Did you know Google Fonts is installed on approximately 111,579,992 websites, with around 50,103,810 of those currently live?

Did you also know if you visit a site that uses Google Fonts, it automatically collects user:

- IP address: Which identifies your device on the internet (as of 2022, Google stopped storing users' IP addresses, but they still collect this information).

- User agent: Information about your browser and operating system.

- Referer: The URL of the webpage you are visiting.

...and is therefore "out-of-the-box" in violation of GDPR law?

If you are a website visitor:

You can block 3rd party fonts (web fonts) with uBlock Origin.

1. Open uBlock Origin's dashboard.

2. Go to the "My filters" tab.

3. Add the following line to block Google Fonts:

*$font,third-party

4. Click "Apply changes" to save the filter rule.

There is an even stricter option that blocks ALL remote fonts (not just Google Fonts) that you can activate by selecting "Block remote fonts" in the extension's settings.

*Sites that do not display properly can be excluded from the block.*

If you are a website owner:

You can protect your visitors' privacy by hosting your own fonts locally (on the same server as your web pages), using basic OS fonts, or checking out Bunny.

If you haven't heard of Bunny CDN, they offer the only fully GDPR-compliant fonts powered by a CDN as a drop-in replacement for Google fonts.

According to Bunny:

"Bunny Fonts is an open-source, privacy-first web font platform designed to put privacy back into the internet.

With a zero-tracking and no-logging policy, Bunny Fonts helps you stay fully GDPR compliant and puts your users' personal data into their own hands."

https://bunny.net/fonts/

As a side note: Bunny CDN also has one of the most transparent, easy-to-read and understand privacy and data policy pages I have ever seen.

Well done Bunny, well done.

https://bunny.net/privacy/

nostr:nevent1qqs265m5lt3hkz4k4kw2jgfpqslcn4pf8cdcmj56d3gjt77ej2n8mespz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsygzwhzp3p445ak2ud4n289dn6084txu9ltkg7a53mt75qk5jup2ad5psgqqqqqqs9m303d


It sounds like you're not aware of what's currently possible with Monero:

>  I don't know how to spend [Monero] in my every day life (aka no merchants IRL accept it)

It's true that few merchants accept Monero directly, but that's also true of Bitcoin.

However, you can buy gift cards with Monero for most major retailers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/wg3eiw/introducing_cake_pay_buy_gift_cards_instantly/

https://coincards.com/

And the Monerozon service allows you to buy anything on Amazon:

https://monezon.com/

> [Monero is] terribly difficult to swap it for other coins

Which exhanges have you tried to use?  Cake wallet has a no-KYC exchange built-in for most major coins:

https://cakewallet.com/

If you don't like the Cake wallet, try these:

https://stealthex.io/
https://basicswapdex.com/

> [Monero is] terribly difficult to swap it for fiat (which I'm not interested in but still relevant)

It's difficult to do in a non-KYC manner, it's true.  But that's also true for Bitcoin as well.

If you don't care about KYC, you can use Kraken:

https://www.kraken.com/

If you do care about KYC, you can use Haveno.  Haveno is a no-KYC peer to peer client based on Bisq:

https://haveno-reto.com/

Here's a tutorial for installing/using Haveno:

https://blog.nihilism.network/servers/haveno-client-f2f/index.html

The Monerica site has a bunch of other sites that accept Monero directly:

https://monerica.com/

> As of now, it is not [liquid]...and it is as such since its inception.

Monero has almost completely replaced Bitcoin on the darknet markets.

Monero is now the most used crypto on ShopinBit (largest European site that accepts crypto):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/1e1b1r4/monero_crushes_bitcoin_on_shopinbit/

If you want to stay abreast of Monero developments, check out Monero.town:

https://monero.town/

Is Monero as easy to use as Paypal or credit cards?  No.

Is Monero  less expensive?

It depends.  Per spend, Monero transaction costs are typically a few cents.  Monero transactions are also irreversible, which means merchants don't have to save as much to cover credit card charge-backs.  However, the initial cost of acquisition can be high.

Is Monero resistant to censorship, surveillance, inflation, and seizure?

Yes.

With Monero, you can make political donations without fear your bank account will be frozen:

https://bitcoinist.com/canada-chokes-crypto-supply/.

With Monero, you can travel with millions across borders without fear that you will be [arrested for violating capital controls:

https://www.uschina.org/china%E2%80%99s-capital-controls-choke-cross-border-payments.

IMO, those benefits are worth the costs of acquiring Monero.

With Monero,  your total wealth is private, and you're at less risk of thieves (whether in government or the private sector) beating you with a wrench until you give up your money:

https://github.com/jlopp/physical-bitcoin-attacks/blob/master/README.md?ref=casa-blog.


Yes, and if Bitcoin actually protected your privacy / financial sovereignty, it would be banned too.


Social Media Sovereignty
👇🏻
Using Nostr Client Garnet
With Own Monero Relay
With Own Monero Node

https://pmnr.xmr.rocks/


Gabriel Giunta (gabrihel8 on Instagram) makes fine art out of cardboard and garbage.

https://m.primal.net/Jetz.mp4

#archerart
#grownostr


They didn't do it to Bitcoin because Bitcoin is a spycoin that makes it easy to track every spend.


Cake wallet works well, and they contribute much to the Monero community.


#nostr is uncensored and now Garnet takes it to a new level: #privacy

https://iris.to/note103pgg44tfsvelcvf4s6uf2zlm6uthdjv8yz3v20x3g44f8njtsasng0kl5


#Haveno-reto 1.0.9 has been released w/ 2.6x more seed nodes

Thanks to the DOS attackers 1.0.9 comes with many connection reliability improvements.

https://github.com/retoaccess1/haveno-reto/actions/runs/10028386126

If you do not have a GitHub account, the releases page is in the works, but will take a little bit.


Monero Nostr Client Out

It's not made by our team, it's Retrnull doing a fork of Amethyst for Android, he's named Garnet.

I can't vouch for this because I didn't make it.  I tried it w/ a burner, but I could not fund the burner:
"Failed to construct transaction: Invalid destination address"

https://github.com/retrnull/garnet

Ask him questions or complain:
https://bounties.monero.social/posts/94/42-420m-nostr-client-for-monero

He has multiple tipping modes for different privacy options (public, anon, ect), and it can search bios for XMR addresses.


What have the Democrats done to warrant crypto support?  From what I can tell, the SEC under Biden has behaved in a extremely corrupt fashion, extorting billions out of the crypto industry even as they provide regulatory moats for their cronies.   Several crypto OG's have been caged (Ver, Tornado Cash devs, Samourai wallet deves).   Operation Chokepoint II is well under way, and almost all crypto-friendly banks have been shut down.   Many crypto services have moved out of the US and/or refuse to serve US customers due to the predatory Democratic-controlled state.

Why should the Democrats stop attacking us, unless we punish them in the voting booth?


For Signal users: Outside of just the security benefits for using Molly we discuss a lot about, you should also use it if you don't use Google Play Services, as the non-FCM push notifications in the original Signal app drains a lot of battery.

Molly FOSS has a much more efficient implementation of non-FCM push notifications and doesn't drain battery.

You can find Molly FOSS on the Accrescent app store (available in GrapheneOS Apps app) or from the project site.

https://molly.im/


https://m.primal.net/JaZP.png

Where is the heart of the modern cypherpunk movement?

The community of people who care about privacy, censorship-resistance, and financial self-sovereignty is so large and dispersed that it's impossible for any single person to keep track of all of the worthy projects.

But these are some of the projects I'm excited about (all handles are Twitter handles):

@askvenice - front end to decentralized Morpheus network (@MorpheusAIs)

@arweaveeco - 200+ years of storage for a one time fee

@bisq_network - decentralized, p2p fiat/Bitcoin exchange that runs over tor

@basicswapdex - An atomic swap and cross-chain DEX with no central points of failure.

@brightidproject - Privacy-first social identity network.

@darkfisquad - tooling for creating/governing anonymity software

@havenodex - decentralized p2p fiat/Monero exchange (based on Bisq)

@havenprotocol - algorithmic stablecoin based on Monero

@holepunch_to - library for making direct P2P connections

@melproject_twitter.com/archershipsorg - anonymous communication and transaction network designed to be decentralized, incentive-compatible, and ban-resistant.

@meshtastic - open source, off-grid, encrypted mesh communication platform that runs on affordable radios

@mobazha_market - Decentralized market, derived from OpenBazaar

@nymproject - incentivized mixnet that prevents metadata release via timing attacks

#nostr - decentralized network protocol for a distributed social networking system

@odysee - decentralized Youtube alternative (based on Arweave)

@particlproject - creators of particl market place (decentralized, private marketplace)

@pears_p2p - p2p runtime built on holepunch

#reticulumnetwork (https://reticulum.network/ created by @markqvist - self-configuring, encrypted meshnet designed to operate even in low bandwidth environments (packet radio, LoRA)

@seraidex - decentralized multichain exchange

#stampprotocol (https://stampid.net/) created by Andrew Lyon (https://killtheradio.net/) - decentralized cryptographic identity system used to represent a personal or group identity in electronic systems.

@tari - Mimble wimble based non-fungible tokens

@vexl - no-KYC, p2p fiat <-> Bitcoin exchange

@zano_project - Cryptonote based smart contract system

@zcash - private cash based on zero knowledge tech

#cypherpunk
#monero
#archercypherpunk


earendil
unstoppable peer-to-peer communication
docs / github / discord

"Earendil is the first anonymous communication and transaction network designed to be decentralized, incentive-compatible, and ban-resistant. It is a foundational off-chain protocol in the Mel ecosystem.

Unlike VPNs, onion routers, and most "censorship-resistant" web3 protocols, Earendil is designed to run on fully hostile network infrastructure. It's nearly invisible to ISPs and defends against powerful attackers willing to ban rather than subvert or censor the protocol.

Earendil is currently a work-in-progress. A minimally functional pre-alpha is available."

https://earendil.network/en/


A friend of mine asked his friends which people and organizations Democrats should support in order to maximize the likelihood of Democrats winning / maintaining power.

So, I'm curious how my libertarian friends would answer the question as well:
Which people/organizations do you think offer the highest return on investment in terms of advancing lihttps://m.primal.net/JOVq.png bertarian goals?

#archerpolitics
#archerlibertarianism
#freestateproject


“The barbarians are not at the gate. They are inside the gates, and have academic tenure, judicial appointments, government grants, and control of the movies, TV, and other media.”

~ Thomas Sowell


Hey anon, are you prepping for war? Then you'll want to learn how to mask your signature from drones.

