I use it to buy gift cards in India, currently the most populous country on the planet(for better or for worse), that adds up to... 35-45% of the world population; the figure does not even include the African and south American countries where there is a significant adoption of cryptocurrencies due to high inflation rates of the local currency.
Thanks for informing me, i read through the logs; looks like there are mixed oppinions regarding my concerns, but i am glad that there are others that see it as a potential issue as well, I am confident that eventually a solution can be found that fixes the privacy issue without sacrificing functionality.
botnet
Google has been showing me 'suspicious activity from your computer' Captcha lately Is there a way I can scan my device for my peace of mind(not talking about clamAV) a manual inspection, what are the signs that something is wrong?
What kind of threat model makes Linux not secure? (Genuinely curious, I daily drive Fedora and use Flatpaks for sandboxing)
what I am really concerned about(an unfortunate nature of the public ledger) is coins being tainted, they were also pretty vague on any sort of launch window which I understand, I don't really hope for Monero to moon(Its not supposed to be) but I wonder if the native XMR coin could be used in a psuedo-layer 2 like network, that generates interest by leveraging POS coins(sort of like fractional banking)
thanks, though I might hold out on that for a month or two as I am quite busy right now(can you please make them aware of my concerns in my stead?)
Same, though I have found success in doing odd jobs around the internet and earning crypto that way(though they are few and far between), I then simply swap to XMR.
Shame, during the great Fediverse migration, I expected there would be more people in Monero specific spaces as the concept of the fediverse in general aligns so well with the values behind Monero, unfortunately it seems it has just become a bubble of ideologies. I expected there would sort of be a chatter surrounding the 10th anniversary, I guess most people in the community have 'settled' and are done with Monero activism and I am the one who is late.
Hung around with the Serai people(digitally) near the start of the bullrun, as I understand they plan to launch their own native coin(which I have some reservations against), and don't really have a focus on privacy(at least right now)
The stackexchange is abandoned, the subreddits feel haunted, there are sparse posts that are few and far between with limited and carefully monitored activity, there isn't much talk about Monero even in general cryptocurrency communities other than the occasional passing mention. Did i miss something? are external factors at play?
Its almost Monero's 10th anniversary you guys, where is everybody?
the verification process involved revealing an existing and established social media profile, I had none(at least none that wouldn't pose a huge OpSec risk) and I am currently broke(XMR) to justify sending money for a signup(I will do it eventually, I am not stingy and am willing to contribute to a cause I support)
what governments force you is outside of the scope of monero yes it is but at the same time it isn't; Monero's growth and adoption, depends on the way it is handled by legislature, the likely outcome of my dystopian reality is relisting(but at what cost, I rather have it be banned); It is as I said 'the view keys is equivalent to Handing a silver-platter to the Government and by extension analysis companies' I agree they are legitimately useful but they have the capacity to be Abused and used for surveillance.
PS. Is there a way I can voice my concerns directly to the development team currently working on Seraphis?
The subr*ddit is pretty active, but lately the posts there feel 'suppressed' and sorta just weird.
This what i am trying to say, the only option being a limited view key is way better(Sorry if my rants sound preachy, but this just sort a popped in my head and is making me utterly miserable)
This is not really a problem. You could just send the funds to another wallet and say the outgoing transactions were to pay for goods and services. Businesses would be the first to be forced to declare their view keys, Assuming that; If your transaction doesn't show up on their system they have probable cause to suspect you, It would be equivalent to using Tornado cash directly from your CEX wallet; Call me paranoid but this neat feature has huge potential to be abused, not just from governments but essentially all businesses.
If you have a “boating accident” you would most likely lose all your keys, including the view keys. :)
Not plausible when presently i can just say "What Monero? 🤷♂️"
PS. The state has no right to directly tax income as this is derived from an even exchange of labor for currency, there is no profit. If you are profiting from the labor of others then a tax claim can be made.
Your state is different than my state
I wish there were more users on this instance or Lemmy in general, Can some one please Crosspost this post to the subr*ddit, I would like to hear their thoughts about it as well, all my accounts have been shadow-banned to the depths of tartarus. PS: Mentioning Lemmy or the Fediverse gets you shadow-banned, as well as having any direct links in the post; Try typing it as 'monerodottown'
TLDR: I am afraid the Seraphis upgrade might make it possible for governments to pass legislation demanding all businesses and exchanges to collect wallet view keys from users for any and all transactions involving Monero and maintain records, hence allowing state sponsored blockchain analysis companies the abilty to ‘Trace’ Monero transactions.
