10,000 occurred. At that time, most average people probably weren't too concerned with this law because $10,000 in 1970 was the equivalent of $80,000 of today's money in terms of purchasing power. Imagine if the law was being passed today, and the limit for filing a SAR was announced to be $80,000. It would seem more reasonable to the average person who might think that nobody ever needs that much cash anyways, unless they are doing something sketchy. There was a significant increase in crime in the United States right before the passage of this bill, and the government, which never lets a good crisis go to waste, framed the Bank Secrecy Act as a tool for fighting crime.

This is a perfect example of what people mean when they say something is a "slippery-slope". Once they get away with passing one law that violates your privacy, it normalizes such violations and opens the door for worse ones in the future. This is exactly what has happened in the years since 1970. They inflated the currency but didn't ever raise the SAR limit to match inflation. Now we are at a point where you can't make any kind of large transaction, legitimate or not, without having a report filed on you. One of the main ways the financial surveillance apparatus affects Bitcoin is through what are called know your customer and anti-money laundering regulations (KYC/AML). These regulations are why you can’t use many custodial lighting wallets any more if you live in the United States, they are why if you want to sign up for Coinbase or many centralized crypto exchanges, you have to submit a selfie of yourself holding a photo ID. They are why many crypto exchanges and applications have completely stopped serving United States customers. They basically make everything very complicated and ensure that any bitcoin you buy through these KYC exchanges is tied to your name until the end of time. The Bitcoin blockchain is pseudonymous, meaning there are no names attached to bitcoins on the blockchain itself. Identifying the owner of a Bitcoin wallet requires offchain data, and the main method of identification is when someone sends bitcoin from their wallet to a regulated exchange account in their name to sell for fiat. The second you do that, the address you sent the bitcoin from is linked to your name forever. Because the Bitcoin network is fully transparent, anyone can look at that wallet's history and see every transaction you have ever done. Can you imagine if any business you swipe your debit card at could just pull up your entire transaction history? This transparency is present on most blockchains (not on Monero!) and is exactly why people like the Samourai wallet developers created tools to protect your privacy when using Bitcoin. Privacy is the missing link that would make Bitcoin much more capable of subverting state control.

Seth For Privacy || Activate CTV + CSFS

@sethforprivacy

Even before there were #Bitcoin exchanges, Satoshi saw that the only way to preserve privacy on Bitcoin was to avoid linking identity to on-chain activity.

KYC is *the single worst* thing for Bitcoin's long-term success as money we can spend freely.

How did we get here?

Another attack on freedom in the US that became widespread in the 1970's and 80's was Civil Asset Forfeiture which basically allows law enforcement agencies across the country to rob people with no due process. Civil Asset Forfeiture means a law enforcement officer can take your money or property (including bitcoin) if they say they suspect it of being used in crime or being the proceeds of a crime. Taking criminals money away from them might sound good on paper, but the problem is they don't have to convict you of a crime, charge you with a crime, or have any actual evidence of a crime to do this. Getting your property back requires obtaining a lawyer at your own expense and fighting a long legal battle so that in many cases it is cheaper to not fight back. Because of this legalized robbery, you can no longer safely travel with a large amount of cash, regardless of whether it's been procured through completely legal means or not, without the very possible risk of having every cent seized from you by predatory police officers. There are countless examples of this happening to normal hard working Americans, such as the former marine who had his entire life savings stolen for no reason and was left on the side of the road without even enough money to get home. They steal your money to pad their pensions or buy fancy new assault rifles and body armor for their small-town police force that hasn't even had to use their SWAT team in 10 years. Bitcoin can help with this, instead of traveling with cash you can instead travel with the 12 words that unlock a Bitcoin wallet. If you memorize the seed phrase, don't KYC, and keep your mouth shut then nobody will even know you have any bitcoin. Then you can safely travel with your wealth without the risk of having it stolen by road pirates. Make sure you keep your devices locked and encrypted when traveling, there have been instances of authorities seizing bitcoin because they noticed someone had bitcoin wallet software on their computer which led to the discovery of their stash.

But wait, there's more! It was recently revealed that the IRS has total access to every American citizen's bank account records without a warrant and has been using AI to sift through the data in a flagrant violation of the 4th amendment. Financial surveillance has previously been somewhat limited by how much resources the Government was willing to use on it. It takes manpower to sift through all those suspicious activity reports and pick individuals to target. It is possible to "slip through the cracks" so to speak and avoid much of this surveillance. However, with the recent advancement of AI technology, the government can now use AI to do blanket surveillance on everyone for a fraction of what it would of cost before.

Also the IRS is now trying to go after every online transaction that they possibly can. Covid accelerated the widespread adoption of payment processors such as Paypal and Venmo instead of cash. Many people don't use cash at all anymore. A cashless society is a dream come true for the government, which once again didn't let a good crisis, like Covid, go to waste. In 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law which included a draconian provision that requires payment processors to start snitching on any American who does more than a cumulative $600 worth of "business" transactions in a year, allowing such dystopian nonsense as getting taxed three times on the same money.

Imagine this, first you make some money and the IRS takes more than a third of it as income tax. Then let's say you spend the rest on a computer and get taxed again with sales tax. Finally, when it's old and you sell it, you will now get taxed again if the purchaser pays you via a digital payment application unless you can prove that the payment wasn't actually business income. This automatic reporting switches the burden of proof from the government to you.

Not only does the government want to steal every dollar they can from people through income taxes, but they don't stop there. They tax them again with the "secret tax" of inflation, by destroying the purchasing power of their dollars over time. Then they want to use that stolen value to fund more theft and violence. Way too much of your precious time that you could be spending with your loved ones is instead spent working to fund this massive extortion racket.

So what do people do when the current system is screwing them over? After a while, they usually get fed up enough to build a new system, which is exactly what Bitcoin is, the basis for an entirely new financial system that is not controlled by any centralized power. If you control the money, you control everything, which is exactly why no single group should have that power. By instead using decentralized permission-less money, you take the immense power of money itself and spread it around so that no one group or individual has too much power. Instead of a central bank controlling the creation of bitcoin, anyone can buy a miner and start producing bitcoin on their own.

Unfortunately, while governments may have mostly ignored Bitcoin in the early days, they certainly view it as a threat now. They continue to view it as a threat even with a "Bitcoin president" in the United States. The Government is much larger than just Trump and there will still be elements within it that are determined to stop Bitcoin, not to mention all the other governments around the world. The State's main objective is controlling the population so that it can continue to extract wealth from it. It knows that if it has control over money itself through central banking and potentially a CBDC, then it has control over everyone that uses that money. Trump has said that there will be no CBDC created during his administration, but I think they may just co-opt an existing stablecoin such as USDC and use it as a de facto CBDC. USDC is already trackable, freezable, and highly liquid so it would serve the same functions as a CBDC. If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that stablecoin regulation legislation is currently making its way through Congress with bipartisan support. This legislation would legitimize certain dollar based stablecoins that bend the knee to the US Government. One reason why stablecoin legislation has so much support is that widespread adoption of dollar based stablecoins would help maintain the dollar's status as a global reserve currency. Stablecoin issuers serve as a significant buyer of US debt in the form of treasury bonds in order to back their stablecoins. In a time in which countries such as China are no longer purchasing US bonds, this new source of demand is important to ensure dollar dominance and the power that comes with it.

Aaron Day

@AaronRDay

These are the current KYC/AML implications of the GENIUS Act and STABLE Act. Note, it will likely get worse as the bills move towards reconciliation and final passage (they never become more freedom oriented). If you read this and the bills, and still think this is pro-freedom

Many people are hopeful that some kind of comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation besides just stablecoin regulations gets passed during the Trump presidency. It is entirely likely that they will try to put some "common sense" provisions in any bills that address so-called money laundering by "criminals and terrorists" to appease the holdouts and get the bill through Congress. It doesn't matter to politicians that a very small percentage of money laundering actually happens through crypto and instead typically goes through traditional financial institutions. When a bank gets in trouble for helping criminals launder billions of dollars it barely makes the headlines, if some North Korean sends $10 in tether to their mother or something there will probably be congressional hearings about the dangers of cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin and crypto communities need to scrutinize every word of any bills that are put forth, you can't just assume that they will be in our best interest because of all the promises the Trump administration has made.

By offering an alternative to the state controlled dollar based financial system, Bitcoin is a threat to their power and the United States Government knows it. Even the potential that Bitcoin could become a viable alternative global reserve asset is dangerous to them. That is one of the reasons why they want to throw you in jail if you dare to sell people bitcoin without a money transmitting license, but even though they can treat bitcoin as money when prosecuting you, they treat it as property when taxing you. So if you buy some bitcoin, it goes up in value, and you then buy a cup of coffee or anything with that same bitcoin, you are usually required by law to pay a ridiculous amount of capital gains taxes because by buying the coffee you are technically realizing the gains on your "investment". If you have money, like the US dollar, and it goes up in purchasing power, and then you spend those dollars, you aren't expected to pay taxes on the gains you made by holding dollars. You also don't get to claim the losses in your dollar's purchasing power from inflation as a loss on your taxes, even though it technically is a loss. How can bitcoin be simultaneously money and an investment in the eyes of the law depending on the situation? Well, it is based on the classic "because we say so" doctrine. Unfortunately, most people are so brainwashed that they will just accept whatever new law the state forces upon them regardless of whether it violates their natural rights or not. If we don't start to stand up for ourselves and our rights, they will continue to rob us through taxation and inflation until there is nothing left to take. Anybody with any remaining wealth and common sense will probably leave the country and those who are left behind will be starving and pushing around wheelbarrows full of nearly worthless US dollars to buy moldy bread and bugs with.

Every fiat currency fails eventually

One of the biggest problems with laws that take away your freedoms in the name of fighting criminals is that the definition of who constitutes a criminal often changes on a whim in a tyrannical society. Unfortunately, I think I know what many Bitcoiners may be thinking when they see things like the Samourai devs getting arrested. That is, "Well I don't mind KYC because I don't have anything to hide, I'm not a criminal, and the number will still go up." However, what if you become a criminal in the future due to the passage of yet another "law"? For example in the 19th and early 20th century anyone could buy cannabis extracts over the counter without a prescription. Fast forward a few decades, and cannabis users were suddenly criminals and outcasts because what was once not illegal became illegal. There are countless other examples of this throughout history and one must always be prepared for potential criminalization by the State.

Another potent example of this is how gold was perfectly legal to own for the entire history of our country until one day the Government outlawed it and seized people's gold. If you owned too much gold, one day you were just someone with nothing to hide and the next day you were a criminal. Eventually, this was reversed, and many people today aren't even aware that it happened, but it did and something similar can happen again with Bitcoin in the future. Using Bitcoin is legal right now and will likely remain so for the entirety of the Trump presidency, but if in the future the state feels threatened enough by it, then they might decide to ban it just as they banned gold in the past. If you have any KYCed bitcoin, you may very well have to surrender it or face imprisonment. This may feel far-fetched and dystopian, but it is definitely within the realm of possibility especially if you consider the fact that there are already people in prison right now for simply selling bitcoin to consenting adults.

Bitcoin is a threat to the State because it is freedom tech, a tool that enables freedom by being a permission-less censorship-resistant store of value. This is empowering for the individual and dis-empowering for the State because no matter who you are, where you live, or what documents you possess, you can use Bitcoin to store and transact value. It can be sent across the globe in minutes for a small fee without any friction. Fiat currency in cash form is also permission-less and censorship-resistant but it is not an ideal store of value because the State can manipulate its value as it sees fit through money printing. The State can get away with taxing the people through inflation as long as people continue to use their fiat currency, so any alternatives such as Bitcoin are a threat to its power and its monopoly on violence that is funded by the ability to create money out of thin air. If you don't take steps to protect yourself and your bitcoin and you continue to use KYC services to buy your bitcoin, then one day you might get a knock on your door from a Government thug telling you to give up your private keys or go to prison. You can try to claim you lost your keys in a boating accident all day long, but I have to wonder if they will give a shit. "Fine, you lost your keys? No problem, just pay us an equivalent amount in fiat to what you lost and you won't go to prison." Store and acquire your bitcoin outside of the financial system, where it belongs. Buying KYCed bitcoin, or bitcoin in an ETF means you lose one of the most important advantages of owning this asset in the first place, the ability to store wealth outside of the state-controlled financial system.

Different governments have various approaches to dealing with the threat of Bitcoin. For instance, the Chinese government simply banned trading it outright. The US Government on the other hand at least tries to keep up the appearance of being a so-called free democratic society, so instead of a ban they are trying to mitigate the permission-less aspect of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by systematically cutting off ways to use them without first complying with KYC/AML regulations and giving up your privacy. First, they targeted the on and off ramps into crypto (such as localbitcoins and bitcoin ATMs), so it became very hard to turn US dollars into bitcoin or sell bitcoin for US dollars without first KYCing. The Bitcoin community pushed back somewhat on this but not hard enough and it became the norm that on and off ramps in the United States became KYC only. It is only a matter of time until they go after self-hosted wallets and crypto to crypto exchanges and try to force any entities that deal with crypto or bitcoin to register with FinCen and require users to KYC. The results of the US election relieved some of this pressure temporarily but, we are most definitely not out of the woods yet. Personally, I don't know if Donald Trump truly understands or cares why Bitcoin is so important, and I think he just decided it would win him some votes to support it. To him, Bitcoin is probably just another investment.