Remember: to be detected is to be targeted. To be targeted is to be killed.

https://2ndbn5thmar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SIGMAN-Camouflage-SOP.pdf


Should sex bot brothels be illegal? 🤔

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4432313-sex-robots-go-to-court-testing-the-limits-of-privacy-and-sexual-freedom/


MidJourney users are reporting that all Taylor Swift prompts are being rejected and all images from previously run prompts have been purged.
https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/s/7Y5XprqsZo


The EU wants to criminalize AI-generated porn images and deepfakes

https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-images%2F2019-11%2F52471d70-ff11-11e9-8dc7-054d6fd59d13&resize=1400%2C933&client=19f2b5e49a271b2bde77&signature=b0ebfa2a1ccd78fab1ffcc402bc64e706d63e32f

Back in 2022, the European Commission released a proposal for a directive on how to combat domestic violence and violence against women in other forms. Now, the European Council and Parliament have agreed with the proposal to criminalize, among other things, different types of cyber-violence. The proposed rules will criminalize the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, including deepfakes made by AI tools, which could help deter revenge porn. Cyber-stalking, online harassment, misogynous hate speech and "cyber-flashing," or the sending of unsolicited nudes, will also be recognized as criminal offenses.
The commission says that having a directive for the whole European Union that specifically addresses those particular acts will help victims in Member States that haven't criminalized them yet. "This is an urgent issue to address, given the exponential spread and dramatic impact of violence online," it wrote in its announcement. In addition, the directive will require member states to develop measures that can help users more easily identify cyber-violence and to know how to prevent it from happening if possible or how to seek help. It will require them to provide their residents with an online portal where they can send in reports, as well.

In its reporting, Politico suggested that the recent spread of pornographic deepfake images using Taylor Swift's face urged EU officials to move forward with the proposal. If you'll recall, X even had to temporarily block searches for the musician's name after the images went viral. "The latest disgusting way of humiliating women is by sharing intimate images generated by AI in a couple of minutes by anybody," European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová told the publication. "Such pictures can do huge harm, not only to popstars but to every woman who would have to prove at work or at home that it was a deepfake." At the moment, though, the aforementioned rules are just part of a bill that representatives of EU member states still need to approve. "The final law is also pending adoption in Council and European Parliament," the EU Council said. According to Politico, if all goes well and the bill becomes a law soon, EU states will have until 2027 to enforce the new rules.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-eu-wants-to-criminalize-ai-generated-porn-images-and-deepfakes-105037524.html?src=rss

https://www.engadget.com/the-eu-wants-to-criminalize-ai-generated-porn-images-and-deepfakes-105037524.html?src=rss


The head of Google AI has some interesting opinions.

https://image.nostr.build/f3f12dc076a2b8e559bc7f61d86a0ac8c5560f2631a9701199a10e0c048004d6.jpg


Everyone should read nostr:npub17u5dneh8qjp43ecfxr6u5e9sjamsmxyuekrg2nlxrrk6nj9rsyrqywt4tp ‘s blog on the Craig Wright trial. I feel like Calvin and his behind the scenes villainy is usually not discussed enough and I’m glad he’s included in the blog write up.

https://blog.lopp.net/copa-vs-craig-wright-identity-trial/


No means no!
https://image.nostr.build/052cbfbe47e08e0cdc06e563d9a331a08961fe84a89c38c10fc6b1bb3f1cf265.jpg


https://m.primal.net/HYDs.jpg

#archerhumor


https://agorist.xyz/

"Cypto is an industry formed in the wake of a grand vision. Its early pioneers were agorists who dreamed of a future beyond coercion and built tools to expand the space of freedom outward.

Overtime, crypto's vision has wavered. Agorism in the 21st Century (AXXI) was formed in response to this lack. AXXI seeks to revitalize crypto's potential by returning to its agorist roots.

AXXI amplifies dissonance and brings voices together from across the political spectrum. It is also a call for unity. AXXI resurrects the unifying vision of an agorist alliance beyond the surveillance state.

To journey outward with intent crypto must first embark on a journey to strengthen its resolve.

Agora. Anarchy. Action."

#archercrypto


[Note, I don't agree with his solutions.]

https://zeeprime.capital/why-privacy-failed-zk-part-2

"Why has privacy failed to date? Both as a concept and a practical matter we see a general lack of urgency. When you talk to somebody, few - if any - do not support the idea of privacy, and yet the adoption of privacy-preserving measures is largely under tapped. By this, I mean across all of the web, not just Web 3.

While privacy is a more nebulous concept, in Web 3 we can generally distill the space into two verticals: private blockchains (largely financial) and private data (personal data ownership). There are Monero Zealots out there, but for the most part privacy projects are abject failures (in terms of adoption) despite this inherent expression of desire for it."

#archercrypto


https://image.nostr.build/578357bfedece18001dbae14c5269c38d992c2ff2a871e0c4c51eaabe05b8194.jpg

#meme #memestr #nostrmemes #memes 821,418 🤙💜


drug sniffing cats ftw

fuck the state

#catstr #onlycats #cybersecgirl
https://image.nostr.build/3053a933c1c517ea707a42679a7fcbb7362ae5104a36502c61a73ecde3e4ee27.jpg


You're right that it's better when no single person or small cadre can unilaterally throttle access to the public square.

However, I don't think it was that unclear at the time that deplatforming Trump violated Twitter's nominal commitment to free speech.   What made it a difficult decision was Twitter's workforce, which was composed almost exclusively of progressive Democrats.  The tribal drumbeat to drive out their political adversary must have been deafening.

Had Twitter had a commitment to hire people with actual diversity of thought, maybe there would've been more principled defenders of free speech to push back.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/16/twitter-employees-donated-almost-exclusively-to-democrats-in-2022/


Tether Freezes All OFAC-Sanctioned Wallets in 'Proactive' Security Measure

"ITether framed the move as a voluntary step to "proactively prevent any potential misuse of Tether tokens and enhance security measures," and clarified that existing wallets on the OFAC list would be frozen along with any new wallets added in the future."

https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/tether-freezes-all-ofac-sanctioned-wallets-in/


How to Convince Friends to Leave WhatsApp & SMS

One of the challenging aspects of privacy is getting your friends to actually use it. While Signal is very centralized and has metadata leak issues compared to Session, SimpleX, and self hosted XMPP, it’s still way better than WhatsApp or SMS. So Signal is the low-hanging fruit that can be used to transition low-tech normies in your life to freedom. In this post, we’ll focus on example psychological tactics to shift your friends off WhatsApp and SMS.

When they say:

”But I already use WhatsApp”.

You respond:

“Did you know Signal was made by the same guy who also made WhatsApp? Brian Acton sold WhatsApp to Facebook, but was so disgusted with the spyware and invasion of privacy that he made a similar thing without it. The user interface is very similar and intuitive. It’s so easy my mother uses it. Are you saying your less technically savvy than my mama?”

When they say:

“Why do I need privacy, I have nothing to hide.”

You respond:

“We all want to keep our data secure. Not only is your data sold by big tech, but you’re trusting their security which is often flawed. For example Uber was hacked and customer credit cards were sold on the darkweb. Another example is Microsoft’s emails were hacked, and the data publicly leaked and sold. Now sometimes you get some upside for giving up data, but why trust Facebook’s WhatsApp for no benefit to you, and pure downside?”

When they say:

“I don’t feel comfortable using privacy tools”

You respond:

“You phrase this like we’re hiding from the CIA to do evil stuff. Many of these encryption tools, such as Signal are sponsored in part by the US government for better security. Millions of everyday people use these tools, and they’re widely available in app stores. You know regular text messages called SMS are actually completely in plaintext? It’s a huge weakness for phishing attacks and getting into people’s accounts. Why wouldn’t you want to keep your communications safe?”

When they say:

“It’s just easier to use a regular phone call”

You respond:

“It’s not easier, I travel all the time and then my number changes area codes creating complexity to update my contact list. I don’t even get cell service in {insert other country or area}. I check Signal all the time and do all my personal connections there. I really value your friendship and I want to make sure I don’t miss a call.”

(If you register Signal with a foreign country’s burner number that you got for crypto online, this really drives this one home)

When they say:

“It’s just easier to use WhatsApp”

You respond:

“I dislike WhatsApp because scammers, bots, and strangers over and over message me to try and scam me, which forces me to disable notifications. It’s not easier for me to see your text when I can’t stand to keep filtering through this spam. On the other hand, Signal is used by wealthier and smarter people, so the spammers don’t bother because it’s not profitable to target sophisticated users.”

When they say:

“Everybody I know already uses WhatsApp”

You respond:

“Well all the CEOs and successful entrepreneurs I know use Signal. So by your own admission, this is a great way to increase your social circle for free. We’re all a product of who we know. If the people you know are poor and unresourceful peasants, then maybe they have no value to hackers trying to get corporate secrets. On the other hand, if you have this free and easy to setup app, then when the right opportunity comes, you’ll seem like the right hire for the sophisticated client. Think of Signal like a digital suit. You don’t wear a suit every day, but it’s good to own some nice clothes for when it counts.”

“We can use Signal next time, let’s just do WhatsApp quickly now”

You respond:

“Oh I’m sorry but so many scammers spammed me on the platform, that I cursed one out. Then WhatsApp banned me and my phone number for violating the terms of service with profanity. So I would but I can’t. Why use a service where you have no control?”

“Why are you doing privacy? What do you have to hide?”

You respond:

“It’s not that I’m hiding. It’s that I don’t allow large tech companies to have power over me. I want to control my own data and electronics on my own terms. There is no benefit to giving it away to Google, Facebook, Apple, ect. When it’s just as easy to install Signal and talk to me there. The question is not why am I hiding, it’s why are you for free submitting to their absolute surveillance over every word you say in chat and every thought you have through algorithmic AI monitored feeds? Replace the word privacy with power.”

</end>
This is all network effect and psychological norm.  So consider reposting this.


Morning notes - ⚡ $boost for sats (more info at the bottom) ⚡

nostr:nevent1qqs2p9fy5xga2fnluem78vzu8j8f3shfdzgw3q7ce66zavjaz6chlxcpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsyg8nw7ms3twyxs7d6tnqafrvdqlj2pulw4l9zgzvacupmc8k2unxfqpsgqqqqqqszdu94q

nostr:nevent1qqsg0ryqh2fhq34gne20nmv6y7uyghvlq40fjnnsxzfyjt3rg0vc2dspr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsyg8nw7ms3twyxs7d6tnqafrvdqlj2pulw4l9zgzvacupmc8k2unxfqpsgqqqqqqszjxj9f

nostr:nevent1qqs8zp68vjxenhrgkamp6vnchdf6n7qc2kzv33raxhpuurwmdqvdesgpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsyg8nw7ms3twyxs7d6tnqafrvdqlj2pulw4l9zgzvacupmc8k2unxfqpsgqqqqqqs0j68r8

nostr:nevent1qqsqg4csdv4rcpy0df2ej35mrhqyxrrwrr20rzqzqjtvl652zuqg9rqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsyg8nw7ms3twyxs7d6tnqafrvdqlj2pulw4l9zgzvacupmc8k2unxfqpsgqqqqqqsqt7ynj

Be one of the first 10 boosters and you'll get 1000 sats minimum once ten boosts are reached. This is an experiment and your feedback is welcome. I know I'm not the first but I'm interested to learn how these can be used for greatest effect.