Disclaimer: I am new to Monero, I lack any detailed understanding of how code works and the complicated cryptography involved within Monero, and at best I possess surface level knowledge about how transactions are kept confidential on the blockchain. Some of my examples and scenarios assumes that Monero is recognized and classed by governments as a Foreign Currency and is not outright banned in any way.
One of the best things about Monero(in my humble opinion) and its core strength over its peers, is that it is truly Fungible. From my understanding one of the ways this strict fungibilty is achieved, is by keeping blockchain transaction between wallets; amounts, and addresses: confidential and obfuscated.
Like cash, it doesn’t carry a record of which parties have handled it before, so any Non-KYC exchange or business that deals with XMR is granted plausible deniability over the source of its coins as there is no way to prove if they ever have been involved in any illegal activity(Ransomware, DNM etc.). Similarly, a customer is also offered plausible deniability(unless other obvious factors are present) This protects both the exchange and an honest user as they don’t have to worry about handling and dealing with ‘tainted’ coins. This easily makes it superior to any other coin in which there is a risk of your funds getting tainted because of lack of vigilance.
From what I understand, the limitations of View keys presently that Seraphis hopes to solve, is that they only reliably show incoming transaction, but not outgoing transactions or the correct wallet balance.
This in my opinion is good enough!
I believe Governments have a right to demand and collect Tax as it is necessary to fund public infrastructure, social security and protection for its citizens(Whether they do an adequate job of it or not, is not the scope of this discussion as are your feelings regarding it).
Most Governments take TAX evasion pretty seriously.
Assuming I am an Honest Citizen, any XMR flowing into my wallet, originates from my Honest LEGAL Income(Job, freelancing, KYC CEX etc.) and with the limited view key, I can prove that and pay any relevant tax on it.
But what I do with my XMR after that is nobody’s business(not even the governments), it's my hard-earned Monero, and It's cash, so whether I lose it all on meme coins, or buy groceries; that limited view key protects my daily financial decisions from being public by default.
But unfortunately due to that very exact nature, Monero is a particular thorn on the side of Law Enforcement Agencies worldwide. And presently Europe and the G20 nations are pushing disturbing and far-reaching legislation controlling the flow of any kind of money and agreeing on establishing communication channels to easily share information and prevent financial crime.
From My understanding, the Seraphis upgrade allows the private view key to reliably display incoming and outgoing transactions, as well as current balance of the wallet. After the upgrade, there would be nothing stopping any government from passing legislation demanding that any and all businesses and CEX’s that operate within its borders or offer their services to its citizens; to collect view keys of personal wallets of its customers for all XMR transactions or more worryingly, declare any transaction involving a wallet that has not disclosed its view key to be illegal and in violation of AML laws.
This would have the ripple affect that anyone with a decent database of these keys(maybe state sponsored) could effectively trace a substantial amount of transactions on the blockchain.
Using obfuscation technology of other cryptocurrencies such as Mixer, RAILGUN or coin-join immediately gets your wallet FLAGGED on public ledger, I envision a similar future where any Monero transaction whose view key isn't accounted for gets scrutinized and blocked.
Privacy darlings (such as a certain VPN company with a mole for its mascot) would be forced to collect view keys due to legislations.
A plague, a menace to financial privacy, whether government mandated or not, I believe it is inevitable, if such a feature is natively introduced into Monero.
This discussion isn't about how we the community will get together and ‘stick it to the man’ refusing to give away view keys, or whether such legislation could or could not be passed and its purported efficacy.
This is about whether the Seraphis ‘improvements’ hands over the presently paranoid governments and corporations, a silver platter containing the ability to regulate and track Monero in any substantial capacity.
I am losing sleep over this, call me paranoid, but such far-reaching regulation is definitely not out of the question, the BTC maximalist would celebrate the news, most people in the crypto space won’t really care or understand its implications, the financial press would run articles about how ‘Monero the problematic child’ was tamed and can now be allowed to relist and used for speculative investments.
I think the project developers should take this into consideration and either severely limit or drop this feature entirely as it has potential for Abuse by the establishment and can threaten the core values behind Monero