While the recent shift towards less regulation of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has been positive, I think an important thing to watch is whether or not the Department of Justice drops the case against the Samourai Wallet developers. One of the most significant recent state attacks on Bitcoin was the arrest of these developers in April 2024. Samourai Wallet was simply a Bitcoin wallet app that had some great privacy features. Privacy is not easy to achieve with Bitcoin because it is a fully transparent ledger. This means that if you buy bitcoin through an exchange or service linked to your real name in any way, anybody can then track exactly what you do with that bitcoin and how much you have. One of Samourai's main features, the one that got them arrested, was a non-custodial mixing service called Whirlpool that allowed users to mix their bitcoin with other users' bitcoin and then receive different bitcoin that wasn't linked to their original bitcoin. The government has gone after cryptocurrency mixing services before, but the main difference between Whirlpool and a mixer like Bitcoin Fog was that Whirlpool is non-custodial. Samourai Wallet never actually took possession of your coins, although they did run a centralized coordinator that matched people together who wanted to mix bitcoin. That wasn't illegal and still isn't regardless of what the prosecutors argue. The US Government is alleging that just because a handful of criminals used the service, that means the developers are guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering. This is ridiculous. For one, the percentage of illicit funds that went through Whirlpool was minuscule, most people were legitimate users who just wanted to improve their privacy. This is as absurd as arresting the manager of a bank just because a few criminals managed to use the bank to launder money, or arresting a knife manufacturer because some people used their knives to commit crimes.

In fact, recent news has made the prosecution of the Samourai wallet developers look even more absurd. In May 2025, it was revealed that six months prior to the charges being filed, the prosecutors were told by FinCEN employees that the Samourai wallet wouldn't qualify as a money services business requiring a FinCEN license under FinCEN guidance. Despite this knowledge they still decided to move forward with the prosecution. The only reason I can think of for that is the prosecutors cared more about advancing their career than actual justice. They probably wanted to win a big case with media attention to put on their resume, it didn't matter if the defendants were actually guilty or not. The kind of people that go work as prosecutors for the state don't care about little things like morality. Samourai Wallet was one of the very few options people had if they wanted to use Bitcoin privately, and now that it's gone it has left a giant hole in the privacy toolkit for Bitcoiners and created a chilling effect throughout open source software development. There are plenty of people who want to develop privacy software, but not many of them are willing to risk going to prison to do so and can you blame them? If the Samourai devs don't beat this case it will have far-reaching implications, so you might want to donate to their legal defense fund if you care about Bitcoin, privacy, and freedom in general. I would like to mention that a few gigabased devs have forked the Samourai Wallet code to create an alternative called Ashigaru,(always verify wallet software links are legitimate before downloading) but the CoinJoin whirlpool feature that got Samourai in trouble is not included.

There is a way to ensure privacy for Bitcoin without anyone risking prison time, and that is if changes were made at the protocol level to improve privacy. Unfortunately, there is a significant portion of the community that is against making any major changes to the Bitcoin protocol, they believe ossification is the best route. There are some good reasons for this, with any update to the protocol there are risks of unforseen bugs. Some bugs could potentially be catastrophic for the network. The current codebase has been battle-tested and we know it works. However, I think if implemented carefully and slowly, some improvements to the protocol are necessary. We need privacy improvements and we need to try to scale Bitcoin and use it as a more viable medium of exchange rather than just a store of value. The risks of losing an opportunity to truly create a viable alternative to state controlled money outweigh the risks of bugs. Our freedom is at stake.

Edward Snowden

@Snowden

I've been warning Bitcoin developers for ten years that privacy needs to be provided for at the protocol level. This is the final warning. The clock is ticking.

Wasabi Wallet

@wasabiwallet

After years of relentless dedication to improve Bitcoin’s privacy, zkSNACKs, the company pioneering the development of Wasabi Wallet, is shutting down its coinjoin coordination service, effective June 1st, 2024.

Blog post announcement link:
blog.wasabiwallet.io/zksnacks-is-di…

We are at a crossroads with Bitcoin, there are multiple paths before us. One path is the one in which Bitcoin becomes totally absorbed into the traditional financial system as a heavily regulated investment accessible only to those privileged enough to have the proper paperwork, and taxed to the point where the price appreciation and wealth preservation benefits are neutered. You will be able to buy bitcoin only from licensed AML/KYC-compliant custodians and self-custody will likely be illegal. Perhaps USDC or USDT is co-opted as a de facto CBDC. Another more unlikely path is a total ban on cryptocurrency and bitcoin in the United States and the European Union. If you are unlucky enough in this scenario to have any KYCed bitcoin that the Government knows about, it may be seized from you. If you have custody and you refuse to give up your keys, they could just throw you in prison for disobeying. A third path is the one I hope we take, in which we successfully fight back against government regulations and preserve Bitcoin's ability to be a permission-less store of value and medium of exchange outside of the traditional financial system. The divisions in the space between Bitcoin maximalists and users of other cryptocurrencies needs to be put aside, all lovers of freedom and users of cryptocurrency need to band together and use our influence and wealth to do everything we can to stop the government from destroying our freedom to transact and our right to privacy.

As a group, united, we have the power to make a difference. It is important to remember that the Government is not some all-powerful eye of Sauron, they are just people who think they have some divine right to tell other people what they can and can't do because of some words on a piece of paper. We can peacefully fight back in a myriad of ways and stop this madness in its tracks. I know a lot of people in the community would prefer to just pretend like nothing is happening as long as the number goes up, but even if Bitcoin gets to a million dollars, if we are not free to use it in whatever way we wish, then that would be a phallic victory. Regardless of any regulation that does or does not pass, we must fulfill the mission of Bitcoin and create and participate in a massive circular Bitcoin and crypto economy outside of the fiat system. It needs to be relatively easy for someone to live off of bitcoin alone without any need for KYCed offramps. We need landlords who will rent to plebs for bitcoin, we need plumbers who will fix your toilet for bitcoin, and we need a network of people all over the world who will readily accept and spend bitcoin for products and services. With localbitcoins getting shut down, private word-of-mouth networks using encrypted communications and mesh networking need to develop and grow rapidly. Many people are working on this but we need more and we need it now.

If you believe in the promise of Bitcoin, in the power of money that is separated from the state, and in freedom tech; then it's time to support your local circular Bitcoin economy. The main reason I am writing this is as a call to action for all those who consider themselves aligned with Bitcoin's values, maxis or not. If you buy bitcoin, for whatever purpose, then I implore you to stop buying KYCed bitcoin! There are those of us, myself included, who have taken the plunge and dropped out of the traditional financial system. We earn and save in bitcoin instead of fiat. Some of us don't even have a bank account, let alone a Coinbase account or any account that requires KYC. I have never KYCed and will never KYC. At first, this wasn't because I understood why KYC and Bitcoin were antithetical, but because I was so broke I didn't even have an ID in 2017 when I first got into the space. I had to learn how to acquire BTC without using Coinbase or other KYC exchanges. Eventually, as I learned more about Bitcoin, I realized that my inability to KYC onto Coinbase was actually a positive thing.

Sticking to my principles and trying to live outside of the traditional system does present some challenges from time to time. For now, I do still need access to fiat to pay my rent and other expenses. I can buy gift cards for food and other products, and virtual prepaid debit cards work for my utility bills, but some things still require fiat. Also, to preserve my privacy, I have to first convert the bitcoin into monero, a cryptocurrency with built in privacy, to buy the prepaid debit card. Otherwise, if I pay my power bill or something under my name with it, I am doxxing my Bitcoin wallet. The options for converting bitcoin or other crypto to fiat without KYCing are decreasing every single day. Even the options for simply converting stablecoins to bitcoin without KYCing are also decreasing as more and more exchanges require KYC.

FRΞΞ PRINCΞ

@tyrannideris

1. Opt Out of the Financial System

• Cryptocurrency: Use decentralized currencies like Bitcoin or Monero to operate outside the traditional banking system. These currencies cut out the middleman and prevent government oversight of your transactions. There are harder to track,

My local Bitcoin meet-up has been a lifeline, I can go there and often find someone willing to buy bitcoin with cash. If I'm really lucky I will find someone who will buy bitcoin from me regularly. This is never 100% reliable though. There are times, especially during bear markets, when I desperately need fiat and can't find any buyers. It is incredibly frustrating to have bitcoin and still not be able to pay my bills. I heard someone talking at a meetup recently, they were asking questions about non-KYCed versus KYCed bitcoin. They mentioned how fond they were of using Swan to make regular purchases of bitcoin with the classic dollar cost-averaging investing strategy. I get it, it's simple, it's easy. It is way easier to just click a button on your phone to acquire sats than to have to buy it from someone in person with cash. It's important to realize though, that every single time you "smash buy" on your KYCed app, not only are you compromising on your privacy and safety, you are wasting another chance to help a fellow Bitcoiner and strengthen your local circular economy. Also, buying bitcoin on centralized exchanges doesn't create transactions on the blockchain, so it doesn't generate any fees to help sustain the miners who keep the network secure. We have to use the network or it will die.

Imagine if even half of the people who attend my local meeting choose to buy KYC-free bitcoin for cash every time or some of the times they make a purchase instead of using some app, then no one would ever again have to worry about whether or not there would be a buyer when they need to sell. This is the easiest way you can fight back against government overreach, just as the Bitcoin network itself gets stronger and more secure the more people use it, so does the Bitcoin circular economy. If you are in Bitcoin for more than just another investment, and you have the means and ability to purchase bitcoin from a pleb, please do that instead of taking the easy route and clicking buy on some app. Those apps are probably reporting everything you do straight to the government and are another vector for attack from criminals just like traditional CEXs.

The Bitcoin community has a lot of combined economic power, there is no reason why we shouldn't be directing some of that purchasing power inward to strengthen our community. By buying our bitcoin from within our community, the power and reach of our circular economy would increase drastically and be much harder to stop. They can't blacklist your Bitcoin wallet address if they don't know what it is! They can't freeze your bank account if you don't have to use one! Imagine a world in which one could easily live outside of their system, and opt out of their game. I'm not telling you not to pay your taxes, because that can end with you in a prison cell and then you are out of the fight. But you don't have to dox your Bitcoin wallet just to pay taxes on your gains.

Yes, I'm sure it's nice to just set up an automatic dollar cost average weekly or monthly buy on an app or centralized exchange. Just set it and forget it they tell you, it's so easy when you don't even have to think about it! Watch your stack grow and grow over time on your little app. Well, you know what? Screw that! Freedom isn't "easy" or "convenient". Freedom is hard work and often requires some sacrifices. The State loves every time that you pick what's easy and convenient over what is best for your freedom. If Bitcoin is ever going to succeed as an alternative financial system, then it does need to be easier to do more with it than buying some maple syrup or paying your VPN subscription. Since the state is trying to close all the non-kyc on/off ramps, it is imperative that our community provides our own on/off ramps for those who need some of that dirty fiat to survive. Buying your bitcoin from a Bitcoiner in need is a way to advocate for freedom with your purchasing power. It is up to us, if we don't fight back with our collective power, Bitcoin may very well become just another speculative investment and nothing more.

So how do we use the next four years to make the Bitcoin community and network more resilient to potential future attacks from the state? We have to join together to create new and strengthen existing circular economies outside of state control. We need to strengthen Bitcoin's privacy and create new tools to enable people to use Bitcoin as privately as possible. We should support non-kyc services and privacy tools and the people developing and maintaining them. Laws that attack privacy and freedom need to be opposed. Also, we all should be actively participating in the network by running nodes and mining. You may not feel that you, as just one individual, have much power to change things. This is not true at all, if even half of the people in Bitcoin did some or all of the things I am listing, then collectively we have the power to both regain our freedom and protect it.