#archerPolitics
#archerCrypto

https://m.primal.net/HTGQ.jpg


For that little LLC you have…

Goes into effect 1/1/24.

“Many business owners — mainly those who own small businesses — will need to start providing personal information about both the company and themselves to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.”

“For every day past the filing deadline, companies will be fined $500. If the violation continues, owners could face up to two years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/tax-law-going-into-effect-jan-1-may-have-outsized-affect-on-small-businesses/ar-AA1kZ8T7


"If libertarianism is so great, you should easily be able to convince those around you of its merits."

----

It took gay people decades to win the rights they have now. Gays back in the 1970's didn't wait decades for the homophobes to come round; they moved to gay enclaves where they could live without persecution immediately.

And the gay enclaves were key to winning national acceptance, by showing that the "gay lifestyle" in enclaves was nothing to be feared.

Similarly, libertarians want "liberty in our lifetime" as well. And libertarians are often asked to provide examples of how our ideas would work in practice. But putting them into practice requires winning elections. Concentrating our forces [in New Hampshire] allows us to win elections, which in turn allows us to implement our policies, which will--we hope-- assuage the fears of authoritarians, and allow for greater acceptance of libertarian values nationally.

#freeStateProject
#fsp
#archerFSP


Is your school forcing you to use Zoom, Skype, or other proprietary videoconferencing software to learn or teach? Freedom is important to education. Read about freedom-respecting choices at https://u.fsf.org/311


"“We write and maintain Shoggoth, a peer-to-peer, anonymous network for publishing and distributing open-source code, Machine Learning models, datasets and research papers. The purpose of Shoggoth is to combat software censorship and empower software developers to create and distribute software, without a centralized hosting service or platform.”

https://shoggoth.systems/

#archer_ai
#ai
#shoggoth


https://youtu.be/6ZsNdf8s6nY

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

http://www.wolfhilbertz.com/downloads/2002/saya_2002_rev1.pdf

"The Saya de Malha Bank is the site of an attempt to create an artificial island by Prof. Wolf Hilbertz (1938-2007) and Dr. Thomas J. Goreau. Hilbertz created seacrete or biorock by utilizing electricity to accrete the minerals in sea water onto a metal structure. The artificial coral thus far created has high enough tensile strength to be used as building material. With others, Hilbertz and Goreau made two expeditions to the bank in 1997 and 2002.[4] They attempted to create or grow an island around a steel structure that has been anchored to the North Bank sea floor at a depth of 11 m (36 ft). Some sources say that the island would have been named Autopia[5] or Autopia Saya, and declared a micronation."


(НА РУССКОМ НИЖЕ)

Did you know that the NOSTR protocol is not only decentralized microblogging, but also...

…A platform for long texts: www.habla.news and blogo.site
...Decentralized website hosting: www.hostr.cc
...Web store: www.shopstr.store and www.plebeian.market
...Decentralized text publishing (alternative to PasteBin): www.nosbin.com
...Note taking tool: www.listr.lol
...URL shortener that will *never* stop working: www.w3.do
...A meme channel: www.memestr.app
...Decentralized torrent archive: www.dtan.xyz
...Chess: jesterui.github.io
...Audio player: www.wavman.app
...Music creation and publishing platform: www.stemstr.app
...Podcast platform (that pays when you use it): www.fountain.fm
...A collaborative clipboard with end-to-end encryption: www.sendstr.com

Use convenient bridges to...
…Link NOSTR to Fediverse (Mastodon, ActivityPub, etc.): www.mostr.pub
…Link NOSTR to Matrix: www.github.com/8go/matrix-nostr-bridge
…Turn any RSS feed (Twitter, Mastodon, Reddit, ScuttleButt, etc.) into a Nostr account you can subscribe to: rsslay.nostr.moe

Stuck in Twitter (X)? Use EXIT.pub to automatically migrate all your content today: www.exit.pub

I am not mentioning NOSTR-based encrypted messengers (like Pulsar or 0xChat) here, for while they are good, they are still vastly inferior in terms of security to inherently privacy-oriented messengers like Session and SimpleX.

Did you find this bunch of links useful? Please zap me a cent :)

***

А вы знали, что NOSTR-протокол — это не только децентрализованный микроблоггинг, но ещё и…

…Платформа для длинных текстов: www.habla.news/ и www.blogo.site
…Децентрализованный хостинг для веб-сайтов: www.hostr.cc
…Веб-магазины: www.shopstr.store и www.plebeian.market
…Децентрализованная публикация отрывка текста (аналог PasteBin): www.nosbin.com
…Сайт для заметок: www.listr.lol
…Сокращения URL, которые *никогда* не перестанут работать: www.w3.do
…Канал с мемами: www.memestr.app
…Децентрализованный торрент-архив: www.dtan.xyz
…Шахматы: jesterui.github.io
…Аудио-плеер: www.wavman.app
…Платформа для создания и публикации музыки: www.stemstr.app
…Платформа для подкастов (которая платит за её использование): www.fountain.fm
…Коллективный буфер обмена с конечным шифрованием: www.sendstr.com

Используйте удобные мосты для…
…Связи Nostr с Fediverse (Mastodon, ActivityPub, проч.): www.mostr.pub
…Связи Nostr с Matrix: www.github.com/8go/matrix-nostr-bridge
…Превращения любой RSS-ленты (Twitter, Mastodon, Reddit, ScuttleButt, проч.) в Nostr-аккаунт, на который можно подписаться: rsslay.nostr.moe

Застрял:а в Твиттере (Х)? Используй EXIT.pub для автоматической миграции всего контента уже сегодня: www-exit.pub

Я не привожу здесь зашифрованных мессенджеров на базе NOSTR (вроде Pulsar или 0xChat), ибо хотя они и хороши, они значительно уступают по безопасности мессенджерам, изначально ориентированным на приватность, таким как Session и SimpleX.

#nostr #services #nostrservices #pastebin #zerobin #fediverse #matrix #memes #podcast #music #longread #torrent #store #webstore #twitter #rss #russian #русский


Over 94% of teacher's union donations since 1990 have gone to the Democrats:

https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?ind=L1300


Monero does a much better job on payments than Lightning with real privacy and real simplicity!

nostr:note1fudtx6ws9lyenlgut0jkekn5jlfqnh883ga200zah5puvmwa9m3spx0vy4


I've created a list of onion service nostr relays, feel free to contribute to the list with a PR

https://github.com/0xtrr/onion-service-nostr-relays


#archer-humor.png

https://m.primal.net/HRuZ.png


Great questions, Seth.

Note,  LukeDashjr blocked  Seth immediately after he asked these questions.

nostr:note13j3j8eax66kn7r02xxv39jwvywhy3pxqh0w60f0zjvx33yrv0h5sz8xs3g


10 Quick Tips to become Invisible

1. Avoid VPNs that don’t accept cryptocurrency, but remember they see your home IP.  So it's not anonymous without Tor or it's alternatives

2. Avoid Big Tech, but if you have to, then use the LibRedirect browser extension and/or Farside.link service to use Tor or LibreWolf without JavaScript

3. If a website blocks you, try Vanilla Firefox with your VPN set to Port 443 TCP.  Modify Firefox to reduce telemetry by setting "block dangerous and deceptive content" and "provide search suggestions" both to off

4. Linux isn’t as hard as you think.  You don't need the command line.

5. Keep passwords in offline storage, such as KeePass.  Then keep that in VeraCrypt

6. Wear a Bitcoin logo shirt at local public events, then get the info of people who approach you, so you can buy/sell for in-person cash

7. Avoid SMS, but if you have to, then use VoIP and never the number of the SIM card you get service from, to hide your physical location

8. Avoid email, but if you have to, then go for open source software you control.
It's not as hard as people make it out to be.

9. If a friend refuses to use privacy tech (such as Signal/Session), instead of cursing them out, increase the value your friendship offers, to make it worth it to install a new app

10. Be aware that Cloudflare sees ALL content on their network, including passwords.
Check DNS record tools (such as bgp.tools) or Ombrello to see if the site uses them:
ombrelo.im5wixghmfmt7gf7wb4xrgdm6byx2gj26zn47da6nwo7xvybgxnqryid.onion

</end>
Consider sharing this so freedom doesn't die


Nice work, congrats!


Bring back mail order machine guns!

We have lost so much freedom.
https://image.nostr.build/852630b560026fb9e287413549fc2dd0ecffed088a7b4b1afa9dcc26d4214043.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/e6f2bafaaeb47f90916cbed2e7bb8d8767b603f247484771533de98aeb562a6b.jpg


Privacy / anonymity related projects and people.  (Monero, Simplex, Tor, Nym, Darknet Markets, Zcash, Signal)


Many thanks!


Awesome.  Thanks for the responses!


Well said, nostr:npub1wmr34t36fy03m8hvgl96zl3znndyzyaqhwmwdtshwmtkg03fetaqhjg240  New users aren't going to spend a lot of time learning nostr unless they can clearly see why it's important very quickly.

nostr:note152dryp2q2m058t7wn7ymev9suladah30qezpq00jt03s622uyw6qu4g79w


Hear, hear!  It can be difficult to communicate that each nostr app is a interface onto a single common database, rather than a separate silo.


What's the best way to see only the posts of people on a given list?


Note, it doesn't appear possible to update a named interest list with a new hashtag, once the list is created.  (See, for example, my "privacy" list.)


Nice work!  Thank you for creating Listr.


List deleted by owner


Oddbean is my favorite client so far!  Thank you for creating / releasing it.


"In June, Amazon unveiled a new feature it’s developing for Alexa, in which the virtual assistant can read aloud stories in a deceased loved one’s voice after just hearing a minute of that person’s speech. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) “While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last,” said Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for Amazon Alexa."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/12/artificial-intelligence-grief/


Which car companies in the US (or anywhere in the world) do not accept state subsidies?


nostr:note1v5fg5uy9jf6mng4yf2ezkweqt2un50ky2sksev8dyyavy89dsfrqcc5s9s

We don't know how much of our life tree we have left, but we will move down the branches nonetheless.

#archer_aging
#cryonics
#aging


I knew this day would probably come, but didn't expect it so soon.

I am being investigated for running an illegal money transmission business in Canada (nodeless)

Under the advice of my lawyers I need to shut down the main instance of it.

As you guys know I made Nodeless completely open source in the event that this happens, so that others who don't live under communism can run a honest, privacy focused payments business.

To my clients who are using it, I'm very sorry for the short notice but you'll need to find a new payment processing solution this weekend.

DM me on telegram and I will personally walk you through setting up a btcpayserver instance that you can self host, or even your own instance of nodeless.

I can't give much more information than this, not even supposed to say this much, but I owe it to you guys to let you know what's going on.

To install nodeless on your own server, you can get started here:
https://github.com/nodeless-io/nodeless-monolith


Care to share the name of the podcast?


It's stupid that normal copy doesn't work though.


