6 Myths about privacy on blockchains by a16z Do not fall for the ZKProofs

are we all happy that we taught the Government about bitcoin yet or

Economists at the Bank of International Settlements just proposed that *any coin* that has *ever* passed through a no-KYC wallet should be banned from regulated services. The economists argue that their approach would enable a culture of self-policing, or “duty of care,” in which even users of non-custodial wallets would not accept no-KYC coins, report illicit activity, and engage in voluntary KYC.

Well that sounds fucking retarded

GM ☀️

When I first started The Rage, a lot of people asked me how I thought I could make a difference by bootstrapping a new publication in a space that was already well saturated with big names who were well funded, widely read, covered big stories and had super successful journalists. What would I do differently than what the others had been doing? I told them that my editorial policy would be this

Google has changed its Play Store Policy in response to our reporting. Here's why this is a big deal for developers. Since our story yesterday, several people reached out to me about Google Play Store delisting non-custodial wallets well before the policy in question came into effect in July, asking for local licenses under what was previously known as their Blockchain-based Content Policy. One of these wallets was Electrum Wallet, who thankfully documented their ordeal with the Google Play Store publicly. It seems that as soon as a local jurisdiction codified licensing requirements for software wallets, Google wanted to see that the developers obtained said license, making no distinction between custodial and non-custodial wallets. If no license was provided, it appears that Google auto-banned flagged wallets for policy violations, leaving it up to the developers to prove that they did not need a license under local laws. In the case of Electrum Wallet, getting their wallet back into the Play Store took over 100 days. That's 100 days in which no new installs were possible, while existing users weren't able to pull updates. A big deal, seeing how some updates push critical security fixes. By fixing their newest policy to now specifically exempt non-custodial wallets, non-custodial wallet developers will no longer have to prove that they don't need a license if they are flagged, but can simply point to the fact that they are a non-custodial application, referencing Google's own policy. Never thought I'd say this, but thank you Google for fixing this, and thanks to everyone who helped raise hell to make it happen. Let this be your reminder that protesting injustices actually works, and that we should be doing a lot more of it. As a side note, I am open for apologies and do not hold grudges for dumb takes (@`Jameson Lopp`)

I'm sorry to be the one to inform you of this but it is technically impossible to be pseudonymous while being active on the internet when the Five Eyes are after you. Every darknet market ends up busted one way or another. Also INB4 "but satoshi is pseudonymous". The US Gov likely knows who he is, or at least has some very good guesses as to his identity. If they wanted to prosecute him, they would find him. This is terrible advice.

Lot's of nuance necessary here, and entirely unclear as neither Samourai Wallet nor Storm were convicted of licensing violations. What *is* clear is that non-custodial developers should not, under any circumstances, knowingly transmit criminal funds. Because the licensing requirement is unclear, it is also unclear *how* developers should do this. I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but I would either KYC+Chainalysis all the things, or immediately turn off your services for US users so that the DOJ cannot fabricate venue against you.

Everything that's wrong with Bitcoin in one picture

I don't often advertise services, but if you're pissed about Governments KYCing the Internet consider signing up to Snowstorm Beta ❄️ Snowstorm is the next iteration of Tor's Snowflake, that helps people around the world access the uncensored Internet. Snowstorm is an application that runs on your machine that has two modes: one that anonymizes your own traffic, and one that lets you contribute as an exit point to help others bypass censorship. Snowstorm's gotten major upgrades compared to Snowflake that now even makes it fast enough for streaming. The Snowstorm guys are still looking for more beta testers and I'm sure they'd appreciate more people signing up 👇 https://snowstorm.net/

Updated my Xitter name and lost blue-check privileges until the overlords verify that my name really is "L0la L33tz is more fun on Nostr" This is a great feature for people who rely on X visibility for income pls zap so I don't starve to death

Changing a Google policy wasnt exactly on todays bucket list but here we are Send money you cheap bastards https://therage.co/donate

GM, nobody seems to know how much bitcoin the US Government has, and that appears to include Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent, who is still claiming that the Government has up to 170,000 BTC. If Bessent is relying on numbers made available by the blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, it would mean that the US Government is planning to build the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve with coins that it doesn't actually own – namely funds to be given back to Bitfinex. If you don’t care whether Bitfinex gets its money back, imagine this: You have 1 BTC stolen in a hack today, with bitcoin at ~$115,000. The Government then finds the hackers, takes ~3 years to finish proceedings, and you get $115,000 back while the Government keeps your coin – which at that point may be worth $500,000. Raise your hand if you want the Government to steal from you 🙋‍♀️

Get in you guys we're rebranding the Deep State (To people who slap agents with Subway sandwiches)

I'll take that as a no