Six ways you can fight back against the Government's war on Bitcoin and freedom

Buy your bitcoin without KYC from plebs, not exchanges. Every time you buy BTC from an exchange, it is a wasted opportunity. If you are actively stacking sats, whether you are dollar cost averaging regularly, or just buying now and then when you can, then you need to be viewing every purchase as an opportunity to help support the Bitcoin circular economy. If you are buying your bitcoin on a KYCed exchange or service, then you are basically helping the bad guys win. Yes, it can be more inconvenient to buy BTC without KYC, but if you truly believe in the freedom that Bitcoin represents, that's what you should be doing. I can understand if you want to have a KYC stack and a non-KYC stack, especially if you are public about your involvement with Bitcoin, but at least make some of your purchases off the books. This is not legal or tax advice, but as far as I know, it is not illegal to simply buy bitcoin and not report the purchase. It's only when you sell it that you are required to report any capital gains. If you already have any KYCed bitcoin that you have an unrealized loss on, you might want to consider selling it immediately for cash, realizing the loss for your taxes, and then taking that cash and buying non-kyced bitcoin with it. You don't want to wait until you're sitting on a huge gain and it would require a large tax bill to do this, also this wash trading loophole for crypto might not be around forever. You can't do that with stocks, if you sell a stock at a loss and then buy it back within a certain amount of time, it is considered "wash trading", and you are unable to write the loss off your taxes. This is not currently the case for cryptocurrencies, so you might want to take advantage of it.
Spread the word. Normies need to know about the assault on their freedoms, this goes beyond just Bitcoin. You may think you are just one voice, and maybe you don't have thousands of followers on social media, so can you even make a difference in this battle? Absolutely you can, anyone you manage to wake up to this is one more person on our side. It's important that we all use what reach we do have to spread the word about the assault on our rights by governments around the world. I doubt the average person, even if they might own a little bitcoin, even knows what's going on. If they do have an idea, they probably don't realize the full extent of it. You need to tell everyone who will listen to you that governments are attacking our rights and that we are so close to living in a completely dystopian nightmare if we don't do something to stop it now. Explain to your friends and family the truth about what inflation is and what causes it. We must inform people about how the state's assault on financial privacy and freedom affects them personally whether they use Bitcoin or not. We need the support of the average Joe who doesn't necessarily care about Bitcoin but still doesn't like the idea of the Government tracking everything they do. It should creep people out when they are told about these things, because not only is it creepy it just plain wrong. Education is also important because currently many people aren't even aware of what fiat currency is, that the gold standard is gone, or that price inflation isn't just a result of corporate greed. The Federal Reserve means nothing to many people and neither does the advantages of having a decentralized permission-less store of value. This has to change. The Government is getting away with acts of tyranny, like locking up people for writing code, partly because many people outside of our community have no idea this is going on or its implications. We have to try to get the public angry about this! It might be uncomfortable talking about these kinds of issues with normie friends and family (if you still have any normie friends), and many hesitate because they don't want to come across as some kind of radical anti-government conspiracy theorist type. Get over that hesitation though, because this is that important and they need to know the truth. If your community doesn't have a meet up group yet, seriously consider starting one. The more meet up groups we have around the world, the stronger we become. One more thing, if you are onboarding someone to Bitcoin, the time to have a discussion about KYC is before they buy their first bitcoin, not after. The best way to protect them going forward is to convince them not to KYC at all, ever. You can even just sell them their first sats yourself to make it easy for them so they aren't tempted to just buy some on a KYCed exchange for the convenience.
Use your wealth and purchasing power. Use services and products that accept bitcoin payments, and offer your own services and products in return for bitcoin. Donate to pro-bitcoin candidates, open source developers, and legal defense funds. Every time you can, spend bitcoin on products and services. Offer your own products and services in exchange for bitcoin. List items on bitcoin marketplaces. Donate to organizations and campaigns that are fighting for Bitcoin, or developers that are working on it. Bitcoin has generated a lot of wealth for a lot of people, and if it has benefited you, now is the time to give some back to support this fight. If a dev gets arrested, they should know the community is going to rally around them and they are going to have good lawyers. We need to play the game in Washington as well with lobbying and the whole nine yards, yes it is disgusting to participate in this corrupt system to any degree but until a new system takes its place we may have to. Many anarcho-capitalists consider the very act of voting to be immoral, which I get because you are trying to impose your will on others by voting. But they are playing dirty my friends, so we might have to get dirty ourselves.
Donate to Samourai Wallet Developers legal defense fund or p2prights general fund here.
Sign a petition to free Ian Freeman here.
Donate to Tornado Cash Developers legal defense fund here.
Donate to Coin Center here.
Donate to the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund here
Donate to Opensats here.
Help normalize privacy by using tools to protect it and encourage family and friends to do the same, a larger herd is a safer herd for everyone. Otherwise the very act of using a privacy tool makes you stand out, negating some of the benefits. We need the protection of the crowd, if everyone is using privacy tools, then it won't be a weird thing to be doing. Just because you may have nothing to hide doesn't mean you shouldn't protect your privacy regardless. For example, a lot of services and websites are blocking VPN users these days, but if the majority of people were all using VPNs, they would be losing a lot of potential users by blocking VPNs and might change their policy. It's also crucial to support open-source software developers who are working on privacy tools. Many people who bought KYCed bitcoin on centralized platforms and then wanted to gain some forward privacy relied on tools such as Samourai Wallet, but if the Government isn't going to allow such tools to operate, it's more important than ever to protect your privacy in other ways. The easiest way to ensure BTC privacy is to stop buying bitcoin on centralized exchanges and services, if you buy bitcoin directly from other plebs and especially home miners, and that bitcoin is never deposited into a KYCed account, you don't even have to worry about trying to use mixers. Another way is to use Monero to break the link between your bitcoin and you. Monero as a tool for spending bitcoin is more valuable than ever before, I believe that Monero has become the de facto privacy layer of Bitcoin. It may be a good strategy to save in bitcoin but also swap some regularly into monero that just sits in a wallet ready to go when you do want to spend, like a private checking account. Having monero ready to go when you do need it protects your privacy more than swapping into it right before you want to spend it.
Work together and join forces, bitcoiners and altcoiners have to work together against the assault on our freedoms. As I mentioned in the beginning, almost everything I have said in this article also applies to Monero (not a shitcoin, thank you) and without default privacy on the Bitcoin layer one, developing Monero's circular economy is equally important. Crypto is a very tribal community, you got your Bitcoin maxis, you got your ETH maxis, and you've got random communities who think their coin is the best coin or whatever. That's all fine and good, but it is past time to work together to stop attacks on crypto, what's bad for crypto overall is usually also bad for Bitcoin. For a long time, many Bitcoin maximalists espoused the opinion that what was bad for altcoins was good for Bitcoin. They would cheer on the SEC when it went after altcoin projects. Some of them thought that because bitcoin wasn't considered a security it was "safe" and money would just flow out of targeted altcoins into bitcoin. Cheering on tyrannical government intervention because it might have the side effect of making your bags go up is antithetical to everything Bitcoin stands for. Many people tried to warn them, that Bitcoin wasn't by any means "safe" just because it wasn't a security, and that the government would find other ways to attack Bitcoin outside of securities laws. Now that scenario has played out with Samourai Wallet and it's time for maximalists to hold their nose and ally themselves with the rest of crypto against the government's war on crypto. Apparently this is taking some time to sink in for some people, like the host of a Bitcoin maxi podcast I won't name. They were saying that they would rather elect Elizabeth Warren over John Deaton because he is a "shitcoiner". When I heard this, I was flabbergasted. This person was willing to put Bitcoin in more danger from an avowed anti-crypto politician like Warren just so they didn't have to support a shitcoiner who was also pro-Bitcoin. I mean come on, can you get over your hatred of shitcoiners for five minutes please! If we don't all work together then we are going to be destroyed eventually. There is no more time for infighting and pseudo-religious maximalism. If you hate shitcoins, repeat after me, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". I don't care if you are a complete ponzi-shilling ugly NFT bag-holding pump and dumper, if you are going to actually help stop this madness then I will work with you all day long. Working together includes voting for pro-crypto candidates regardless of your views on shitcoins or voting. Although like Benjamin Franklin said, democracy is just two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner, we still might as well cast self-defense votes on candidates that are pro-crypto.
Mine bitcoin and run your own node. You don't have to have a bunch of fancy hardware to start helping secure and decentralize the network by mining and running a node. Anyone can start mining with a $200 investment and you can run a node on most computers as long as you have a 24/7 internet connection. The importance of plebs mining cannot be understated, mining centralization is a huge problem in Bitcoin, with most of the hashpower located in huge corporate mining farms that can easily be co opted or shut down by governments. It's much harder to stop tens of thousands of small miners than one big mining farm. You can solo mine and it is like having a machine that prints lotto tickets for you every 10 minutes, except the lotto tickets have decent odds. If you win a block you will earn more than 3 bitcoin from the block reward and transaction fees. Or if you prefer you can mine in a pool and split the rewards with every other miner in the pool if the pool wins a block. By running your own node and connecting to it whenever you use Bitcoin, you can verify your own transactions and ensure your IP address isn't captured whenever you send a transaction. Every node that people start up also helps make the Bitcoin network more decentralized and harder to stop. It's not enough to just "hodl", we need everyone who cares to actively participate in securing the network.
Start Mining!

When I first started writing this article, things were looking a lot more dire for Bitcoin than they are today. We have a pro-Bitcoin president for the first time in history and our Congress is much more pro-Bitcoin than it was as well. Politicians will say anything to get elected though, and it's important to remember that. At the end of the day, Trump and other pro-Bitcoin candidates are still politicians and statists who probably don't give a shit about your freedom beyond winning your votes. Even if Trump follows through on all of the promises he's making regarding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it will only be a temporary reprieve in the overall war. The state knows Bitcoin is a threat to it, and whatever administration comes after Trump might not be nearly as friendly to the industry. So if the assault on our financial freedoms does cool off with a Trump presidency, it will be an opportunity to strengthen our community, shore up our defenses, and ensure that a strong circular economy is up and running outside of the traditional financial system. This way when the state inevitably attacks us again, whether it be in 4 years or 10 years, we will be ready for them. I know it can be tempting to just sit back, watch your bags grow in value, and let other people worry about fighting for freedom. However, we need your help, we need every single person's help that we can get or we will lose. You don't have to be fighting all day every day, but do something! Many of the things on the list above are very simple for anyone to do and don't require much effort, but if enough people do them it can make a significant impact. We have the power, we just have to use it. Will you join the fight for freedom?

A Valentine's Day Love Letter To Solana

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 23:17:01 GMT

by thoughtcrimeboss

*This piece was written in it's entirety by a human being, support humanity by reading and sharing it!

Oh Solana, my sweet sweet Solana, my darling, my love, how thou hast ravaged thine heart. Whenever I put a transaction through you, you make my whole body explode with orgasmic pleasure unlike anything else I have ever experienced. You are like a rabbit, always ready to jump into my bed, full of speed and energy. Honestly, sometimes it's hard to keep up with you and all the constant developments throughout your ecosystem. Lately you have been on this hardcore self-improvement grind that has both surprised and inspired me. On this Valentine's Day I wanted to do something a little more than just a regular old Valentine's card, so I am writing you this letter to reflect on the journey we have taken together to get where we are now.

Now we have definitely had some rough patches in the past, but now you are a completely different woman than the one I met all those years ago. I love you as you are now even more than I did back then. I feel as if we were meant to be together, and I want to thank you for putting up with my other ladies. It takes real maturity to survive and thrive in a poly-amorous relationship like the one we have with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I still remember when we met, back in those bullish days of 2021, and where we met, on FTX. I remember paying $20 for you like the cheap whore you were back then. I didn't care though, I saw through your venture-backed slut exterior and knew that somewhere deep inside of you was a beautiful protocol just waiting to emerge like a decentralized butterfly. I remember "staking" you on FTX and checking every couple of days to see how much more of you I owned. It was a good feeling seeing my tiny bag of you grow into a slightly less tiny bag. But as long as you were stuck on FTX we weren't ever truly going to get to know each other, not with Sam always in the room, watching and plotting on how he could steal you from me. I wanted to experience all of you, and caress every block of your chain. So when Sam tried to get me to KYC and identify myself I told him to fuck off and snuck you out of FTX. I brought you to your new home with me and my other ladies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, at our place out on the ledger. You were always grateful to me for this because not long after we left bad things began to happen at your former home. If I hadn't of snuck you out, we would of probably never seen each other again.

I'm not going to lie, you did hurt me quite a bit over the years. I held you tightly, maybe too tightly, as you went all the up to $250. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought we were getting too close. I considered if I should sell some of you, you know just to get a little distance. It didn't help that Bitcoin and Ethereum were getting jealous that I was spending all my time in your ecosystem. I remember how you would whisper sweet nothings into my ear to stop me from selling,

"Firedancer darling, NASDAQ of blockchains, scalability, mass adoption, proof of history".

None of it really meant anything to me but it all sounded really good, although the times where you had a little too much to drink and started talking about straight up killing Ethereum and burying her in the back yard, I got kind of worried about you. Were you still sane? Were you just vaporware? Were you going to turn out to be just another in a long string of alt L1s that just fucked me and then left me? That fall of 2021 went by so quickly though, one minute I'm getting pleasured by a 250 dollar you, and the next minute you were back to being a cheap whore again. I'd unstake you and think about kicking you out, and then you would do that thing, you know...the thing with your tongue, and I'd always end up restaking you and waiting for you to change back to that beautiful 250 dollar version of yourself I knew you could be.

Things got really bad for a while, Sam was always on the news, you were always wasted, and let's just say your performance was degraded quite often throughout 2022. Bitcoin tried to keep the house together but even she couldn't help. I was still mad about that ponzi scheme you talked me into called soBTC, and you were still mad about the time I whored you out to mint a "Project Eluune" NFT. You had said to just keep you safe and staked at home, and I still remember the conversation to this day;

“Baby, check it out, the same guy who designed World of Tanks is designing this cool metaverse game. So you’re just going to go down there and mint this NFT for me and it's going to make us 100x minimum. Then I promise I'll just buy you back.”

“There's never going to be a game you fucking idiot.”

“Nah bro, World of Tanks, it's the "metaverse" bro, you just don’t understand how the metaverse works.”

When they sent a bonus NFT to holders, you called me and tried to talk some sense into me again,

“Can't you just sell the bonus NFT and use THAT to bring me home?

“Whoa whoa baby, hold on a minute, yes I want you to come home but just think about it, if I hold TWO NFTs, I will have TWICE as much when they both go 100x because obviously when the one goes 100x the other one will too. You just leave this to me baby, I got this, the dude designed World of Tanks after all.”

"What in the fuck is World of Tanks."

“I don't know baby but he designed it..guaranteed 100x. "

“Isn't the first NFT still below it's mint price?"

"That's just to shake out the weak hands baby. You’ll be home in another week or two for sure, don't worry I got this."

So yeah I might of, kind of, sort of, lost half of you when that went to zero and you weren't too happy about that, but life moves on and we still stayed together. During the bear market, Ethereum was usually off smoking crack somewhere, and when I did see her she was usually talking about merges and verges or whatever the fuck and constantly asking for money for "gas". Did she really think I was that stupid? Nobody needs that much money for gas. I knew she was just going to smoke it but I gave it to her anyways. There was just so much tension in the household at the time, and I admit it probably didn't help when I brought home that Cosmos girl for a month, I just thought we could try out a foursome or something, you know, to spice things up. None of you seemed to like the idea very much though, I do admit she was a little on the weird side.