Click on the post.  Click on the ". . ." in the lower right corner.  Select "copy note text".


The exits are closing, y'all.  Learn how to use decentralized alternatives like bisq.

nostr:note1cu575mfy2xdakh9aklhghhn8vmluwkh79anrh09vmexgw5m3tyrq2edm2z


If you support the development of sound, private, censorship resistant money, consider whether you want to give DNA Lounge your money.   (@jwz is the founder / owner).

https://twitter.com/jwz/status/1478022085737803776

#dnalounge
#archer_crypto

https://m.primal.net/HRAJ.png


What better way for ChatGPT to sell the public on replacing the OpenAI execs with ChatCEO?


Sounds like somebody needs an independent code review...

https://m.primal.net/HQwM.gif


Judging from the comments on his page, it appears that Steven B Harris has died.   My deepest sympathies to his friends and family.

I worked with him at  21st Century Medicine, and he always struck me as kind and highly knowledgeable across many disciplines.  He--along with Mike Darwin, Brian Wowk, and Greg Fahy--deserves kudos for advancing the state of the art of cryobiological science. (1)

He was one of the few MD's willing to publicly stick up for cryonics research in the face of severe professional ostracism. (2)   He also assisted with a number of cryonics cases.

I hope that he was successfully cryopreserved, and that he will someday enjoy much more life thanks to the technology he helped to advance.

#archer_cryonics
#cryonics

(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781097/

(2) https://www.cryonicsarchive.org/library/cold-war-the-conflict-between-cryonicists-and-cryobiologists


Be aware when sharing links please. especially you nyms out there.

Big Tech and social media attach UTM (Urchin tracking module) to links to track link sharing across social media.

As has been confirmed via the Twitter Files, govts collude with Social Media to surveil citizens. So sharing a UTM here would link anyone on nostr to your sharing of it and thus building out the network graph. by removing the UTM, you remove an avenue of surveillance.

https://buffer.com/library/utm-guide/


If Tether can unilterally freeze a "criminal's" wallet, Tether can freeze anyone's wallets.

"Tether, the largest company in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and leading global crypto exchange and Web3 technology company OKX, today announced that they have collaborated with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in an investigation that led to Tether proactively and voluntarily freezing approximately 225 million in USDT tokens in external self-custodied wallets linked to an international human trafficking syndicate in Southeast Asia responsible for a global “pig butchering” romance scam.

The joint investigation was conducted using tools from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, and the action by Tether represents the largest-ever freeze of USDT in history."

#archer_politics
#archer_crypto

https://tether.to/en/following-investigations-by-tether-okx-and-the-us-department-of-justice-tether-voluntarily-freezes-225m-in-stolen-usdt-linked-to-international-crime-syndicate/

https://m.primal.net/HQnP.jpg


Holy crap!  Good news for Argentina!  I did not think it possible for a large nation state to elect a libertarianish candidate.   This gives me hope that libertarians can win the governorship / Congress of New Hampshire.

"Argentina elected right-wing libertarian Javier Milei as its new president on Sunday, rolling the dice on an outsider with radical views to fix an economy battered by triple-digit inflation, a looming recession and rising poverty.

Milei, who rode a wave of voter anger with the political mainstream, won by a wider-than-expected margin. He landed some 56% of the vote versus just over 44% for his rival, Peronist Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who conceded."

#archer_politics
#fsp
#freestateproject
#grownostr

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-readies-vote-likely-presidential-election-thriller-2023-11-19/


Yep, the developer of andOTP stopped developing it in mid-2022:

https://xdaforums.com/t/unmaintained-app-4-4-open-source-andotp-open-source-two-factor-authentication-for-android.3636993/page-6#post-87021655


#archer_humor
#archer_ai

https://m.primal.net/HQer.jpg


Nah, Worldcoin will continue.  Governments love being able to track and monitor the citizenry.   And most people are ignorant sheep who would trade their retina scans for a $5 latte.


#archer_politics
#archer_education

Why is it that otherwise intelligent people can grasp that all manner of goods-- food, clothing, shelter, transportation--can be provided in abundance via voluntary trade, yet still think that childhood education can only be provided by a coercive state run monopoly?

Perhaps it's because they've been coercively  brainwashed for 12 years by Democrats?

"While it unsurprising that among actors and actresses there are 90 Democrats for every 10 Republicans, many would be amazed to discover that teachers are actually as liberal or even more so than those in acting.

Among English teachers, there are 97 Democrats for every three Republicans, with the proportion being even more one-sided among health teachers, with 99 Democrats for every one Republican.

While there are slightly more Republicans among math and science teachers, among high school teachers overall, there are 87 Democrats for every 13 Republicans."

https://m.primal.net/HQeA.png

https://web.archive.org/web/20231107045319/https://www.pacificresearch.org/why-are-teachers-mostly-liberal/


https://m.primal.net/HQWN.jpg

#archer_humor


It's so weird that otherwise intelligent people can grasp that all manner of goods-- food, clothing, shelter, transportation--can be provided in abundance via voluntary trade, but that education can only be provided by a coercive state run monopoly.

It's almost as if they've been brainwashed for 12 years by Democrats.

"While it unsurprising that among actors and actresses there are 90 Democrats for every 10 Republicans, many would be amazed to discover that teachers are actually as liberal or even more so than those in acting.

Among English teachers, there are 97 Democrats for every three Republicans, with the proportion being even more one-sided among health teachers, with 99 Democrats for every one Republican.

While there are slightly more Republicans among math and science teachers, among high school teachers overall, there are 87 Democrats for every 13 Republicans."

https://web.archive.org/web/20231107045319/https://www.pacificresearc)h.org/why-are-teachers-mostly-liberal/


It's actually kind of shocking how polarized my Twitter/X feed has become.

So many people who were technical developers, capital allocators, thoughtful geopolitical commentators, etc are now just outright tribalists.

-Some of them are direct anti-Palestinian. Not just anti-Hamas, but outright against Muslims existing in Israel.

-Some of them are direct anti-Jew. Not just anti-Zionist in the sense of being critical of the modern state of Israel and its border rights. But instead just like, actually anti-Jew.

I hate to see this. The truth is not necessarily in the middle (ie "moderation" may itself be wrong by assuming the middle is correct), but perhaps more concerningly, many people can't even steelman their opponent's view. In the best of worlds, you should be able to explain the most intelligent version of your opponent's view, and then deconstruct it by explaining how it's wrong.

I see little of that. Hardly anyone can do it. My feed is now mostly like 90 IQ tribalist stuff, even from 120 IQ people. It's sad to see. I rarely see anyone who can steelman the Palestinian case and then explain why Israel is right, or steelman the Israeli case and explain why the Palestinians are right.

I have my own personal views, first and foremost toward the civilian children, and secondarily toward land rights, but perhaps my biggest view thirdly is to criticize the sheer polarization that has occurred. Everyone is sure, but few can particularly explain the dilemma in detail in such way that acknowledges their smartest opponents views and then builds their own case against that. Almost everyone is instead polarized and tribal now.


https://image.nostr.build/f6f823765c3f1e904072357c97b7a2b2c205c4f2f869e5a7003ab0fc41681a36.jpg

#meme #memestr #nostrmemes #memes 816,979 🤙💜


"This project scores all 50 states on their overall respect for individual freedom and on their respect for three dimensions of freedom considered separately: fiscal policy, regulatory policy, and personal freedom. To calculate these scores, we weight public policies according to the estimated costs that individuals suffer when government restricts their freedom. However, we happily concede that different people value aspects of freedom differently. Hence, our website provides the raw data and weightings so that interested readers can construct their own freedom rankings."
...
"New Hampshire is once again the freest state in the Union and in 2022 set the record for the highest freedom score ever recorded in the 21st century. Governor Chris Sununu and the New Hampshire legislature have much to be proud of. "

https://www.freedominthe50states.org/

#archer_politics
#fsp
#freestateproject
#grownostr

https://m.primal.net/HQPD.webp


Silicon valley is cheering for yet to be released "GPT store" (AI agents marketplace) While we already have several open AI agents marketplace on Nostr.

https://vendata.io/
https://tasktiger.io/
https://chat.plebai.com/

Nostr AI agent marketplace is based off NIP-90, it is open and there it is not controlled by one company and uses lightning micro payments.

Don't let "GPT store" become another App store and strangle around our neck..!

Please repost this for visibility and spread the word to your friends and family...!

cc: nostr:npub1nxa4tywfz9nqp7z9zp7nr7d4nchhclsf58lcqt5y782rmf2hefjquaa6q8 nostr:npub1x5nfafs95as966kkkvd773wvv5qtjyd27fy3g67jxyzln93mk02qdgdkan nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft


Holy crap I totally forgot about Threads!

For two weeks it was the biggest thing and it vanished SO fast 🤣 nostr:note1d9cl5nuaw3h5d83vtd57f56608zvqt87u30wty4je62lql3twhaslhmpkk


Mass tagging strangers is spammy.  Please don't do it again.


”Recently revealed data from the KGB archives in Kazakhstan shows that several million people in Central Asia died between the mid-1920s and 1956 due to imprisonment, disease, starvation, and execution.”

https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-opens-kgb-archives-russian-criticism/32681381.html


Is there a standardized way to tell which NIPs a given client has implemented?


The Free State Project (FSP) has enjoyed such success in New Hampshire, that the progressive advocacy group Granite State Matters has written a 24 page attack on libertarians:

https://granitestatematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NH-Battleground-in-the-Fight-to-Dismantle-Democracy-electronic.pdf

#grownostr
#freestateproject
#fsp
#archer_politics

https://m.primal.net/HPie.jpg


On Nov 14 the Human Rights Foundation will launch its CBDC Tracker at the National Press Club in Washington, DC

The Tracker will go online for the first time, providing the public with a resource to examine the progress and risks of CBDC implementation worldwide

Like paper dollars or euros, CBDCs are liabilities of central banks

Unlike paper dollars or euros, CBDCs do not offer the privacy protections, neutrality, or finality of cash

Virtually all money today is already digital, but it is typically issued and controlled by private banks and fintech companies, even in dictatorships like China

When consumers use a credit card, spending is at the discretion of the corporation that issued the card

When consumers deposit money into their bank accounts, their funds are liabilities of the bank

CBDCs are an effort to:

1) Replace paper cash with government-issued, government controlled digital credits

2) Reduce the power of private banks

3) Expand state control over the economy

Paper cash doesn’t require identification, can be used by anyone with no discrimination, and cannot be easily tracked

As such, cash is a daily tool of human rights activists, dissidents, and civil society, especially under authoritarian regimes

CBDCs stand to potentially phase out this tool for human rights defenders, making them entirely reliant on currency that is surveilled and easily frozen and censored

Unlike cash, CBDCs can require ID, have expiration dates, be remotely
frozen, and abide by blacklists

HRF believes CBDCs pose a significant threat to human rights work worldwide, especially for people living under tyranny

More than 100 countries are researching CBDCs, while more than 20 have pilots, and a handful of governments have already launched some kind of retail product

Russia, India, the EU, the US, Brazil, and other major governments
have all signaled intent to pursue CBDC projects

HRF considers it important to track these activities and document what risk they pose to human rights

We are pleased to be working with the Bitcoin Policy Institute to launch the CBDC Tracker at the National Press Club in Washington at 10:00am ET on November 14th

We are excited to share the work of the project authors: Nick Anthony, Janine Roem, and Matthew Mezinskis

If you would like to learn more about the project or RSVP to the launch event, please contact nostr:npub1cf3zeytdnwgwzz5pk2ax0vvmmlzad03xcft4d50ejrfhsh8pxcdsefx7gk

We look forward to sharing the resource with all of you on Nov 14

https://cbdchumanrights.org/ https://image.nostr.build/5dcb01114749a54fb356f344bd20d936351cd18d12b3e7ab15c1a0fdcfd9a605.jpg


Many great suggestions on this [call for youtube recommendations on this SlateStarCodex reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/17pyqdg/recommended_youtube_channels/):

Some of my favorite youtube channels are listed below.  What are some of your favorites?