I remember sometimes, after you would finally pass out from all the Xanax and hard liquor, Bitcoin would pull me aside and whisper;

"Baby, you know we can still kick Solana out right? She's still worth a few dollars, you can trade her for some more of me. You need to think about our future!"

I would tell her that I was thinking about the future and that future included you, but I won't lie to you Solana, there were a few times during the bear market where I seriously considered taking Bitcoin's advice. You have to understand, Bitcoin is my first love, she's my ride or die OG hoe. I considered that maybe, just maybe, her and I should just do the whole monogamy thing, that I could just settle down with Bitcoin as my one and only wife, stay humble, stack sats, and slowly grind our way towards retirement, ten minutes at a time, eating grass fed beef and living outside of the system. But then late at night I would look at you lying there, all pathetic and low volume, and I would still see that potential in you that I saw when we met, before Sam fucked everything up. I just didn't have the heart to sell you. I would even imagine raising a whole family of ugly little PFP NFTs with you and it would make me smile as I carried you to bed every night from whatever random spot you had passed out in. Bitcoin got jealous of how well I was treating you, she even started talking about having her own NFTs which she had never done before. I told her to relax because there's enough of me to go around, you AND her can both have my NFTs. The more NFTs the merrier right?

Do you remember that Christmas in 2022? Well now that I think about it, I doubt you remember much of it at all, I'd say it was when you hit your rock bottom. We were all at pretty low points in our lifes around then. You can't say I wasn't loyal though, I stuck by your side from 250 all the way down to 8. I was having some trouble paying the bills. I even tried using you and Ethereum as collateral with the loan shark. He didn't even offer me enough USDC to make the risk of potentially losing you forever worth it.

Life went on, and we managed to avoid liquidation and eventually we got through the dark times. You started to get cleaned up and your network was running smoothly again. Demand returned and price was improving. I stopped catching you doing unspeakable things with venture capitalists in back alleys. Things were going good, transactions were up,and the light in your oh so beautiful eyes came back. I remember you even picked up a side hustle building phones or some shit. Ethereum eventually stopped smoking crack, but now she kind of just sits around with all her pet L2s, smokes pot, and does nothing. Bitcoin just kept marching on, block by block, and cleaned up after us as usual. We usually let Bitcoin handle the finances of the household because if it was just up to me and you we probably would lose everything at the pump dot fun casino...again.

Well baby, with a little help, you finally made it back to about where you were in 2021, and sometimes I wonder if now is the time for me to release you and watch you fly. I have held your hair back while you puked, I helped rebuild your self esteem when you felt so worthless, and I've let you stay in my Ledger for years now. Maybe it's time that you go make someone else as happy as you have me. Also, seriously baby I was okay with the whole Trump coin thing, it even kind of impressed me how well you handled it. But when you added Melania to the mix I began to wonder if you were back on the drugs! I'm also concerned about your new friends, you have been hanging out with all these new AI agent people that I just don't understand. When I try to buy them they go down, then I sell them and they go back up, I guess I'm just not technically proficient enough to understand the tech or something. I mean also, I'm not going to lie, it was kind of weird when you were farting in a jar and selling it as "Fartcoin" at a valuation of over a billion dollars. A billion dollars? For farts? Okay, maybe you have relapsed now that I sit and really think about it.

Despite the farts and Melanias, whenever I start to doubt and think about selling again, the doubts fade on those special nights when we stay up late together, watch the stars, and talk about our dreams for the future. You like to talk about decentralization and how many more transactions per second you will have one day. I like to look at the moon and talk of visiting it one day with you. Maybe if we stay together, then one day we will retire and just live off of your staking rewards. Bitcoin will be very old by then, her blocks wont be producing very much, but you are still young enough that you will still be sexy at that point if you take care of yourself. Maybe then we will finally have the time to be truly happy together. Nobody knows what the future holds though, well except maybe that weird MetaDAO fortune teller in town. To be honest my darling, I probably won't ever be able to sell all of you, our love has grown too deep despite our flaws. I just love how quick and smooth you are, how advanced your features are, how expressive your smart contract language is. Hanging out with you is always fresh and exciting. Bitcoin takes thirty minutes just to decide what she wants for dinner, and good luck getting her to change, she is so stuck in her ways. Whereas you are always mixing it up, trying new things, and having fun. Ethereum, well let's just not talk about Ethereum, she hasn't even been home in two weeks, I might just rent her room out to that hot Sui chick from down the way. Actually can you text Ethereum and tell her that she needs to take all of her L2s to the vet and get them fixed already, the motherfuckers just keep having babies all over the house! Every time I turn around I am tripping over an L2. Now even you and Bitcoin are both wanting your own L2s too, my god people I only have so much capital to bridge around, I can't feed all of them!

Anyways, I wanted to say I know everything in the past wasn't always your fault, I have my own flaws as well. I should focus more on the tech inside of you instead of just your appearance. I know I need to stop apeing into memecoins off in the trenches, sometimes I don't come home for days at a time and I know that can be hard on y'all. I just need to let off some steam every once in a while you know? Is polyamory difficult? Yes, but it can also be oh so rewarding. I know that if we put our hearts into it we can beat the odds and live long and happy lives together. I hear crypto is being deregulated now, maybe the laws will even change to allow humans and blockchains to get married and this polyamory we got going on can become some good ol' fashioned polygamy. Although we might still have to ditch Ethereum....she just really needs to get her shit together. Anytime I try to talk to her about it, she just mumbles something about a roadmap and that things will be better in ten years.

Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I'm just so glad you are in my life. It's been a wild ride to say the least but I wouldn't go back and change anything because everything we went through just made us stronger as a couple. I just know that the future is bright, me and you baby, WAGMI.

With love now and forevermore,

thoughtcrimeboss

Why The Unique Experiences On Farcaster Retained Me As A User

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 10:38:59 GMT

This is my entry to the 2026 Farcaster writing contest, using the prompt "How can crypto social legos create experiences that can’t be found on web2 social networks?"

*Farcaster isn't an actual app, it's the protocol, but for simplicity's sake I am going to refer to both the client I use, Warpcast, and the protocol as Farcaster throughout this piece.

Farcaster is a decentralized social media network built on top of Ethereum in which you fully own your account. It's open source, anyone can build a client for it and users are free to move between clients or use multiple clients. At the surface it looks kind of like Twitter/X, but if you dig a little deeper, you will realize Farcaster is something completely unique. When I started using Farcaster in 2023, I was not in a good place financially. To give you an idea of how broke I was, I seriously considered not signing up simply because you had to pay a few bucks to create an account (I think the price has decreased since then). My utilities and internet were constantly on the verge of getting cut off and all of my Bitcoin was tied up as collateral in loans that were usually on the verge of liquidation. So at the time, every action I took had to be very deliberate; I just couldn't afford to waste any time. If I did waste time, I would suffer from hardcore productivity guilt. So scrolling through social media was definitely not at the top of my to do list. I didn't even like using social media back when I could actually afford to waste a little time here and there. I did occasionally use Twitter, but I don't even have a Facebook or Instagram account. Before 2023, the last time I had really interacted with social media on a regular basis was using MySpace to try and get laid back in the day.

Yes, it's been awhile.

Although, since I first discovered crypto in 2017, I had at least TRIED to use many different crypto native social media apps before Farcaster, but none of them managed to keep me around. I always start out on a new application with the hope that it will be different, that maybe I will be able to build a following because I'm early to the platform and will actually get engagement and enjoy myself. I have a short attention span though, and if I don't start to see progress right away I will usually give up and move on. One after another, Steemit/Hive, friend.tech, Den.Social, and several others that I don't even remember the names of anymore, all failed to retain me as a user.

The only reason I even tried Farcaster during that very broke period in my life, was that I was experimenting with airdrop hunting as a side hustle and wanted to qualify for any potential airdrop they might have. All I wanted to do was copy and paste my tweets into it and click buttons until I got the coveted "Power User Badge", which is no longer even a thing, but at the time I assumed it would guarantee me an airdrop allocation if there was one. Farcaster almost immediately grabbed my attention though, it was still social media, but it felt like something unique. For the first time in my life since Myspace, I was actually opening and checking a social media app on a daily basis. I had been hooked. But why? Why did Farcaster succeed in getting me to give it my time and attention where all the other crypto native social media networks had failed? Well, I believe it's because there were constantly new crypto social "legos" being built on top of Farcaster that worked together to provide me with a plethora of different unique rewarding experiences, with an emphasis on "rewarding". As someone suffering from intense productivity guilt, it was kind of painful when I would spend time crafting quality tweets only to be completely ignored. The vast majority of my tweets on Twitter receive little to no engagement. As someone with a small account with no hope of actual monetization, at the very least I want to know that at least SOMEONE other than bots read the damn tweet, otherwise posting just feels like an Sisyphean exercise.

The experience I had on Farcaster was completely different and using the protocol very quickly became about more than just a potential airdrop. I noticed that I would actually get engagement on some of my posts which was very refreshing. I didn't have to grind for 5 hours a day reply guying just to get my posts noticed by people, the network was still small enough that even someone like me could get engagement and avoid the whole existential crisis that comes on Twitter when you realize that maybe, just maybe, no one is engaging with your tweets not because of the algorithm screwing you, but because nobody actually cares what you have to say.

Regardless of the engagement, it's what happened next that really cemented my status as a daily active user of Farcaster. I began to realize there was more to Farcaster than just posting and engagement, people were building and using applications on top of the protocol. A key moment for me was when I found bountybot.xyz, which someone had built to enable anyone to post paid microtasks that people could try to complete if they wanted. I experimented with it, not thinking I would actually get paid for anything. I proofread someones docs page and found a couple of errors which took me less than ten minutes. I distinctly remember getting the notification that I had received $20 USDC while I was riding the bus home from work. At first I had no idea why I had gotten paid and was confused, I had forgotten about the bounty and was wondering why someone had sent me $20 USDC. When I realized what it was for I just thought it was so cool, I had traded a few minutes of my time for $20, all enabled by this little social media app in my pocket.

Yes, I did get super excited over $20 USDC

The fun didn't stop there though, eventually I found my way to the /politics channel and started posting there occasionally. I remember thinking that maybe I shouldn't bother posting because most of the people seemed to be either liberals or conservatives and I didn't think any of them are going to want to listen to my unconventional views on the government. Luckily, I decided to do some posting anyways. The timing turned out to be impeccable because the owner of /politics, @javabu.eth, was just starting to try a new tactic to grow the channel, he picked a group of regular posters in the channel to be paid political commentators and be rewarded for posting good content. This was a perfect example of how these Farcaster application legos can fit together to create new and unique experiences. He didn't even actually have to pay the commentators out of his own wallet though, he just used his $DEGEN tipping allowance to do it. The Degen project grants every user who locks up a minimum of 10,000 $DEGEN a tipping allowance. Every day your tipping allowance resets and you can spend it as you see fit, all you have to do is reply to a post with an amount and the $DEGEN ticker and it automatically sends $DEGEN to whoever you tipped. Another project, called microsub, enables users to use all or a portion of their allowance to "subscribe" to different users, automatically tipping them on a regular basis. @javabu.eth used microsub to pay the political commentators out of his allowance automatically, incentivizing them to post. Every month he would see who was contributing good content and picked the paid group for the next month. I got picked to be one of these commentators and all of a sudden I was using social media and simultaneously getting paid. I told my wife how awesome I thought it was that I am getting paid to do something I would want to do anyways, talk about politics. She just asked if that meant she didn't have to listen to me rant about the government anymore.

That was just one example of many unique experiences that I have had on Farcaster that were enabled by these various crypto social legos that I have watched evolve in real time since I joined. Not long after I signed up, Farcaster released "frames", which are like little micro apps within posts, allowing users to do various things without ever leaving the feed such as minting NFTs, swapping assets, or displaying context specific data. Another project came along after Degen, called Moxie, which created "channel tokens" which earn a share of the $MOXIE earnings generated by engagement within the channel. So @javabu.eth was able to invest in his own channel through Moxie's channel tokens, which further aligned him with the channel and incentivized him to incentivize us! I also bought some /politics tokens and so I was even more incentivized to contribute good content to the channel, because good content creates engagement. Engagement creates $MOXIE, which then feeds back into the value of the channel tokens. At the same time, $DEGEN tips are flying around as well, separate from the automatic microsub tips. If someone really likes a post I make, then I might earn some extra crypto for it. I remember I once got a $60 tip for a post about immigration from a user named @jeffexcell. I was really struggling financially at the time I got this tip, so it was a big deal to me. Jeff didn't have to pay to tip me, he did it for free through his tipping allowance. HAM / TN100X also have a system of tipping, and I think that regardless of what form it takes, easy tipping on Farcaster is not going away. These kind of crypto market dynamics that have been built on top of the regular ol' fashioned social media experience create a natural filter for content. You are more likely to see quality content in your feed because everyone, both big and small, is incentivized to try and create quality posts because of the potential rewards. I find it interesting that completely unrelated projects on Farcaster can often end up complimenting each other in unique ways, even if they may be technically competing with each other.

Can you begin to see how positive sum relationships develop between these applications, their coins, and the users of Farcaster? It's so much different than engaging on Twitter without earning anything in return. Given the current state of the world and the way inflationary fiat currencies are robbing people of their purchasing power, I'd imagine there are lots of people out there that don't feel they can afford to waste time on social media. I think regular users are fed up with contributing to Web 2 social networks and getting absolutely nothing in return despite them helping these companies make revenue. Time is our most valuable resource, when users put their time into contributing to a social network they deserve to be rewarded in some form or fashion. Farcaster offers that reward potential to contributors instead of the traditional Web 2 dynamics in which users only have value extracted from them without even the benefit of owning their own social graph. This is the reason that Farcaster was able to retain me as a user where so many other platforms failed, because when I use Farcaster I know that there is at least the potential to be rewarded for my time.

The crypto based financialization of social media has been tried again and again, other protocols have also rewarded users, so why should it succeed on Farcaster where it has failed everywhere else? I think one of the main reasons it has a chance is that it is so easy for people to build on top of Farcaster and experiment. One application or reward mechanism can fail without destroying the entire value proposition of the network. Instead of a winner take all environment, different projects have found ways to interoperate with each other leaving room for multiple projects to succeed. New builders see the success of other builders and want to experiment with their own projects.

Aren't people building on top of Twitter as well? Well yes they are, we can look at KaitoAI for a good example of that, but there is something fundamentally different about building on top of a private company's product versus building on top of an open source protocol like Farcaster. When you build on top of something like Twitter or Facebook, you face the very real risk of the company rug pulling you at any time if they decide to change their API or lock you out. Just ask Zynga, the company that used to build games on Facebook before Facebook closed off its API. When you build on Farcaster you don't have to worry about this. Without the top down centralized control of a social media company, Farcaster's decentralization enables a more permissive environment where anyone can flourish and new communities can be born. An example of this is how unlike the Twitter algorithm, I believe none of the Farcaster clients penalize you for sharing an external link. They don't try to trap you in one client, and I think this works in their favor. It's also chain agnostic, so people can build Farcaster applications that work with any EVM (ethereum virtual machine) compatible chain and even Solana if they want to.

All of the legos that I've mentioned so far, such as Degen, Moxie, and Microsub, work together on their own. But when you add the capabilities of frames V2 into the mix it opens up all kinds of possibilities for new and unique experiences on Farcaster. Users in 2025 have very short attention spans, this is a fact and it's not something that's going to change anytime soon. When a user has to leave an app in order to take an action, such as minting an NFT for example, they are much less likely to complete the action. Frames allows users to do all kinds of things within posts without leaving their Farcaster client. Developers have only just begun to utilize this, and frames have the potential to bring a lot of new use cases to Farcaster.

My tipping allowance on degen.tips

Bull or bear, the strong community of builders in the Farcaster ecosystem are going to continue to build and iterate on new legos that will work with the ones that are already present. Say you have an opinion you want to share but you are scared to say it under your own profile, just use anon.world to post it anonymously. Want to launch a new coin? Use Clankerbot to do it. Want to buy or sell that coin? Tag the bankr bot and tell it what you want it to do for you. Want to support an artist? Mint their NFT within a frame in their feed, and tip the post with some $DEGEN or $HAM. Want to speculate on the future of a creator? Use moxie.xyz to invest in their creator coin. Just want to play a game with one of your friends? Challenge them on Farcade. You can even create your very own annoying AI agent using tinyagents.xyz (mine is called ancappepe if you feel like pumping his sub 50k marketcap for me). There is always something new to do on Farcaster, I have watched first hand the exponential growth in applications. It has also become a hotbed of alpha, there are Clanker token launches happening within posts right there in the feed, there are builders are experimenting, and there are random plebs like me right in the middle of all that activity.

Feel free to pump my bags

In fact, it's possible that the protocol shouldn't try to grow too fast, because there is something to be said for the advantages of being small. Even if Farcaster never attracts as many users as a traditional Web 2 social media platform, it can still succeed. Right now it still feels more like an exclusive VIP lounge where you can interact with some very smart and successful people (and help test their products), rather than a crowded concert where you will never stick out from the crowd. The signal to noise ratio is much better than on Twitter. Being smaller also has advantages in terms of the ability to innovate quickly. Changing Twitter or Facebook is like trying to turn around an oil tanker, whereas Farcaster is more like a speedboat. You would think that in 2025 your Twitter and Facebook accounts would have at the very least a built in crypto wallet and native crypto tipping built in, but they haven't even done that yet. As crypto gains more adoption around the world, the ability to combine social and crypto seamlessly will become even more attractive to people. Farcaster is currently being integrated into Coinbase wallet, bringing with it a bunch of potential new users. If we want to see these users stick around, we need to make sure the unique experiences available on Farcaster are front and center so that they find out right away that it is not just another Twitter clone. I know that I couldn't of had the experience I've had on Farcaster anywhere else. If the word spreads that it is a place where anyone who has even a basic understanding of crypto can come and actually be rewarded for their time, even as a small account, I think that it will see significant growth. With new users will come new applications, with new applications come new experiences, new experiences attract new users, and we will see the network grow. I believe that with the more permissive building environment enabled by the new administration's pro-crypto policies, these potential rewards and the number of Farcaster compatible applications is going to grow quickly. After all, builders are more likely to experiment if they don't have to worry about going to jail or getting slapped with a massive SEC lawsuit. Farcaster is the perfect sandbox for trying things out, and anyone who is present in the sandbox can and will benefit from this. I think one of the best things the leaders of Farcaster can do to facilitate this growth is focus on marketing to new users and govern from a distance, letting the innovation happen organically. If they get too caught up in minutia and trying to control and optimize everything, this just opens the door for mistakes to be made that hamper growth. Less is probably worth more in the governance of this protocol.

As users we should also be doing our best to help spread the word about Farcaster's unique experiences. I know there are a lot of small accounts on crypto Twitter grinding away in an attempt to be heard amidst the noise. These people are investing a lot of time and energy into social media but aren't really seeing a return on their investment, all we have to do is convince them that their time would be better spent on Farcaster where they actually have a chance of having an impact. How hard is it to convince someone to at least copy and paste their tweets into Farcaster? Why not right? Then when they start to see actual engagement on their casts, they will become more interested and start exploring the ecosystem just like I did. With the right nudges it wouldn't take much to convert someone already in the crypto world to become a daily user of Farcaster. We can worry about getting non-crypto native users later, right now there is still plenty of room to grow with just crypto people. I hope if you also enjoy Farcaster, you will join me in spreading the word. I want to see this protocol continue to grow and foster innovation in the years to come. I can't wait to see what the community builds next!

Guides to Opting Out and Living Outside of the System

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 23:00:36 GMT

Imagine you find yourself stuck in a city like Asheville after a hurricane hits. You were expecting some heavy rain, but you got complete devastation instead. You are a traveling musician and were just spending the night there on your way to a gig. You realize that you can't get out of town because of the flooding, but you have no food. Not knowing what else to do, you head to the grocery store to pick up some supplies. On the door is a sign that stops you in your tracks, "Cash Only". Damnit! So you look around for a functioning ATM to get some cash, and you see one with a line all the way down the block. At this point you are getting hungry, you haven't had breakfast or even any coffee. After waiting in line for 2 hours, you are almost to the ATM when you hear someone start cussing loudly. The ATM has run out of cash. Now you are starting to worry, you can't even look up where the next closest ATM is because you don't have cell service. So you wander around for a while and find a few ATMs, but they are all already out of cash. FUCK! You can't call anyone for help, you feel completely broke even though you have thousands of dollars in your bank account. You are now completely dependent on the generosity of others until services are restored.

Fuck, now what?

These days I encounter so many people who don't carry cash at all. They are solely reliant on payment apps and debit/credit cards. They are comfortable with this because they assume they can always get some cash from an ATM if they really need it. The aftermath of the recent hurricanes as well as the Bank Of America outages serve as a potent reminder of the importance of carrying cash. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, you couldn't use credit cards or mobile payments to buy food or supplies and consequently there were very long lines at all functioning ATMs. Then you have to worry about the ATM running out of money before you can withdraw any cash. Natural disasters are not the only reason you can lose access to your cash. Network outages and bank errors can also easily leave you without any money. I'd much rather carry at least some cash instead of leaving all of it sitting in a bank account that I might or might not be able to access when I need to. Beyond potential logistical issues in accessing your money, it's absolutely essential to realize that once it's in the bank, your money is no longer your money. Many uninformed people actually believe that banks just put your money safely in a vault and it just sits there until you need it. The banks don't sit on your money, they lend most of it out to earn interest and keep a small amount of cash on hand to give to people who request a withdrawal. If a large amount of people wanted to withdraw all their money at once, banks wouldn't be able to fulfill all those withdrawals.

The bank doesn't actually have your money in it's vault

Anytime you give a third party control over your wealth, you are taking a risk. In the United States, the Federal Government insures most bank accounts up to 10,000 dollars, but the FDIC's funds are limited and can only handle a limited number of bank failures before they can no longer fulfill that promise. This has already come close to happening when multiple banks failed last year, and remains a possibility for the future. One of the reasons we didn't have a complete meltdown in the banking sector last year, was that the Federal Reserve created the Bank Term Funding Program as a band aid for all the banks on the brink of insolvency. This program allowed the banks to borrow money from the Fed using their treasury bonds as collateral, except the Fed valued them at par instead of their actual market value. The banking system is a house of cards that could collapse from the slightest of headwinds, and it is not something you should trust with a large amount of wealth in my opinion.

Thankfully, thanks to the good work of freedom tech pioneers like Satoshi Nakamoto, we can now take full control of our wealth and become our own bank. Because we have crypto, cash, and even gold, you can now live your life without ever trusting a bank. If you want to use a bank, that's your choice, personally I have opted out of the banking system and haven't had a bank account in many years. I live as private a life as possible which is much easier without using banks. I've decided to share some of the knowledge I have gained and give you some tips on how to live outside of the system without a bank account. There is a lot to go over so this will probably be the first of many different posts on the topic.

Cash is an absolutely essential tool for a free society so that people can easily transact privately and without anyone's permission. There are of course cryptocurrencies like Monero which are private, portable, and fungible like cash. However as great as Monero is, it still doesn't work without two essential elements, internet access and electricity. As freedom minded individuals we should be using cash and crypto as much as possible in our daily lives. If we get to the point where very few people are using cash at all, that will be a perfect opportunity for the state to swoop in and end physical cash entirely in favor of a CBDC. These will track and report every transaction you make, as well as give the state the ability to freeze your funds at any time or mandate what you can spend your own money on. The state is encouraging a cashless society for a reason, a cashless society is easier to control. Every time we use cash instead of a card, we are resisting this control.

Cash is essential for a free society

If you are living off of cash and crypto, you may often have large amounts of cash. Remember, if you decide to be your own bank, one of the trade offs is that you have to protect your own money rather than relying on a bank to. In a bank account, your money may be safe from some forms of theft like muggings, but it's not safe from other thieves such as a government or even the bank itself. How do you keep this cash safe? Well you can stash some of it at home, just make sure you hide it very well. You don't want to put it under your mattress, or in a desk drawer. You definitely don't want to put it in a small safe, if someone breaks in they will just grab that and break into it later. Even a large safe bolted to the floor is going to be a target, but it's better than not bolting it to the floor. What you really want to do is have it somewhere that no one is ever going to find it unless you have told them exactly where it is. It's preferable to keep it on your property but not actually in your house, in case of a fire. It is just paper after all. However, you don't want to have too much of your cash at home, because what if one day you can't go home and get it? What if you can never go back home? These are possibilities you need to consider. Remember, if you are taking full control on your own money, then you are responsible for preparing for everything that could possibly go wrong.

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best

Fortunately, carrying a lot of cash on you relatively safely is possible! I have routinely carried thousands of dollars on my person for years without ever having a issue or losing a single dollar, despite living in a major city where crime is commonplace. Ten grand in hundreds weighs less than quarter of a pound, so you will barely notice the weight of it. You are going to want to get a belt with a secret zipper pocket that goes all the way around the back of the belt. You can fold up at least a couple thousand dollars in hundreds and put them in there. As long as you don't over stuff the belt, then no one will be able to see that your belt has anything inside of it without a close inspection. With these belts, usually you can get away with folding two hundred dollar bills together several times until they are folded up into a small rectangle, then you just line sets of two hundreds all the way around the belt. Sometimes you can do three bill sets, but you want to make sure it doesn't make a noticeable bulge in your belt. You are then going to want to get a tourist wallet with a neck strap. I think they are designed to be worn above your waist, but if you aren't wearing a coat or hoodie than it would be obvious that you have something under your shirt. So instead of that, I let it hang low and put it down my pants so that it kind of rests in my crotch area or on my thigh. Unless you are wearing tight pants or a tight skirt, nobody will be able to tell that you have a tourist wallet on. You can fit a lot of cash in this, I also like to put an encrypted flash drive with a back up of everything important and a hardware wallet in there. For extra points, also carry a faraday pouch with a burner phone in it that has no ties to your identity (you can just stick this in your bag or where ever). This phone is just so if you ever need to disappear in a hurry, you can ditch your daily driver phone but still have a device ready to go that won't be tracked.

Belt with secret pocket

Tourist Wallet

You can also build a secret compartment into your shoes in addition to the secret money belt or as an alternative to it. I don't how much money you can fit in there but probably a decent amount if it's in large bills. Hidden pockets in coats or the linings of coats are also an option. I wouldn't put money in your socks or underwear, that's too obvious. Sometimes you might encounter an absolute emergency where you need to protect some cash in a hurry. In those situations, there's always your own personal suitcase. Roll it up as tight as you can, double wrap it in two condoms, the inner condom should be unlubricated, so that the lubrication doesn't get all over your cash, and the outer condom should be lubricated to make things easier. Then stick it up your ass if you are male, or your vagina if you are female. You might want to practice this once or twice at home. Yes it's unpleasant, but when its a choice between losing 10,000 dollars or sticking it up your asshole or vagina, I'll stick it up there any day. If you don't have condoms available, any kind of plastic bag will work in a pinch, just don't use anything that might cut you up. You gotta stick it all the way up there, and you can just shit it back out later (or just pull it out if you're a woman). Just remember not to flush until you retrieve it! Carry a couple of condoms just in case you ever have to do this and hope you don't. For a good example of how this can save your ass (haha, get it?), watch the amazing remake of Papillon.