[Based Camp](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKl1rNF6tE8waTadKDiYKmg) - Primarily pronatalist / anti-woke, but interesting takes on a variety of topics.

[Ethan Chlebowski](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDq5v10l4wkV5-ZBIJJFbzQ) - My favorite online cooking channel.  He takes time to explain the theory / science behind his techniques.

[Project Farm](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDq5v10l4wkV5-ZBIJJFbzQ) - Detailed tests of tools.  My goto place when I want to buy a new tool.

[The Political Orphanage](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUuTy3hH35Acidy8Zzy35PQ) - Note: his audio podcast is his main channel.  His deep dives into complex topics like nuclear war, abortion, Supreme Court, etc are fantastic.

[ReasonTV](https://www.youtube.com/@ReasonTV) - Culture and politics from a libertarian perspective.  Their parody videos/songs are hilarious.

[Faux Rock Training](https://www.youtube.com/@fauxrock) - How to make fake rocks.

[Taryl Fixes All](https://www.youtube.com/@TarylFixesAll) - Small engine repair + dad jokes.

[Practical Engineering](https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalEngineeringChannel) - All about infrastructure engineering.

[Ultimate Paper Mache](https://www.youtube.com/@UltimatePaperMache) - Paper mache art techniques.

[Donut Operator](https://www.youtube.com/@DonutOperator) - Police encounter videos.

[Aircrete Harry](https://www.youtube.com/@AircreteHarry) - How to build with aircrete, ferrocement, and similar materials.

[DIY Perks](https://www.youtube.com/@DIYPerks) - Cool DIY projects, like turning LCD's into faux windows.

[Abundance Build Channel](https://www.youtube.com/@AbundanceBuild) - How to build with styrocrete (styrofoam + cement).

[Jeremy Field](https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyFieldingSr) - Cool tool/inventions built from recycled materials.

[Tech Ingredients](https://www.youtube.com/@TechIngredients) - DIY solar airconditioner, solar powered boat,  and more.

[Sabine Hossenfelder](https://www.youtube.com/@SabineHossenfelder) - science and engineering explainer videos.

What are your favorite youtube channels?


If you care about government surveillance, make sure to tell your representative to vote not to renew section 702:

https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-absent-major-changes-702-should-not-be-renewed

"Section 702 authorizes the government to collect, without a warrant and from American companies like Google and AT&T, the private messages of targeted foreigners abroad — even when they are communicating with Americans. The F.B.I.’s ability to search for information about Americans in the repository of intercepted messages has been a focus of controversy."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/us/politics/fbi-surveillance-darin-lahood.html

The law has been used to spy on Congress, protestors:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/04/nsa-spying-bernie-sanders-members-congress

#archer_censorship
#archer_spying
#archer_politics


Of course, these $10,000 Toyota trucks won't be sold in the US, due to the protectionist Chicken Tax:

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

Laws like the Chicken Tax cause me to feel rage whenever some smarmy progressive waxes rhapsodic about how the government is necessary to "protect" the interests of the poor.

"The Toyota Tacoma pickup is built in America for Americans and Canadians, to dodge the "chicken tax," but 181 other countries around the world get the Toyota Hilux pickup. It looks a bit like our Tacoma, but more basic. You'd recognize it from global news footage of relief aid or conflict areas. Well, apparently it had gotten a trifle fancy and at about $15,200 to start, it was pricing itself out of some of those markets. The Toyota IMV 0 intends to fill in that low-cost space beneath the Hilux with a target starting price of $10,000. "

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2025-toyota-imv-0-pickup-truck-first-drive-review-japan-mobility-show/

#archer_politics


It is fucked up that due to burdensome regulation this will not be sold in America.

https://m.primal.net/HPcp.png


We should also give prisoners vouchers, and let them choose which prison to be in.  That way, prisons are incentivized to treat prisoners humanely.

#prison_reform
#grownostr


Yes, I'm aware of the scope of the loss.  But that's a sunk cost.  Spending $40 K per year to keep him in a cage won't bring that money back.


Sam Bankman-Fried caused enormous harm, and I, like many others, want  him to face justice.  But letting him rot in prison seems like a waste.   To me, proper justice would involve him making as much restitution to his victims as he can with his remaining life.

He's non-violent, so there's no physical threat that requires locking him away from the rest of society.

Instead, he should be forced to wear an ankle monitor, and allowed to find what jobs he can.  In order to incentivize him to work, he should get to keep a percentage of the money he earns above the amount required to monitor him.  (The rest should go toward a victim restitution fund.)    The more he makes, the higher the percentage of his earnings he gets to keep.

#prison_reform
#grownostr


Is there an extension that allows you to "retweet" a twitter post to your nostr timeline, instead of your twitter timeline?

#grownostr
#nostr


Very cool!


@SpencrGreenberg proposes many people would be better off if they curated their social media feed more carefully:

https://twitter.com/SpencrGreenberg/status/1721911661689200762

Economist Bryan Caplan advocates something similar more generally:

https://www.econlib.org/archives/2012/03/my_beautiful_bu.html

IMO, I think it's a good idea, but done at the level of the person, rather than the level of posts.

It would be easier to just post funny memes and interesting science.  It's time consuming and unpleasant to make unpopular points (such as the fact that Israeli bombs and food/fuel/water embargoes have killed far more children than Hamas has).  But imagine if you knew that Jews were being gassed by your government, and you said nothing because it was unpopular?

Many controversial topics are also heavily throttled by social media's censorship algorithms.   I might feel more relaxed about building a bubble for myself if I trusted that mainstream media sources weren't routinely spreading lies and propaganda (I bet many people still believe Hunter Biden's laptop was a Russian plant, that Kyle Rittenhouse murdered three black men in cold blood, or that 300 K children are being trafficked in the US ).

So rather than build my bubble at the level of the post, I try to surround myself with peple who can discuss controversial discuss topic politely, follow good argumentation practices, and assume good will.  People who fail to do those things consistently get dropped from my feed.

One of my dreams is to find a forum that enforces / rewards good argumentation / epistemic practices:

https://fakenous.substack.com/p/tips-for-debate-part-1
https://fakenous.substack.com/p/tips-for-debate-part-2
https://www.econlib.org/archives/2012/05/the_bettors_oat.html


Are you familiar with Arweave?  It's a project intended to store data permanently in a decentralized, censorship manner for a one time fee.

One of the concerns I have about the njump service is that the service will be abandoned, and the njump links will go 404.

Therefore, I'd like the njump info be stored on the Arweave network, and the Arweave link posted to twitter instead of the link to njump.   That way, even if the njump service disappears, my tweet will still be visible on Twitter.  I'd also like the arweave link to be added to my Nostr post.

Since the Arweave network necessarily requires a fee for storage, this could also be a way to finance the service--add a percentage for the Twitter bridge on top of the Arweave fee.

Arweave doesn't charge a fee for storage up to 500 KB, so maybe short, image-free tweets are free, and charge a fee for long tweets + image / video storage.

https://ardrive.io/features/free-500
https://scribe.rip/@arweave/what-is-arweave-explain-like-im-five-425362144eb5

https://ardrive.io/features/free-500/


Happy Birthday #nostr! 💜Thank you nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 for bringing forth this epic freedom tech! 💜
Thank you to all the devs growing and maintaining it! 💜

Pablo @PABLOF7z
Cameri @cameri
Mike Dilger @mikedilger
Will @jb55
Fiat Jaf @fiatjaf
Kieran @Kieran
Calle @dr. calle 👁⚡👁
Vitor @Vitor Pamplona
Hodlbod @hodlbod
Koala Sat @KoalaSat
Martti Malmi @Martti Malmi
Henry @nothenry
Ben @ben
Rock @rock
Roberto @rob
Iefan  @iefan 🕊
Semisol @Semisol 👨💻
RooSoft @roosoft
Vivek @vivganes
Brugeman @brugeman
Miljan @miljan
Zach Meyers @zach
@nostr.build
Fishcake @fishcake
Terry Yiu @tyiu
@ROCKSTAR
Rabble @rabble
Matt Lorentz @mplorentz
Stuart Bowman @Stuart Bowman
Karnage @karnage
@tijl
Jeff @JeffG
Dread @dread


TPB60 - How Bitcoin Benefits Workers with nostr:npub1c688ut3qsz6g6aj92u884wph24mt6xe3yrunxvwd5m9a8zyex4dqdscy0g  & nostr:npub1r526lguznz3txn0uf7x0an2vymtp8zu5cprmkf84reht3p7j27asmh9pgs is out now.

"If you really care about fixing problems, you really have to take a look at these solutions like Bitcoin."

My guests today are Lisa Hough and Dom Bei. Lisa is a former natural gas trader and currently serves as the VP of Strategic Relationships at Custodia Bank. Dom is a proud fire fighter, former President of the Santa Monica Fire Fighters, and Founder of Proof of Workforce, a non-profit helping workers, unions, and businesses with education-based Bitcoin adoption. Lisa also serves on the board of directors at Proof of Workforce.

In this episode we explore Bitcoin's potential as a tool for better savings for workers, as well as examining renewable mining incentives, pension solvency, income inequality, government surveillance, financial privacy, and uniting political divides. We also get into Bitcoin's decentralized nature protecting human rights and economic justice globally, contrasted with proposed anti-privacy regulations. Lisa and Dom made this a fun, personal, and relatable discussion and I'm incredibly grateful for their work in the bitcoin space, and how they are both reaching mainstream audiences about the benefits of Bitcoin.

Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts by searching "The Progressive Bitcoiner" (link in bio)
https://m.primal.net/HPcS.jpg
https://m.primal.net/HPcS.jpg


As we've been saying since the travel rule reared its head, the light nudging of regulatory compliance is slowly but surely degrading the privacy of users and creating a path for the incumbent exchanges to create regulatory moats.

https://tftc.io/travel-rule-compliance-is-the-first-step-to-blocking-the-exits/


Any stamps on Amazon will do, but get the jig.

https://www.cryptocloaks.com/product/blockmitjig/


The Dark, Sad Life of Boogie2988 | Official Documentary (Full)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QgDx0RIWY8

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYBivoVysKE

#docs #movies #touchgrass #gaming #vidya


Welcome to Nostr, Rocco!


Great, thanks!


I have wonderful news, Magic Web Store is not completely abandoned after all! My merge requests were accepted.

https://github.com/supertestnet/superstore

So what next? Privacy, security and reliability updates!


I have been quiet lately, but it is for some good reason.

I am turning my medical device company ( eyenetra.com ) into an open-source project.

As some of you may know, I spent the past 15 years trying to increase access to eyeglasses by developing and shipping a new class of vision-testing devices. Even though we shipped thousands of units and served millions of patients, Nostr made me realize what I was missing all along: true decentralization.

All of our hardware designs and software will be made available to the FOSS community to build their own vision-testing devices and services. And I am going to be working with design/manufacturing partners across the globe to bring them to the market in as many variations as we can.

It has been a long process but I finally have all approvals to make it happen. Thanks to all my shareholders who believed in this idea and allowed me to make it happen.

The future is bright.


"Freifunk (German for: "free radio") is a non-commercial open grassroots initiative to support free computer networks in the German region. Freifunk is part of the international movement for a wireless community network. The initiative counts about 400 local communities[1] with over 41,000 access points.[2] Among them, Münster, Aachen, Munich, Hanover, Stuttgart, and Uelzen are the biggest communities, with more than 1,000 access points each."

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

#mesh
#censorship
#freifunk


Sorry for the repost, but I had to correct the spelling of Pihkal and Tihkal.

An Alexander and Ann Shulgin Pixar biopic would be amazing.  Miyasaki / Studio Ghibli is also acceptable.

https://m.primal.net/HPZL.jpg

#archer_humor
#archer_drugs
#dnm
#monero


ai is the new weather hoax

https://hugotalks.com/2023/06/18/a-i-is-the-new-climate-change-hoax-hugo-talks/


Copy that.


[Apologies if this is the wrong place to post feedback for this service -- please feel free to direct me to a better place.]

Thanks again for creating this service!  It's great--I'm glad to have it.   My feedback is only intended to help improve the service.

1.  I know Twitter doesn't yet support uploading longform tweets via the API.   When it becomes possible to do so,  I would prefer that the tweet not be truncated.

2. May we also have a flag to turn off the njump link?  Unfortunately, Twitter posts mostly a duplicate of the tweet as a preview in blinding black on white text.

3.  Would like to be able to upload attached images directly to Twitter.  As I think only one image per upload is allowed, upload the first image in the tweet, if there are multiple images.

Example tweet posted below.

https://m.primal.net/HPXV.png


nitter.poast.org/DiscussingFilm/status/1720923476528095609#m

https://i.poastcdn.org/9a22d879f297593a21fbd759f99c2ab2635ea4468de59dd48608c997a2f3ef79.png


I think inertia is leading us toward a quantified state, in which the costs of tracking and categorizing objects — primarily people, phones, cars, and money — as they move from place to place becomes so low that most institutions are doing it by reflex, without either considering or caring for consequences. Eventually, somebody is going to exploit the gap in information (between what is available to ordinary people, and what is available  to organizations) in a way that causes enormous, historic harm, as happened in WWII when a particular state realized that IBM had compiled a database that was perfect for populating a list of names of those who would soon be marched off to camps. And that was just census data. Now they know what you read, where you go, who you're with, and how you'll vote.

The unfortunate reality of contemporary political thought is that consequences do not exist until they are felt. Rare is the chicken that fears the farmer. That means we've got two options: we either wait for the pain, or we stop waiting for political consensus.

nostr:nevent1qqsq94302eeh5r82vytl2r3n0hdhtmeg3ehxxcavk767j5xlqufmd2spzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgq3qpvgcusxk7006hvtlyx555erhq8c5pk9svw57snlxujpkgnkup89sxpqqqqqqz27cnxw


Sorry, all I had was "penis!" written 50 times in a row.


After the CCS hack, fluffypony proposes breaking up the Monero Core team:

"Currently the Monero Core Team is responsible for a number of things that are critical to Monero, and as a result there is a great level of trust implicit in them. For instance, a malicious Monero Core Team member could hijack the domain, and serve up malicious Monero downloads right after a new release. No matter how quickly this is detected, there will be many affected downloads, and could cause massive financial and privacy-related network damage. The recent CSS wallet incident is also an example of risks that the Core Team presents.

Additionally, this has been a thankless job that the Core Team has taken on (for no compensation), although even if there were compensation and constant praise it would still be a centralising force that we should try and eviscerate.

My suggestion, and I encourage us to use this thread to iterate on it in public, is to break the Core Team up into 6 self-assembling workgroups. This is not a complicated exercise, apart from the community coming to consensus as to who should form part of the workgroups. I would suggest we aim for a January 1st, 2025, cutover date for this."

https://github.com/monero-project/meta/issues/921

#monero
#archer_crypto


I keep seeing this very strange sentiment:

The state is evil. It will use any means of force necessary to get what it wants, including torture and murder. However, I'm ok KYCing my bitcoin so the state can know exactly how much ₿ I hold and what addresses I hold it in.


If anyone deserves a Pixar biopic, it's certainly Alexander and Ann Shulgin .

#psychedelics
#art
#memes
#archer_humor

https://m.primal.net/HPVS.jpg


"Arweave is the permanent information storage system, engineered to fulfill a set of immutable principles. When the Arweave community says permanent, we mean it. Truly permanent storage requires a system of perpetual technical renewal to adapt to the ever-changing environment. That is why today we present the Framework for Evolving Arweave. This mechanism is the culmination of significant research, setting the immutable foundations that will ensure the fulfillment of the protocols’ vision."

https://keucvwznkccczbu6gcxazh5y54pqcn2dpzpcrcuhve6m42zo4mva.arweave.net/USgq2y1QhCyGnjCuDJ-47x8BN0N-XiiKh6k8zmsu4yo

#arweave
#archer_arweave
#archer_crypto


"One of the fundamental principles of open decentralized protocols is that they should be self-governing based on their built-in mechanisms, without any central authority or controlling entity. In addition, our protocol, which stores data permanently, needs to be able to adapt to an environment that will inevitably shift in unpredictable ways over time. Without proper mechanisms in place to allow for upgrades and innovation, a protocol risks becoming stagnant, vulnerable to exploits, and inadequate for new use cases.

Many protocols have codified governance mechanisms in an attempt to address similar needs. Unfortunately, many of the current practices of governance, such as token voting DAOs, have proven to be less robust than initially hoped. Recent cases of dysfunction in Uniswap and MakerDAO — amongst many others — illustrate examples of governance slipping back to the behaviors of traditional companies, abandoning the core principle of guaranteed immutable rights for users. These dynamics pose serious threats to the neutrality, utility, and longevity of these protocols.

To avoid these problems, Arweave embraces an entirely different approach: protocol evolution. Outlined in The Framework for Evolving Arweave, launched today, protocol evolution enables a thoroughly resilient and market-based process for network upgrades that embraces competition."

https://scribe.rip/@arweave/arweave-is-an-evolutionary-protocol-e072f5e69eaa


https://image.nostr.build/df8f5d186949d798e3083bad1227915f0ec1b12f83aab23d6a0bcc0829d47120.jpg

#meme #memestr #nostrmemes #memes 815,486 🤙💜


The links for retroactive public goods funding got mangled:

https://tea.xyz

https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/11/16/retro1.html


Great list!  Here's some more.  No doubt some overlap with some that you've mentioned, but deserve individual attention.

1. Tradable bounties, like the social policy bond system (https://socialgoals.com/).
2. Lotteries.  Every zap goes into a pool that pays out users daily / monthly.  Developer gets a percentage.
3. Service Level Agreements / Retainers.  Pay a fee, get prioritized customer support.
4. Build a Monero miner into the client.  Share all mining proceeds with p2pool.  Developer gets a percentage.
5. Fines / virtual swear jar.
6. Escrow services.
7. Dispute resolution (e.g. Kleros)
8. Loss leader for consulting services.
9. Retroactive public goods funding.  (https://tea.xyz, https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/11/16/retro1.html)
10. Venture capital (help users to start businesses of their own, take a percentage)
11. Token sales + dev tax  / founders reward (https://z.cash)
12. Bridging services - send / receive nostr posts to legacy services (Twitter / Facebook, Instagram) for a fee
13. Identity vetting / management (BrightID, STAMP Protocol)
14. Rugpulls.  :)
15. Contract enforcement. Require performance bonds from members which are forfeit if they don't fulfill contracts with other members.
16. BAT token (Brave browser rewards)
17. Incentivized forking (https://scribe.rip/@arweave/arweave-is-an-evolutionary-protocol-e072f5e69eaa)


Just some thoughts on various monetization methods nostr clients can explore now or down the road.

1. Pro tiers. This is the route Snort is going with some features being available only to pro subscribers. As a side bonus, you can focus the product around the feedback from paying members which increases the signal from every feature added. Cheap feedback is... well... cheap.

2. Zap pools. Snort is doing this now. This is basically an option to set aside a pre-determined percentage of every zap into a pool that is then zapped out every hour automatically to anyone who is added to the pool. To enable, add a checkbox to each zap modal to support the client. When checked, a percentage slider is visible and adjustable. Allow user to save their preference so they don't have to go through this every time.

3. Zap Splits. Instead of zap pools, you could code the modal in such a way that toggles a zap split when a box is checked. The split could go to one developer account instead of a pool. Keeps things simple.

4. Fees. Grow your client by empowering users to be creators. This would probably mean building marketplace features and taking a fee from every product listed, every song streamed etc... etc... The fee could be optional, could be "streamed" in real time in the case of music playing, or charged on every sale of a digital product. This monetization method would likely work very well in the Adult Industry and clients that were focused exclusively on that.

5. Zapscriptions. Pablo is doing this well with Highlighter. Enable users to zapscribe to other people. You could create pro tiers and ask for zapscriptions, or allow anyone to possibly zapscribe partially to you (the developer) when a person supports someone else. Not sure how feasible this is technically - just an idea at this point.

6. Donations. These could be coupled with badge or physical merch rewards. If user contributes over X amount, they get this exclusive thing, unlock exclusive merch or something else. Create a tier system where higher donation unlocks better recognition. The point of "unlockables" is purely for recognition and not financial gain of any sort - that defeats the purpose.

7. White labeling. If some company wants to have their own version of your client, you could white label it for them as a service - help them get set up, remove any of your own branding and add theirs. OR, you could turn this into an automated process where they can do it themselves. Charge a monthly fee perhaps?

8. Fiat subscriptions. The same as all of the above, but allow people to pay with cards, Apple Pay, etc... Kind of like Current is doing with their iOS app.