Don't worry it will come back out, just for god's sake remember not to flush.

You have three main threats that you have to worry about when carrying large amounts of cash. They are thieves, law enforcement, and your own dumb ass. To protect yourself from all three it is essential to also carry a regular wallet, with whatever amount of money that you can afford to lose without it being devastating to your finances. Your ID (if you have one) and whatever you need for that day's expenses goes in this wallet, and it also needs to have simultaneously enough cash in it to satisfy any muggers and not enough cash to make any cops suspicious if you have to get your ID out in front of them. Cops usually become immediately suspicious of anyone with large amounts of cash, and if you are in certain countries they will try to get a bribe if they know you have money. In the United States, they may try to seize your cash with civil asset forfeiture based on even the "suspicion" that you are a drug dealer or some other kind of criminal. So it's important to not reveal your belt stash or your neck wallet if at all possible. This regular wallet is supposed to be a decoy for muggers as well. If someone shoves a gun in your face and asks for your wallet, then you can quickly hand them this decoy wallet. The idea is that they will see that it has a decent amount of cash in it, and then they will hopefully run off satisfied and not investigate further. The goal is to keep them from discovering your other two cash stashes in your belt and your tourist wallet. It's a good idea to just cooperate right away, using the decoy wallet, so that they don't just pistol whip you, knock you out, and then search you. This is especially true if you are unarmed. If you are armed, then it's up to you if you want to try and stop them that way.

Watch out for the fuzz

If you have a car, encounters with law enforcement are more of an issue than if you walk, bike, or use public transportation. If you do get pulled over, don't ever voluntarily consent to a search of your car. Your rights during an encounter with the police are different depending on if you are driving a car, a passenger in a car, a pedestrian, or on public transit. Remember, if you are carrying large amounts of cash, the goal is to not encounter police in the first place so that you don't ever have to be questioned about your cash. If you do ever get searched by law enforcement, and they discover either of your secret cash stashes beyond your regular wallet, they will inevitably ask you why you have so much cash. It's your choice whether to say anything or not, but personally I would just say that I don't trust banks and start talking about recent bank failures. Don't say anything about yourself other than that you don't trust banks, as they will try to use anything you say against you. The goal is to make them dismiss you as just a paranoid weirdo and not suspect you of a crime. While it is not illegal to carry large amounts of cash, some law enforcement officers will still try to find any reason to take your cash. Other law enforcement officers will straight up rob you and unfortunately it will be your word against theirs, and you will probably be fucked in that situation. So go out of your way to not encounter law enforcement in the first place, if you sense that you may be in a situation or area that is likely to be visited by them, leave immediately. Always remember to pay your fare if you're using public transportation, you don't want to end up in an encounter because you didn't cough up a few dollars. In a future guide, we will go over what your rights are and what exactly to do when you do encounter law enforcement in much more depth.

Road pirates may try to steal your cash

This decoy wallet has a third function beyond just protecting you from law enforcement and muggers, and that is protecting you from yourself. This is the wallet you are going to be interacting with and pulling out all day, you aren't going to be messing with your tourist wallet or belt stash unless for some reason you absolutely need to. So if you do accidentally lose your wallet or leave it somewhere, it's going to be your decoy wallet. This will still suck, but at least your main stash of cash will be okay. Now if you do need to get something out of your belt or tourist wallet, do it in a private controlled place such as a bathroom stall. Double check to make sure you have re-secured everything properly before leaving the stall.

If you are going to be carrying a lot of cash around, you are also going to want to dress down. Don't wear jewelry or fancy watches, don't wear expensive clothing, you want to look like you are just another BAM (broke ass motherfucker). Never show off that you have money! Don't tell anyone about how you carry cash (I guess I just broke this rule, but you definitely shouldn't). Avoid bad areas of town if at all possible, and don't walk about alone late at night if you can avoid it.

Blend in and tell no one

It's up to you how much cash you are comfortable with carrying around, and what percentage of your wealth you want to keep in cash. Everyone's situations are different. If you think there is a decent chance that one day you might have to leave in a hurry than you probably should have more cash ready to go than your average pleb. It goes without saying, but don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Don't have all your wealth in cash, store most of it in crypto. It's way easier to protect a seed phrase than it is to protect large amounts of cash. You just want to have enough cash on hand to pay your bills and expenses with, as well as extra cash for grid down emergencies in which you won't be able to access your crypto. If you do feel the need to have a bank account, you shouldn't keep very much money in it. If you do decide to have a significant amount of money in the banking system, at the very least split it up among multiple banks.

One of the wonderful things about cash, is it's very easy to split up into multiple stashes. Keep some of your cash at home, some on your person, and some in various other locations. You can rent a storage unit and keep some cash in there as well. You can always have a trusted friend rent the storage unit for you, so that it's not in your name if you feel the need to. Or you can just bury some cash in the woods and keep the exact GPS coordinates so that you can retrieve it easily. Don't make your system too complicated, you want to be able to easily retrieve all your cash if you need it.

Remember cash is fragile! Don't just bury 20 grand in a ziplock bag or you might be very disappointed when you retrieve it. Cash needs to be protected from the elements, from people, and from animals and insects. Store it in airtight rodent proof containers.

Cops and robbers aren't the only things you need to worry about

If you do hide cash in various places, you need to at least consider what happens if you die or even get amnesia. Is there anyone you can trust with the locations of your cash and crypto? Do you want all that cash to just rot or end up getting sold in a storage unit auction, or for your crypto to be locked away in an inaccessible wallet for the rest of time? If you do store cash in a storage unit, make sure you pay for at least several months at a time to minimize the risk of defaulting on the unit. One method I am considering looking into is some kind of dead man's switch message that will get sent to a loved one if I ever don't reset it on a regular basis. That way if something does happen to me, the message will get sent automatically and my loved one can access my cash and crypto. Luckily I don't have to worry too much about this yet because I don't even have enough money yet to be stashing it all over town! One day I will though, I am determined to build significant wealth outside of the system and use it as a tool to live as a free a life as possible. I hope you will join me on this journey!

Now you know my system for safely carrying cash. I know it works because I have managed to safely carry cash, a little gold, and a hardware wallet on my person for many years. Hopefully this will continue to be the case but maybe not since I just gave away all my secrets on social media. I am willing to take this risk though if I can help a few people live more easily outside of the system. Luckily, nobody reads my blog anyways, so please subscribe if you want more tips on living a private life outside of the system! In our next guide we will look at Monero and how to use it to pay your bills.

Election Workers Are Just People

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 23:18:01 GMT

TLDR: It sucks that poll workers are being harassed and threatened but questioning elections and results shouldn't be politically incorrect. Poll workers are just people, and people are corruptible and make mistakes. Fraud is likely when the stakes feel so high to many people. Blockchains can fix many problems with elections.

Disclaimer: I don't endorse either Harris or Trump or democracy in general. I don't believe we should vote to force the minority into doing what the majority wants. Voting doesn't make the extortion, theft, and violence the Government does on a daily basis okay. I believe there is some valid arguments for voting as an act of self defense but also valid arguments that we shouldn't legitimize this system by voting at all. That is a topic for another day though.

Questioning the integrity of elections is now officially politically incorrect and taboo! That is concerning to me, we should always question everything the Government does, from the federal level all the way down to your local government. At least some Democrats or Republicans have questioned election results for almost every election this century, but now suddenly it's no longer acceptable to do so without being labeled a conspiracy theorist. Is anybody really naive enough, deep down, to think there won't be at least some attempts at fraud on both sides this time around? For people who either worship Trump or think he is Hitler, the stakes feel high, it feels to them like the fate of the entire country is at stake. That alone can make people do crazy shit and feel justified in doing so.

Now before you rip my head off, keep reading and consider my other points please.

Yes, it is obviously horrible that there are crazy people in the world harassing poll workers, but let's please not forget that these workers are just people like any other people. If they are just people and they are underpaid as I have seen many posts claim, then that would make them even more susceptible to corruption (greed is universal, almost everyone has a price). Yes, people are sometimes corrupt, people make mistakes, and some election workers may even let their fear of a Trump or Harris win override their common sense. That's just like how the people who are harassing poll workers are also letting their fear override their common sense. It's all just PEOPLE running this election, from the electoral college all the way down! People are bad sometimes, and sometimes they are good, but they are always just human beings. You don't magically acquire the morals and self control of a saint the minute you accept a job as a poll worker! Yet we are supposed to pretend that there is not even a possibility that people could act like people? Here's an idea, stop leaving it up to fallible people to count votes in the first place! In this kind of political environment don't you think it's a bit of a big ask to expect people to just trust elections outright?

Some people will do crazy shit when they feel that special kind of righteous anger, that anger which sends morals and rules out the window because it becomes more important to win and "protect America". If you still have faith in democracy (you shouldn't), then we have the technology to ensure fair verifiable elections with no need for poll workers counting votes. If you eliminate all the human points of failure then no sane person can claim an election was stolen. You can't argue with verifiable math on a blockchain. It either is or isn't, there is no room for any corruption if the code is solid. If we want fair elections then why not have open source voting machines and blockchain based voter registration? Are they just worried some corporations will lose some money? What's the real reason? Hopefully it's just Government's typical inefficiency leading to slow adoption of new technology and not anything nefarious.

Now if someone within the vast apparatus that runs the US elections does see some evidence of fraud, we are in the kind of deeply divisive political environment in which they may very well stay silent out of fear of being ostracized and labeled a Trumper, right wing extremist, conspiracy theorist, or worse. It could just as likely happen the other way around, as in a poll worker with a Republican family or circle of friends might not report fraud that benefits Trump. That kind of scenario is not that implausible, and if you think it is you're lying to yourself. If we want to continue having a stable democracy, this needs to be the last election that's not done on a blockchain.

Okay I'm done ranting now, If you are interested in learning more about the security of our elections, here's a good podcast on the subject by Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons. According to the guest, there are concerning vulnerabilities in our voting systems, although no evidence has been found that they have been exploited in the wild.

Episode webpage: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2023/12/11/restoring-trust-in-elections/

Becoming a poll worker doesn't automatically make you a saint.

MetaDAO: Experimenting With Futarchy

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I was hunting for hidden gems in the Solana ecosystem when I discovered a very unique kind of DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), called MetaDAO. This project is experimenting with a new system of governance called Futarchy, and if it works, it could have a huge impact on how DAOs choose to govern themselves in the future. One of the best ways to start a successful project is to find a problem and create a solution for it. The problem that MetaDAO is trying to fix is one people have been working on since the beginning of civilization, and that is how to govern effectively.

Why Democracy Sucks

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but as far as systems of governance go, democracy doesn't actually work very well. This is true even though modern society practically worships it as the ultimate ideal governance model, that's why you are always hearing about how we need to protect democracy, spread democracy, and let democracy have relations with your wife. Democratic governance is slow, it's messy, and it often makes horrible decisions that force the will of the majority onto the minority whether it is good for them or not. People have been trying to make it work for thousands of years, sometimes they'll get lucky and it will kind of work for a while, other times it wont work so well and you end up with such stupidity as voting in a complete dictator who never leaves, or voting to invade another country for no reason. Democratic governments also have a tendency to grow into bloated inefficient bureaucratic monsters over time that need to extract more and more resources from their citizens to maintain themselves. Personally I think we should all just govern ourselves instead of letting governments control us, extort us, and imprison us, but that's outside the scope of this blog.

Voting won't save you

Maybe countries are just too big to be run effectively as a democracy, what about something smaller, something like a DAO perhaps? Surely democracy can work with a DAO! Nope. Still doesn't work. I don't know if you have ever participated in DAO governance, but I have and it is a slow arduous process that few have the patience for. I mean just look at Uniswap, it's been years now since the airdrop and they still can't manage to vote to share the protocol's profits with token holders, even though that would seem like a no brainer decision that can drive a whole lot of value to the token. In another example, Compound's DAO has been dealing with a governance attack lately, with a bad actor managing to pass a proposal to give his group 24 million dollars worth of COMP tokens. The reason that proposal even passed was because hardly anyone showed up to vote on it, other than the bad actor. The DAO managed to negotiate their way out of it after the fact, but it's still a great example of how low voter participation can easily derail traditional DAO governance. This is also an issue in nation state democracies as well, voting is supposed to take the will of the people and implement it, but one of the reasons why this doesn't actually work is that not enough people show up to vote. Also, the ones that do vote might not be educated about what they are voting on, can be manipulated, or some of them will literally just vote randomly. These are problems in a DAO as well, especially when it comes to smaller stake holders, because they have less of an incentive to actually read through all the proposals and discussions in order to come to an educated decision. Time is money after all, and it takes a lot of time to read every thing you would need to in order to be an informed voter. Governance by voting is also slow and prone to gridlock when neither side of a particular issue can manage to get majority support and absolutely nothing gets done. The many problems with democratic DAO governance has led to an entire graveyard full of failed DAOs or failing DAO's slowly burning through what is left of their treasuries as they wander around like zombies, while bag holders bicker with each other in governance forums.

Some DAOs from the last cycle were recently spotted hanging out

Just imagine (you may have been through this and not need to imagine it), things start to go south for a DAO, a bear market is raging, emotions are high, and those emotions are influencing members' votes. Often times, this scenario ends with people just giving up on escaping the hole they've slowly voted themselves into. Then they vote to dissolve the DAO and distribute the treasury to token holders. Although usually by this point nobody is walking away with very much at all and probably lost money.