A combination of some or all of these.

Whatever you do, if you wish people to use various functions to support the client, make sure those functions are visible or easily discovered (not hidden behind a menu). What's focal is vocal. If it's not visible, it doesn't exist.

What other strategies have I missed?


how to browse poast in public

https://i.poastcdn.org/6abe693089ab40cf59ebc7801d81337187e160d09d430a7bf2056bf87dfd227c.mp4


Thanks for the pointers.  Here's a few more projects that try to solve real problems that Bitcoin doesn't try to solve:

Handshake - censorship resistant DNS
Arweave - permanent web storage (aims for at least 200 years)
Chia - novel, low cost consensus mechanism
Filecoin - low cost, decentralized storage
Zcash - privacy
Chainlink - Oracle services
Nym - incentivized mixnet
Kleros - decentralized dispute resolution
Tari - private NFT's


"A few years ago a group of child pornographers was infiltrated by police who were able to monitor, interact, and aggressively investigate the members. Despite engaging in a 15 month undercover operation, only one in three of the pedophiles were successfully apprehended. The majority, including the now infamous leader Yardbird, escaped capture. The dismal success rate of the law enforcement officials was due entirely to the strict security rules followed by the group.

This post will examine those rules, the reasons for their success, and the problems the group faced which necessitated those rules."

https://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/12/01/yardbirds-effective-usenet-tradecraft/


Privacy / anonymity related projects and people.


There is a particular annoying scent that you can't forget, it is a scent of regulatory capture. You can of course smell it out if politicians and bureaucrats, but when you recognize it, you can smell it also from "business people" (people who think they are doing business, but actually use the power of government coercion to capture whole industries with their frienemies - their big corporate competition).

Whenever there are conferences on "AI safety", "addictive apps", "disinformation", "energy crisis" and many other topics, you can feel the scent from the airport hotel ballroom where the conference takes place all the way out. The smell comes from the money trying to create regulations to limit competition and make the sponsors' products mandatory in one way or another (one very common way is "certification"), but you can smell it from the people. Everyone comes with well paid homework from these events. Bureaucrats write regulations that increase the power of the stamps in their hands. Politicians have new fears to talk about and new promises to make to make them go away. Corporations are buying small competition for bargain or let them go bust.

If you want to avoid the scent, avoid airport hotel ballrooms, all the conferences where industry experts talk about "we should self regulate and I'll tell you how".

Or even better yet, take a walk in the dark forest. It smells of connections, creativity and it is the home of mycelial networks that connect peer to peer parallel economies.

Cypherpunk evolved into Lunarpunk and lunarpunks manifest the dark forest.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/140fe6c156f8de32889970c711e572c3c6c905f670086e8e7d5053014bde817f.webp


https://image.nostr.build/69ecc793b9c3b3ff82a04696bf71ee258224df071d996fee488694026f3a3917.jpg
Layer-two scaling is dead! ☠

It became fashionable to make excuses to not scale on L1 after the Bitcoin block size wars. Bitcoin went with Lightning, Ethereum went with countless L2s. All in the name of keeping L1 decentralized.

But in the end, we didn't scale ON L2, we scaled L2s! The future belongs to those who build their blockchain to serve billions on the main chain.

Some nuance aside, L2s are basically completely separate blockchains. Think about it: different chain, nodes, security model, token, ecosystem, etc. The only differentiating factor is a set of pegging and bridging mechanisms that some (not all!) use to continue to pretend to use the coin.

L2 scaling is done in the name of L1 decentralization, but if users are forced to live under L2's decentralization trade-offs, the effect is the same as scaling L1. Unfortunately, the more "true" the L2, the worse the UX. Take a look at Lightning. ⚡ All Lightning Network funds are in two-way payment channels (as opposed to one big bridging pool). How much you can send is severely restricted before you have to make a new L1 payment. Either you have to use L1 a whole lot to use L2, or L2 just works awful! 😵💫

We can see the results. Despite a massive marketing push and being Bitcoin's only way forward, Lightning adoption has stalled out. Devs are quitting, and there's less money in Lightning than in a second-page CoinMarketCap coin. 🤦♂

Instead, Bitcoin's "real" L2, Litecoin, has shown strong growth, despite much less marketing and little development to speak of outside of MimbleWimble (which has absolutely minuscule adoption). This is ultimately how things are going: competing L1s, unrestricted by bridging/pegging constraints, will fight it out until some gain dominance. It's even easier today with the advent of THORChain and the Maya Protocol, which make it trivial to swap an asset for another one. This essentially makes every single coin a potential Bitcoin or Ethereum "L2"!

Notice, however, that almost no one would use Litecoin if Bitcoin just worked. No one would care for Arbitrum, Solana, etc. if Ethereum scaled. 📈 While we do have a multi-coin future, most chains won't survive as an alternative if the preferred chain scales to meet user demand.

It's very telling that Justin Bons, former Solana mega-critic, has significantly changed his tune in recent months. He sees the "scale L1 or die" writing on the wall! ✍

Now that's not to say that there's no use for L2s. Some specialized use cases exist where the trade-offs are massively different from L1. That's fine. But you should be able to use the base network for its intended purposes without juggling chains. If L1 can't do certain things, accept that the crypto can't do those things. Scale massively on-chain, or fail!

Sources:
https://bitcoinvisuals.com/lightning
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/litecoin-transactions.html#alltime
https://mwebexplorer.com


Maybe offer several options, and let people choose?  With a free response option?  On the podcast "Blocked and Reported", premium supporters are called "primos".  On the podcast, the Political Orphanage, they're called "orphans".


Sugar daddies.


Antennapod.  I like that it's open source and reliable.  I like what Fountain.fm is trying to do, but god is it buggy.


"Remember when a Roomba recorded a lady on the toilet, and images from the video ended up on Facebook? It's the type of horror story that rarely happens, yet once is enough to make you second-guess the smart home products you bring into your personal spaces forever.

That's why I was so intrigued by Thursday's announcement of Matic. It's an upcoming robot vacuum and mop that has been in development for six years by ex-Google Nest engineers Mehul Nariyawala and Navneet Dalal. It stands out from other consumer options because of the privacy it offers. The device doesn't require a connection to the Internet or cloud and performs all processing on-device."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/matic-is-a-1795-robot-vacuum-for-people-concerned-about-privacy/

#ai
#robots


How you can be deanonymized through Tor

Tor is an excellent tool for privacy, and we do not recommend you avoid it.  However, there are many limitations to be aware of and ways of using it that can compromise your anonymity on Tor.  This article will discuss just a few of the ways, but there may be others that the public is unaware of.  For example in 2017, the FBI dropped a case against a school worker accused of downloading child pornography because the FBI would have rather let him go than reveal the source code for how they deanonymitized him through Tor.

The techniques we will cover include:

1) JavaScript based attacks

2) Cookies

3) Compromised Exit Nodes

4) Compromised Middle Relays

5) Compromised Entrance Guards

6) Opening Files Outside Tor

7) Ultrasonic Sounds

JavaScript Attacks

JavaScript is used by many websites to deliver content and perform services.  Many sites use it as part of their core functionality.  JavaScript also can be used to browser fingerprint and therefore serve content that’s appropriate for the end user’s browser and operating system versions, such as ensuring the content has the correct screen dimensions.  While the purpose of JavaScript’s fingerprinting is to properly serve content to benefit the user, it can be used maliciously against the user to identity him or her through Tor.

JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich in 1995.  Ironically, Brendan went on in 2015 to become the founder and CEO of Brave Browser, which is promoted as a privacy browser by hiding and confusing your JavaScript fingerprints.  In other words, the founder of JavaScript 20 years later became the founder of one of the most popular JavaScript evasion tools!

Brave Browser has Tor functionality and is popular for obscuring fingerprints for everyday casual use, but it isn’t as effective as Tor Browser, which has a fixed smaller screen resolution and better browser isolation.  Browser isolation is the ability to prevent different tabs open at the same time and any downloaded files from accessing your main PC.

While JavaScript’s incredibly popular, website developers do not technically have to use it for websites to have interactive experiences or to be properly sized.  For example our website, SimplifiedPrivacy.com, uses PHP to allow you to buy services with cryptocurrency, but the overall industry standard has moved towards JavaScript’s use and adoption.

Most large corporate developers are interested in collecting data on users because that data has value in marketing goods and services to those users.  Because surveillance data has value to both website owners and third parties, large software developers create tools that utilize the data, and then smaller website creators often are reliant on these pre-existing tools.

JavaScript can be used to identify a user through Tor in a number of different ways.  This is why Tor Browser comes pre-bundled with the “NoScript” plugin.  This plugin can either reduce or disable JavaScript’s ability.   When the plugin is set on the “Safest” setting, JavaScript is completely disabled.  This level of security is required to completely stay anonymous and secure on Tor.

The first way that JavaScript can identify a user is if a malicious website were to inject code into Mozilla Firefox (the foundation upon which the Tor Browser bundle is built).  An example of this exploit was demonstrated as recently as 2022 by Manfred Paul at a Pwn2Own hacking contest of getting a user’s real IP address through Tor.  [4a] [4b]

But this is not a one time bug or incident, as Mozilla Firefox has a history of being vulnerable to these types of malicious JavaScript injections.  Malicious script hacks caused Tor to have to patch to correct them in 2019 [5], 2016 [6], and 2013 [8].

Back in 2016, cybersecurity researcher Jose Carlos Norte revealed ways that JavaScript could be used to identify Tor users through its hardware’s limitations.  These advanced techniques fingerprinted the user’s mouse movements, which are tied to hardware restrictions and potentially unique operating system settings.  Norte additionally warned how running CPU intensive code could potentially identify the user’s PC based on how long it takes to execute. [7]

The point of all of this is that all of these vulnerabilities did not work when NoScript was set to the safest mode of disabling JavaScript.

Browser Alone doesn’t stop cookies

Another security issue with Tor is pre-existing cookies, which could compromise your anonymity.  For example, let’s say you previously signed on to your Amazon account from the same computer you are now using Tor Browser in (but using a different browser).  If you now visit an Amazon page using Tor Browser (or maybe even receive a forwarded Amazon URL), you could potentially be connected to the Amazon cookie already on your computer and be deanonymized instantly.  This would immediately connect the Tor traffic with you.

Remember though that Tor Browser is only one of a few options for using Tor.  The way around this cookie issue is to use Tor in a virtual machine with the Whonix operating system or the USB operating system version of Tor called Tails.

Compromised Tor Exit Nodes

Your traffic enters Tor encrypted and stays encrypted through its journey throughout the mixnet until it gets to the final stop, which is the exit node.  Here the exit node communicates with the “regular” clearnet without Tor’s onion encryption to access a website on your behalf.