Futarchy, A Solution To Governance?

There's got to be a better way right? How do you get people to make good governance decisions on a consistent basis? Well, what if the DAO had a magic crystal ball? Every time your DAO needed to make a decision, it could pull out the crystal ball and see a vision of what the future looks like if you decide one way or the other. Even if the vision is kind of blurry, it would still give you a huge advantage in your decision making!

This glimpse of the future is exactly what MetaDAO's new DAO governance model based on "Futarchy" enables. Futarchy is a relatively new system of governance that was developed by the economist Robin Hanson in 2000. It uses a variation of prediction markets called decision markets to make governance decisions. In a traditional public company governed by a board of directors, they will make a decision and then the market will react to that decision. For example, if ACME Corp decides that it would be a good idea to fire their CEO and hire a new one, they do so and make an announcement about this decision. The ACME stock price would then react to this news. If the market believes that this change is likely to have a positive impact on the company's future earnings potential, the stock price might go up; conversely, if the market thinks otherwise, the stock price could go down. With a futarchy decision market, instead of making a decision first and then finding out if the market thinks it was a good decision or not, you are basically testing the decision first to see how the market would react. This way you can find out what choice is best before making the choice and not after. This is why it's like a crystal ball for governance decisions, imagine if you could see the future before making important decisions, your decisions would be so much better. That sounds pretty good right? So how does it work?

Futarchy enables you to see the potential impact of your decisions before you finalize them

In a futarchy system, instead of voting on the implementation of individual policies, they would vote on a metric. This metric would measure how well the organization or country was doing. Decision markets would then be used to pick whatever policies that will improve the metric the most. Through the power of the markets, the best proposal would trade at a higher price, and that would be the proposal that is implemented. People are voting with their dollars essentially, and because they have some tangible skin in the game that makes the voting process less abstract to them, they are more likely to choose the policy most likely to be successful instead of the policy they simply wish would be more successful.

Even though all markets aren't 100% efficient all of the time, they are still an excellent aggregator of disparate sources of information. It's almost like a computer that processes all known information about an asset or company and spits out a price that reflects all that information. Not only are they are better than polls, scientists, and governments at aggregating information and making predictions, they are also harder to manipulate. It's quite fascinating really, markets have been processing information on a global scale since before the internet even existed. A famous example of the power of markets is after the Challenger space shuttle explosion of 1986, the stock market figured out which NASA contractor was responsible for the explosion within a half hour, while it would take the Government investigation more than 5 months to assign blame.

Challenger Explosion (Image By Kennedy Space Center - Public Domain)

Over time markets reward those who make accurate predictions, giving them more power in the form of capital than those who make inaccurate predictions. This means as long as the same market participants stay in the market, over time that market will produce increasingly accurate predictions. Governance decisions will become more efficient, and the organization or country should prosper and accomplish more in less time than it would with traditional democratic governance. Markets are also much harder to manipulate than voters and politicians, this is backed up by a 2006 research study that found manipulation attempts failed to make prices less accurate.

How It Works

Courtesy of Proph3t's Youtube Channel

How does MetaDAO implement futarchy? Futarchy for a crypto DAO is going to work a little different than it would for governing something like an entire country. In a futarchy country, people would be betting on metrics such as GDP or even something like high school drop out rates. In MetaDAO, the price of the DAO's governance token, META, is the metric they use in the decision markets. Participants are betting on whether or not a proposal will increase or decrease the price of META. The process goes like this:

First a DAO member will present a proposal, a proposal can be about anything that will affect the DAO's treasury and therefore the token price. To do this they will use the autocrat program, an open source program on Solana that creates two markets, a conditional pass market and a conditional fail market.

The proposal will include SVM (Solana virtual machine) instructions for what to do if the proposal passes, such as transferring an amount of USDC to a particular address.
Both markets will have a TWAP (time weighted average price) oracle to determine the final price of each market and decide whether the proposal has passed or failed after a predetermined amount of time.
In a traditional futarchy market, all fail trades are reverted if a proposal passes. On a blockchain it is not technically possible to revert transactions, so the MetaDAO fixes this problem by using a conditional vault program. Anyone wishing to trade the market simply deposits underlying assets, such as USDC, into the vault and the program mints conditional META tokens in return. One token is for pass and one token is for fail, indicated by a p or f in front of the token name. The vault will never have more liabilities than assets because the proposal will always either pass or fail, so a user will be able to redeem the conditional tokens for the tokens they put in originally after the market resolves to pass or fail.
Courtesy of Proph3t's Youtube Channel
Market participants will place bets on whether the proposal will increase or decrease the price of META. If pMETA is trading at $100 and you think the proposal will decrease the value of the token to $90, you will sell pMETA at $100, hoping to book a $10 profit when the market resolves. If someone else thinks the proposal will increase the value of META to $110, they will buy pMETA at $100, hoping that they will get a $10 profit as well.
The market runs for the preset amount of time, and if during that time there is more demand for pMETA than fMETA, the final TWAP price will reflect a higher price for pMETA and the proposal passes.
Once the proposal passes, the SVM instructions will execute and do whatever the proposal said. All fMETA trades will be reversed, and traders will redeem their conditional tokens for the assets they initially deposited into the vault and collect any profit they made if they bet correctly. For example, if you deposited 100 USDC in the vault, and pMETA's final price was $110, you would redeem your 100 USDC for a META token that is worth 110 USDC and you now have 10 USDC in profit.
Potential for profit makes governance way more fun

An example of a proposal that recently passed on MetaDAO was a fundraising proposal to raise money from the sale of META tokens in order to hire a full time team. The "pass" market closed with a price of $435.62 versus a price of $386.22 for the "fail" market. This market processed over 14k in volume, which isn't a lot, but I'd imagine if futarchy catches on you will be seeing governance proposals with much more liquidity, which will likely lead to more accurate predictions and better outcomes for the DAOs.

Drawbacks

Futarchy isn't perfect of course, there are some downsides that MetaDAO openly describes in their documentation. For one, markets don't always trade on fundamentals, sometimes traders trade based on what they think other traders will do. So even if a trader thinks a proposal might be good for a token's price, they might bet on it failing if they think that's what everyone else is going to do. MetaDAO proposes this downside could possibly be mitigated by using gated markets and only whitelisting traders who have a track record of trading based on fundamentals. Another draw back to futarchy is that it isn't necessarily good for smaller decisions that aren't going to have much impact on the tokens price, but these kind of decisions still need to be made. There are potential solutions to that problem as well though, I would recommend checking out their white paper for more details. Finally, futaric markets are zero sum conditional markets, meaning you can't win without someone else losing. This means it might require incentives to get people to participate, but if the decisions being reached are leading to DAO growth, then these incentives can easily be sustainable.

As with Gamestop, sometimes markets ignore fundamentals....

Final Thoughts

Futarchy is still brand new as far as governance systems go, and the Solana ecosystem is a perfect place to experiment with it. There are already 3 DAOs using MetaDAO's governance system (Drift, Dean's List, and Future DAO) and I am going to be watching these DAOs very closely over the next couple of years. Either they will crash and burn and futarchy will be a failed experiment in a long line of failed governance systems, or maybe it will succeed and we may get to watch history being formed as futarchy DAOs grow to be the strongest DAOs in the entire ecosystem. It would be interesting to compare the growth trajectories of a futarchy DAO and a traditional DAO launched around the same time. If it does work, other DAOs will notice how well these futaric DAOs are doing and will probably strongly consider switching over, of course they will have to argue about it for six months in long winded governance forum posts and have multiple votes first!

MetaDAO is a perfect example of the kind of innovation that is one of the best aspects of crypto, while many projects are just copy pasta clones of older projects, every once in a while a project will actually do something unique. It's these projects that remind me why I love crypto so much. Instead of just trying to get rich quick off another metaverse or by restaking something 18 times until it has reached Inception levels of ridiculousness, they are literally tackling a problem that people have been trying and failing to solve for millenia. Crypto is the ideal sandbox to try to implement a market based approach to governance because people can easily set up transparent and liquid markets with very little friction. Rules can be set in stone in a smart contract so that participants aren't forced to trust someone's black box. Just imagine if governments used blockchain technology to make traditional elections more transparent and auditable. We've had the tools to ensure fair elections for over a decade! If governments and regulators can avoid stifling innovation by staying out of the way long enough, then these innovations, like MetaDAOs' futarchy governance, may have the potential to change the world for the better.

Round Up May 9-27

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Mon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

No AI was used to write any of this commentary. 100% human made content. Support humanity by subscribing!

May 9

https://venice.ai

Venice.ai Decentralized Chat

Private, permissionless AI

This one is old but I wanted to include it anyways....

Absolute chad Erik Voorhees (remember when he destroyed SBF in a debate over crypto regulation right before it came out the SBF was a piece of shit?) launched a decentralized AI, available at Venice.AI, because he was concerned with censorship and privacy concerns on other LLMs like OpenAI's ChatGPT. I mean if we get to a point where everyone is using an LLM as their own personal assistant, that AI is going to have massive amounts of data on people. I don't really want OpenAI to know about that thing growing on my dick so I'm going to use Venice.AI. I mean I could go to like a doctor I guess, but he's just going to put pictures of my dick in my medical providers internet portal thing, which gets hacked like every other Tuesday, so the result is the same. Check out Erik's blog post introducing the service and explaining why it is needed so badly.

May 14

Autism Capital 🧩

@AutismCapital

BREAKING: Tornado Cash developer, 31 year old Alexey Pertsev, is found guilty of money laundering $1.2B through his app by a Dutch court and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

The police also seized all his assets including cars and crypto. They claim Tornado Cash was a tool…

Open source developer Alexey Pertsev was found guilty of laundering 1.2 billion dollars worth of crypto through his app, Tornado Cash. For this "crime", he was sentenced to five years in a cage. This was in the Netherlands, so I'm hoping Roman Storm, another Tornado Cash developer, will fare better since he is being tried in the United States where it has already been established in law that code is speech. This is an absolute travesty of justice. You cannot punish someone for developing a legitimate privacy tool just because a few people used it for crime. The majority of Tornado Cash volume was not illicit, and the logic of the Dutch prosecutors makes no sense whatsoever. By their logic we should arrest gun store owners if any of the guns they sell get used in a crime. What if you sell hammers and someone uses one of your hammers to bash someone's brains in? Straight to jail for everyone I guess. Absolutely moronic.

May 15th

Why is it the Government's job to go after someone who exploits Ethereum? If there was actual theft, just make them pay the money back to whoever got fucked over plus some for any opportunity cost, and it should be over and done with at that point. We don't need to throw some highly skilled technical people in prison for twenty fucking years when they can just make it right. Save prison for rapists and murderers and thieves who don't pay their victims back in a timely manner. The real front running is done by Congress and their friends and family anyways.

(Hey congressman who is also my uncle, what legislation is getting introduced this session? Oh tariffs on XYZ? Thanks unc, I'm goin' to short the fuck out of some futures,....yeah yeah I'll bring your cut by later, you want that in hundreds right?)

Andrew Tate

@Cobratate

I know I’m not supposed to do this in chaotic times but I’m about to leave fiat completely and ape over 100M into btc.

And I’ll even prove I did it.

I’m done with the banks.

I’m done with their money.

Done with the scams.

Then I’m going boating.

Andrew Tate says he's fed up with fiat and is going to put 100 million into bitcoin. Well he may be a bit of an ass but he didn't get that rich by being stupid, I just hope that he has the best security set up ever, like 100 different cold cards with 1 million each on them and seeds protected by 24 layers of insanity.

AltCoiners.live

@alt_coiners

Just In : IBEX Pay, a #Bitcoin payment processor, has decided to discontinue its US services effective May 31st.

Ibex pay is a Bitcoin payments company that uses the lightning network, add it to the increasingly long list of crypto and Bitcoin companies that will no longer serve US customers. It's surreal how the US is for once the country getting locked out of the global financial system when we usually are on the other end of that. We are in good company at least with other restricted countries representing the finest of free democracies, such as North Korea, Syria, and Iran.

May 22

Seth For Privacy | #FreeSamourai

@sethforprivacy

Silent Payments are here to stay, and Bitcoin is better for it.

Loving them in @cakewallet so far and can't wait for a broader roll out.

Good luck looking up the address below and learning anything about my Bitcoin activity

A new privacy feature for Bitcoin, silent payments, has been integrated into both Blue Wallet and Cake Wallet. You can read all about how it works here. Basically it's a way to share a single static address, on social media or wherever, that doesn't reveal anything about your on chain activity.

May 23

https://medium.com

Effective immediately, Hodl Hodl has blocked access to its lending platform for users in the USA.

After careful consideration, we have decided to implement a stricter policy on allowed countries for our services. As part of this change, our lending platform, Lend at Hodl Hodl, will be blocked for...

Hodl Hodl has also joined the "fuck US users, we ain't trying to go to prison" club and is blocking access to it's platform for people in the US. Just more fallout from the Samourai arrests.

https://www.forbes.com

Ethereum ETFs Approved: Insights into the SEC's Decision

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved today (May 23, 2024) the sale of spot Ether Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in the United States.

The SEC decided to approve the Ethereum ETFs, which was a surprise to many. The Polymarket odds for this happening were around 10% not long ago. You would have to be a moron to actually buy an Ethereum ETF though, regardless of whether you think the Ethereum network will succeed or not, because you can't earn any staking returns on your ETF ETH because the SEC forced the issuers to take staking out to be approved. Not to mention the whole value proposition of holding ETH is that you can use it for all kinds of cool degen shit, not just let it sit around doing absolutely nothing. However this is supposed to be good for the health of the network because having more unstaked ETH is supposed to be a good thing beause if too much ETH is staked it can have some negative consequences such as too much centralization. The ETF approval couldn't of come at a better time for ETH holders, considering they have been getting completely fucked holding ETH versus BTC with the amount of BTC that you can buy with one ETH recently reaching a 3 year low.

May 24

https://www.coindesk.com

Kabosu, Dog Who Inspired Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, Is No More

A farewell party for the popular dog will be held on Sunday in a Narita city park.

Kabosu, the dog that inspired the first memecoin, Dogecoin, has died. She was over 17 years old, which is like a thousand in human years or something. Rest in peace. This single dog has led to a million meme coins being launched and several 16 year olds becoming richer than their parents. I spend hours researching protocols, only to have my portfolio consistently outperformed by teenagers aping into random memecoins, and it's all this dog's fault.

May 25

At the Libertarian National Convention, Trump pledges to pardon Ross Ulbricht, and also says he will protect self custody of Bitcoin

Libertarian Party

@LPNational

President Trump just pledged to pardon Ross Ulbricht! #FreeRoss #LNC

I don't really like an authoritarian like Trump being given a platform at the LP national convention, but if it actually leads to Ross being pardoned....than fuck it. Plus the libertarians need the press honestly, I'm pretty sure my Mom still doesn't know what a Libertarian even is despite me being one off and on since the 8th grade, and a lot of people are like that. I know Ross's mama has been fighting tooth and nail for her boy to come home like the straight ride or die G that she is, and goddamn it they deserve this.

Besides the promise to free Ross, Trump also mentioned protecting Bitcoin self custody, which gives a whole lot of people a strong economic incentive to vote for him. I mean if you are in the crypto industry in the US or holding a significant amount of crypto, voting for Biden is literally like shooting yourself in the foot at this point. Its fucking sad when even a tyrant like Trump is defending the right to CUSTODY YOUR OWN ASSETS. So if you are American you have to vote for Trump to just be able to keep your own shit? In what is supposed to be the most free country on Earth? Maybe the powers that be really do want you to own absolutely nothing, I don't know anymore.

May 26

Good Morning Liberty did a very good episode on the events at the Convention and Nate's thoughts on Chase Oliver. The Libertarian National Convention, circus that it was, did managed to nominate a Presidential candidate, barely. It took 7 rounds of voting and because of several delegates voting for non of the above, they almost didn't have a candidate with enough votes. Not having a candidate would of cost the Libertarian party ballot access in many states. Eventually they choose Chase Oliver, who is the first major party presidential candidate to be openly gay in the United States. There is some misinformation about him going around, I mean if you believe Twitter you would think they just nominated some communist antifa member or something instead of a gun toting left leaning Libertarian. Some people are saying he is pro vaccine mandates, when in fact he just supported individual business owner's right to decide if they want to only allow customers who have been vaccinated. As long as it's an individual deciding what is allowed on their private property, and not a Government decree, I don't see how that is not Libertarian? I haven't done much research on the man yet but I do know that Chase Oliver has already gotten more press coverage than a Libertarian presidential candidate has gotten in a very long time, or possibly ever, simply due to the circumstances surrounding his nomination and the fact Trump was present. This makes me think that inviting Trump was actually a genius marketing move for Libertarians, how many people might be converted because they saw some media coverage of the convention, and were like "What the fuck is a Libertarian?". Then they google it, and may find out they agree with a lot of what they read. It is especially important to lead people down the Libertarian rabbit hole now when dissatisfaction with the two major parties seems to be at a boiling point. Many people don't identify with either party any more and dread the prospect of having to once again choose between the lesser of two evils, octogenarian evils at that. That means this is a golden opportunity to recruit some new blood into the Liberty movement, if we can stop fighting among ourselves long enough to do so that is!

May 27

https://www.coindesk.com

Mt.Gox Moves $7B Bitcoin as Part of Repayment Plans, Sparking BTC Price Plunge

Nearly 107,000 bitcoin have been moved since early Asian hours on Tuesday, with bitcoin shedding 1.2% on expectations of selling pressure.

Mount Gox Bitcoin is on the move, a lot of it, in preparation for repayments. Now just because people are going to get their Bitcoin back that they have been forced into hodling for ten years, doesn't mean they are going to sell it all immediately, so don't panic. Whoever is in charge of moving these funds did a couple of small test transactions first before sending bigger transactions, the smallest of which was worth 1.2 billion dollars. Can you imagine clicking the button on that one? I'd be sweating bullets, shaking, and rechecking the address a minimum of 104 times before clicking send. One wrong character and you just lost more than a billion fucking dollars! That has got to be scary right? Let's also take a second to appreciate how cool it is to be able to easily send 1.2 billion dollars worth of value in a couple clicks of a mouse, without getting anyone's permission or filling out any forms. Nearly instantaneous permission less transfer of a ridiculous amount of immutable wealth. The power of Bitcoin is immense.

Thank you for reading! Feedback is always appreciated. Please subscribe! I'm going to keep the newsletter free for awhile, and then I will switch the newsletter to paid only and keep the blog posts free. If I can find just a few hundred people who are crazy enough to pay me for my writing, I can finally make writing my full time gig like I have wanted to do my entire life.

Weekly Round Up

thoughtcrimetraphouse@newsletter.paragraph.com (thoughtcrimeboss) — Mon, 13 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The scary green dude in a hoody wants you to subscribe....please

As the news from this week continues to demonstrate, the crypto industry is under a full frontal attack from multiple government agencies in the United States. They apparently want to stifle economic growth, innovation, and freedom as much as possible and send the entire US crypto industry overseas. Trump has come out as the pro crypto candidate in the presidential race, I guess he had a change of heart after he realized that he could make money off of NFTs. I don't like Trump and I don't like Biden, actually I despise both of them for being the geriatric authoritarians that they are, so I am either going to vote libertarian or not at all. But I am relieved that at least one of the major party candidates isn't completely anti crypto.

SEC serves Robinhood Wells Notice

More retardio bullshit has arrived from the most retarded retardios of them all, Gensler and crew at the SEC. This is even more fucked when you consider how Robinhood has been so conservative with their crypto listings (and delistings). For example they delisted Solana when the SEC accused it of being a security and they have very few coins actually available for trading. They are going after innovative tech companies right when the economy needs them the most. The SEC does not give a fuck about protecting you from anything and they never will, they only care about growing the power and budget of their own organization and ensuring their pensions are fat. I heard some crypto talking head lament about how the SEC was de-legitimatizing itself with these ridiculous enforcement actions, and they thought that sucked because we need the SEC to protect us from real scams. I disagree, I have never needed the SEC to protect me from anything as I can harness the incredible power of my mind combined with the internet and decide for myself with a high degree of accuracy whether something is a scam or not. It's not like if the SEC didn't exist you would lose the ability to sue the pants off someone for offering a scam investment. Did fining the shit out of EOS for it's 2017 ICO prevent any EOS investors from losing money from that shitcoin? Did fining Kraken do anyone any good? Did the SEC prevent FTX or Celsius? No they didn't because the SEC is a worthless organization run by an absolute piece of shit. He uses tax money that the group of gang members who refer to themselves as our "Government" extorted from you under threat of imprisonment to do his absolute best to prevent growth and innovation.

Local Monero is Shutting Down

Local Monero has thrown in the towel, I knew this was coming evetually after Local Bitcoins shut down. You can't really blame them considering the environment we are in right now, nobody wants to go to prison. The average person is not aware that our very ability to trade with each other on a P2P basis is being attacked by the government. Can you imagine if Craigslist shut down because the founders didn't want to go to prison? There would be a nationwide uproar, hopefully. Maybe not Craigslist, I am dating myself a bit, but perhaps Facebook Marketplace, or Offerup, or whatever the fuck the kids are P2P trading on these days. Buying and selling pieces of digital code among ourselves should never be a fucking issue. The options for trading in and out of monero, bitcoin, and other crypto currencies without KYCing are rapidly dwindling which scares the shit out of me because I refuse to KYC, I never have KYCed and I hope I never will have to just to use my fucking crypto. What I wonder is if they do make monero de facto illegal, who is going to take that shit to court? Who is going to sue for the right to use monero and who is going to fund that battle? Take that shit to the goddamn Supreme Court and let's see if at least 5 of the 9 high priests give a shit about our freedom or if they are just LARPers. This is an existential threat to crypto's real mission, which is not "number go up", but a P2P financial system outside of state control. Buy your crypto from plebs whenever you can, sell your goods and services for crypto whenever you can, we have to create or strengthen existing circular economies among ourselves, especially in our local communities, and we have to do it NOW.

Artist: Viktor Hachmang

Grayscale Withdraws It's Ethereum Futures ETF Application

Why does anyone have to apply to the fucking SEC to create an investment product anyways? I don't know about you but I don't need the Government to approve something before I choose to invest in it, we can DYOR thanks though. Plus if they are so worried about protecting investors they wouldn't of approved a million different leveraged long/short futures products that decay rapidly. (UVXY anyone?)

Kraken Asks Court To Dismiss SEC Claims

Kraken, who literally already paid a hefty fine to the SEC for, God forbid, offering staking services to it's users so that their assets on the exchange aren't just sitting around doing jack shit. Gary Gensler fucking hates when you earn yield, unless it's treasury bonds, that's ok because the government understands the yield in that situation helps make up for the moral guilt you feel when you loan money to a government that uses that then uses that money to kill and imprison people at home and abroad. Kraken paid that staking fine, only to be sued by the SEC again just months later. So they are asking the judge to dismiss the case to avoid "significant reordering" of the U.S. financial regulatory structure". Basically Kraken is like, "Yo Mr.Judge, you gotta stop this shit before the SEC is in charge of every type of asset imaginable including my kid's Pokemon cards". We will see what happens, although we are probably fucked because the Judge is employed by the same government who is suing Kraken.....so its kinda like letting the home team use a player as the referee. Actually that's exactly what it's like. Judges are so drunk on their own power and sometimes drunk on liquor as well, that they are no longer even capable of presiding over anything even resembling a fair trial. When a fair trial does happen, it's usually by accident, or maybe their guilty conscience from all the unfair trials they have enabled sometimes becomes so overwhelming that they say fuck it and rule in the favor of justice every once in a while.

Picture courtesy of CNN

Biden Will Veto Bank Crypto Custody Resolution

Biden says he will veto a resolution that would allow banks to custody crypto. Personally I wouldn't let a bank custody my crypto but if someone wants that service I see no reason why the Government currently has the ability to prevent it. I'd imagine Biden is going to veto any even vaguely pro crypto legislation because his handlers hate crypto. Maybe if we include 100 billion for gender studies and misinformation control measures it might pass, just bury the pro crypto shit on page 456, nobody reads that shit anyways.

One Third of Stanford Students Ok With Violence to Stop Speech

This is about as terrifying as the other recent survey that said 29% percent of young people would be ok with the government putting a camera inside their house to prevent crime. What in the fuck! You think having a goddamn CAMERA WATCHING YOU IN YOUR OWN HOME is ok? I don't know about you but I believe in every American's God given right to commit multiple felonies in their bedrooms or living rooms without someone watching, and I certainly believe in the right to free speech without having to worry about getting attacked violently. THEY ARE WORDS, THEY CAN'T HURT YOU, VIOLENCE CAN HURT YOU. What fucking universe do these people live in where they think it's ok to use violence for any fucking reason other than defending yourself or others? Someone pissing you off with words is not ever an excuse for violence, you can fight words with other words. You are supposed to learn that in school or something, but kids probably don't learn any lessons about violence because they aren't given a chance to. As soon as they get in their first fight we expel them immediately and throw them in Juve to learn how to commit violence more effectively from a bunch of raging hormone delinquents. We have to a better job educating young people about liberty and basic morality or we are so fucked, these young people will be in charge one day, that is if they don't get too anxious over pronouns or scary guest speakers or God knows what and drop out.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Supreme Court Rules No Due Process Right To Preliminary Hearings in Civil Asset Forfeiture Cases

The high priests and priestesses of the Supreme Court just strengthened the government's ability to seize your property for any reason without a warrant or even evidence of an actual crime. Good job you fucking tyrants, I hope your luxury cars get seized for a bit of spilled laundry soap and a faulty field drug test kit and you have to take the bus to work at the high temple of the Supreme Court like a commoner for months and months while District of Colombia Versus 2022 Escalade or whatever the fuck you pieces of shit drive plays out in court.

A couple good things did happen this last week, not all is misery and despair!

Zeus Lightning Wallet Founder Refuses to Shut Down For American Users

Evan Kaloudis, the US-based founder of ZEUS, absolute Chad and possessor of giant balls of steel, has decided to take a stand for freedom and refuses to shut down services for US customers, unlike Phoenix wallet and Wallet of Satoshi. Thank god somebody is taking a stand, we need to support this man and open source freedom tech devs everywhere. We have to do everything we can to counteract the chilling effect caused by the arrest of the Samourai devs. I mean being an open source developer already sucked before they started arresting them, you work long hours, have to rely on the occasional donation to reimburse you for your hard work, and when you do try to make a little money off of your labor you get accused of facilitating money laundering. Anybody who continues to develop open source crypto privacy tech under these kind of circumstances deserves our support at the very least, in reality they deserve a fucking medal and a healthy stipend. What open source privacy software do you use? Have you ever donated to the devs? Today is a good day to start. A few bucks from even a few thousand people can make a huge difference in the lifes of these devs.