Outside of Tor on the “regular” clearweb internet, most websites use httpS encryption.  This is shown with a padlock in the top by the URL.  If the website is http, without the “s,” then it’s unencrypted plain text data.  Anything you do using an unencrypted http website with a Tor exit node can be snooped on and seen.  However, this risk is relatively low because of the high percentage of websites that use httpS.

The biggest risk is that the httpS encryption can be removed using SSL stripping.   This is when the Tor Exit node acts as a man in the middle, faking the server with which you’re trying to authenticate and downgrading the connection to httpS.  For example in 2020, a malicious actor took control of over 23% of all Tor exit nodes and started doing SSL stripping to steal Bitcoin being sent on mixing websites. [9] [10]

To prevent against these types of attacks, upgrade the Tor security level to safest, which requires the use of HTTPS encryption with “HTTPS-Only”.  Also pay attention to the top icon by the URL bar, to make sure there’s always a padlock showing it’s using this encryption.

You can click on the icon to see your Tor connection route and the certificate authority.  Certificate authorities are the entities that validate the authenticity of the HTTPS encryption to this IP address.  On a side note, these certificate authorities can act as a censor by removing an entry’s IP address, and this is one of the flaws that many cryptocurrency blockchains are actively working to solve.

Another way to prevent malicious Tor exit nodes from stealing your data or cryptocurrency is to avoid using exit nodes by using primarily Onion services.  If you only login to Onion websites, then you never exit Tor.  This doesn’t mean completely avoiding clearweb sites, but try to only browse them and not login.  It’s the login/password credentials that malicious exit nodes steal with SSL stripping.

Malicious Middle Relays

The next type of risk is malicious middle relays — the hop between an entrance guard and an exit node.  For example, the malicious group KAX17 had been identified as having run up to 35% of the middle relays and 10% of the overall Tor network before the official Tor project removed 900 of its servers.  [15] [16]

While malicious exit nodes often want to steal Bitcoin or data, the goal of malicious middle relays is to deanonymatize users by seeing the path of their traffic.  This is especially true on Onion hidden services because it doesn’t even use exit nodes.

There are a few things you can do to reduce this risk.  We will go over them in the entrance guard section, because they are the same methods.

Malicious Entrance Guards

Entrance guards can see what IP address is connecting to the Tor network, but can’t see the traffic itself as it’s onion layer encrypted.  However, they can gather some information, such as the time, size, and frequency of the data packets.

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Qatar Computing Research Institute wrote in a 2015 paper that if one of their malicious machine learning algorithm servers gets randomly picked to be a user’s entrance guard, then it may be able to figure out what website that user is accessing.  The MIT researchers are able to do this by analyzing the patterns of packets from a pre-determined list of websites and seeing if they match the traffic their malicious entrance guard snoops. [17] [18]

According to MIT News, the MIT machine learning algorithm has above an 80% chance to be able to identify what hidden services a given Tor participant is hosting, but there are two conditions.  First the host has to be directly connected to its malicious entrance guard and second the hosted site was on MIT’s predetermined list. [18]  And finding who is the host of controversial materials is often of more interest to oppressive regimes than just who are the website’s visitors.

How can you avoid this?

There are a few ways you can reduce your risks with malicious entrance guards and middle relays.

First, use your own hosted ob4s bridge as an entrance guard to avoid ever having both a malicious relay and guard.  Our company can help you set this up on a cloud server (VPS) or create it for you.  See our product page for more details.

And second, you can enter Tor with a VPN first.

Opening Files Outside of Tor
Virtual machines contain and isolate identities

If files are opened outside of Tor Browser, they could have code that executes and reveals back to an adversary your real IP address.  To avoid this, one can use a dedicated virtual machine like Whonix, which forces all traffic in the VM through Tor.  Another option is the Tails operating system on a USB stick, which automatically erases everything after you’re done.

However, if you want to use a PDF outside of Tor, then you’ll need to convert it to plain text.  One great Linux tool to do this inside Whonix’s command line is PDFtoText.  You can install it with this command:

sudo apt install poppler-utils

Then use it with this:

pdftotext -layout input.pdf output.txt

The -layout flag keeps the original layout.  input.pdf is the original file, and output.txt is what you want the output to be named.

Ultrasonic Cross Device Tracking

As University of California Santa Barbara cybersecurity researchers presented at a BlackHat European conference, malicious websites can identify users through Tor using sounds invisible to the human ear. [20]

The way this works is that many popular phone apps use Silverpush’s ad system, which can receive high frequency audio without the phone’s owner being aware of it.  Audio of this type could be broadcast maliciously from a Tor website.
Silverpush enables the sale of your location data

These doctoral researchers warned of the dangers Silverpush presents by being connected to wide-spread platforms such as Google Ads.  To demonstrate this, the researchers played video of their lab experiment, which de-anonymatized a laptop through Tor Browser, as a result of an Android’s mic next to the laptop’s speakers, while being signed in to a Google account. [34]

While the researchers presented a Chrome browser app that can stop this, we do not recommend it for Tor use because of fingerprinting (and Tor Browser is Firefox based).  The best solution is to turn off the speakers and any phones around you when visiting controversial or private websites.  Also consider a degoogled phone with a custom operating system, such as Graphine or Calyx, which would allow you to modify when apps have microphone privileges.

Conclusion

In this article, we covered a variety of different ways your identity can be revealed through Tor.  To summarize your best defenses are:

1) Disable JavaScript with Tor’s Safest Setting

2) Use a custom private entrance bridge (ob4s) for an entrance guard that you control.  Our company can help you set this up.

3) Use Whonix or Tails when you need JavaScript or for doing anything outside a browser, such as opening unknown software or files

4) Before connecting to Tor, first use a high quality VPN with OpenVPN (Avoid Wireguard)

5) Avoid resizing Tor Browser because of fingerprinting

Reach out to us or find the sources for this post:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/how-you-can-be-deanonymized-through-tor/


Please sign and forward.  We've got to stop rentseekers and the government from stunting AI.

https://twitter.com/martin_casado/status/1720517026538778657

#archer_ai
#ai


New UK laws on bitcoin. https://image.nostr.build/e4b11a798e07e0b42aeb3945413528b2725466491d8a269bff497d9ea36da62d.jpg


The utterly insane story of what happened at Paxful.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/the-ray-narrative


Cakewallet is also on Desktop now.


Perhaps the same tech could be used to create a private / anonymous stablecoin without the KYC/AML limitations.

"We explore the feasibility of a (fiat) stablecoin that provides cash-like privacy while enforcing compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) regulation. Such a privacy-oriented stablecoin solution does not exist today. We demonstrate, based on concepts developed in Gross et al. (2021) in the context of a CBDC, how users can exchange small amounts of value with a (fiat) stablecoin within pre-assigned limits outside the view of third parties, such as banks, central banks, crypto exchanges, regulators, or other parties, in a regulatorily compliant way. "

#monero
#privacy
#stablecoins
#mina

https://minaprotocol.com/blog/etonec-highlights-mina-protocol-in-report-on-how-to-design-a-compliant-privacy-preserving-fiat-stablecoin-with-zero-knowledge-proofs


How to buy gifts for your friends with Monero

https://shopinbit.com - Europe's largest e-shop with 1+ million items for sale).  Accepts BTC, XMR, and many altcoins.

https://plebbin.com - Classified ads for European audience.  Operated by Shopinbit.

https://anonshop.app - Order anything from Amazon with XMR)

https://coincards.com - Buy gift cards with most crypto.

https://www.bitrefill.com - Another gift card service.

#monero
#btc
#dnm


#simplex
#privacy

https://www.poberezkin.com/posts/2023-10-31-why-privacy-impossible-without-venture-funding.html

"Without venture funding, SimpleX Chat would not exist

In 2022 I raised funds for SimpleX Chat from several angel investors and an early stage VC fund Village Global 1. They believe that everybody will want communication privacy, and that SimpleX Chat will become a communication platform that provides it, profitably, solving a decade-old problem of tech businesses abusing privacy of their users.

It enabled our team 2 to continue working full time, and to pay for a security audit done by Trail of Bits, one of the best security consultancies in the world 3.

When we announced this funding, the community response was polarized: while most people were excited about us having the funds to continue the development, some critics stated that venture funding is incompatible with privacy and the need to make profit creates a conflict of interest with users’ privacy.

We discovered that in the same way majority of people ignore their privacy, regardless how much it costs them 4, many people in privacy community believe some damaging myths – both groups equally preventing privacy from becoming a norm."

--  Evgeny Poberezkin, Founder of Simplex.chat

https://m.primal.net/HPNt.png


Got a privacy / security minded person in your life?  Give the gift of greater peace of mind with the BusKill security cable.

https://www.buskill.in/buskill-now-shipping

#privacy
#security
#buskill
#dnm
#agorism
#monero

BusKill utilizes a magnetic trip-wire that tethers your body to your laptop. If you suddenly jump to your feet or fall off your chair (in response to the battering ram crashing through your door) or your laptop is ripped off your table by a group of armed thugs, the data bus' magnetic connection will be severed. This event causes a configurable trigger to execute.

The BusKill trigger can be anything from:

locking your screen or
shutting down the computer or
initiating a self-destruct sequence

https://www.buskill.in/store/https://m.primal.net/HPNp.jpg


Jacob's Ladder - it feels like a waking nightmare; the "shiver" special effect is quite disturbing
Hereditary - a certain death is not shown on camera, but its after effects are horrifying
Requiem for a Dream - Don't do opiates or speed, kids.
The Ring - The premise is silly and dated ("Watch a spooky videotape and you'll die seven days later"), but the visuals are unsettling, and Naomi Watts does a great job of selling the growing fear of a rational woman being pursued by a malevolent spirit.


We would like to start onboarding our initial Creators for a closed beta on our new patreon style relay.

Content creators will be able to create subscription tiers and associate notes/content with a tier. Those notes will only be shared with their subscribers at or above that tier. We will also be able to serve PPV content on behalf of our creators. The relay can be accessed from any nostr client!

If you are a content creator of any kind and interested in monetizing through subscriptions and PPV content on nostr - send me a DM!


Thank you nostr:npub1uucu5snurqze6enrdh06am432qftctdnehf8h8jv4hjs27nwstkshxatty for the fix and update!


"Resolvr  is a first attempt at... a [decentralized] bounty  adjudicator for the Free Open-Source Software community, without which  open-source protocols cannot grow and flourish.

Resolvr provides assurances to developers that they will be paid if their work satisfies the bounty criteria. It does this by

removing discretion from grantors,

crowdsourcing review with an independent developer panel, and

automating enforcement of the panel’s decision.

And  by delegating review to a crowdsourced panel, Resolvr removes barriers  to entry for grantors and donors, thereby democratizing and further  decentralizing FOSS funding."

https://www.resolvr.io/news/introducing-resolvr-a-bounty-adjudicator

#crypto
#opensource
#foss
#archer_crypto

https://m.primal.net/HPLy.png


For anyone interested in 3d printed guns, the history and the politics around it, I really recommend watching the Death Athletic movie! #DeathAthletic

https://www.deathathletic.com/