Libre Blockchain

Nobody Uses the Lightning Network and Nobody Will Ever Use it Its confusing, inconvenient, not even safe or practical, more expensive, cumbersome, and restrictive all while stripping away any benefits Bitcoin actually provides over traditional fiat payments using the banking system. Its not quicker or "more convenient". Its not necessary. At all. Its like a contraceptive designed for people that already wear condoms. Explicitly. "Decentralization! No Third Parties!" (Kiss that shit goodbye with the Lightning Network) If you want to interact with the LN autonomously, you need to run your own Bitcoin full node. Full stop. Otherwise, you'll have to rely on a 3rd-party that's running one for you (that also must custody your Bitcoin while on the network). So instead of cutting banks out the equation, we've actually cut them in. Even if you have opted to run your own node, you're likely to opt for a 3rd-party provider anyway because they'll have more inherent 'connections' on the network with intermediate nodes that can bridge the 'distance' between you and whomever you're looking to send funds to on the "Lightning Network". You Have to Run That Node 24/7 to Ensure You Aren't Robbed on the Lightning Network What?? Yes. True. Hope you didn't get too used to the luxuries afforded to you by transacting normally on Bitcoin like (a) not having to operate a full node to transact p2p autonomously in a trustless manner (b) using a decentralized network and perhaps most importantly (c) not having to be "online" to make sure someone doesn't 'reverse' transactions. Because LN comes with none of those creature comforts. An LN channel is created when you & whomever you're trying to establish a channel with sends funds to a multisig address (2-of-2) on the normal blockchain. That's what "locks" your money into a 'channel'. From there, the 'off chain transactions' between you and the other person are basically informal, on-paper non verified or validated transactions. So instead of relying on a distributed, decentralized immutable trustless ledger as your ground source of truth you're going to have to rely on "scout's honor". Let's say you start a channel using 5 of your bitcoins with Joe Blow who also puts up 5 of his own bitcoins. You run a cable company and Joe Blow is a subscriber. He pays 1 bitcoin a month. Two months go by, and he's "paid you" 2 bitcoins in this "channel" yall created, shifting the balance from 5 bitcoins a piece to 7 bitcoins your way & 3 bitcoins for him. If you go offline for any reason and Joe Blow notices he can publish the OG channel state (where you guys both had 5 btc a piece) and have that confirmed on chain, effectively robbing you out of those 2 bitcoin he "paid" you. The only way to prevent this is to remain online 24/7 & watch the channel & the blockchain to ensure Joe Blow doesn't do this. Sound like too much? No problem. You can just pay a 3rd-party to "monitor" the channel & blockchain for you to ensure Joe Blow doesn't try to "cheat" you. Ofc you'll have to trust that 3rd party and pay them a fee. When you close the channel you'll have to pay w/e fee is associated with that on-chain TX (which will be more than the normal TX since the funding TX involves at least two inputs & they went to a multi-sig address so >1 signature needed to close it too, so we're talking 5-6x weight of a normal TX just in closing; "opening" the channel is another on-chain transaction (+ associated fee). Also you can't "add" more funds to a channel once its been opened. Whatever you sent to fund the channel is what you're stuck with. Wanna add more? Create a new channel.

Bye Do Kwon You Fucking Clown - Finally Arrested https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/23/do-kwon-arrested-in-montenegro-interior-minister/?outputType=amp

Translation: If you lost money on an asset that trades on Coinbase that is later ruled a security, you can sue them and recoup all losses.

Coinbase Customers Entitled to HUGE Payout if SEC Wins You keep hearing the narrative Coinbase is "fighting for all of us", right? That's not true. In fact, the opposite is the case. In their S-1 prospectus, Coinbase states, "We could be subject to judicial or administrative sanctions for...acting as a broker, dealer, or national securities exchange without appropriate registration. Such an action could result in injunctions, cease and desist orders, as well as civil monetary penalties, fines and disgorgement, criminal liability, and reputational harm. Customers that traded such supported crypto assets on our platform and suffered trading losses could also seek to rescind a transaction that we facilitated as the basis that it was conducted in violation of applicable law, which could subject us to to significant liability. We may also be required to cease facilitating transactions in the supported crypto asset other than via our licensed subsidiaries, which could negatively impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.” That's why they're going to dig their feet in and fight the SEC with all their might. Because if they lose...they're actually fucked. So they really don't have a choice.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 SEC sends Coinbase Wells Notice, warning of potential federal securities law violations. @WatcherGuru

Celebrities and Influencers like Lindsay Lohan + Jake* Paul Caught in the Crossfire of the Tron SEC Complaint https://www.theblock.co/post/222077/sec-charges-trons-justin-sun-and-celebrities-including-lindsay-lohan-jake-paul Dayumm. Never thought we'd see the day when the SEC actually decided to "keep that same energy" with white influencers that have been touting these crypto assets that they call securities...but here we are. This Gensler dude is kicking ass and taking names. Will be hard to imagine that any celebrities or influencers will even consider endorsing crypto assets from this point forward...at least not for a long time.

RIP $XRP No fucking way that Ripple won't be considered a security. Take this for what its worth - I recently spoke with a former SEC attorney that's been following the case closely. She strongly believes that XRP will be deemed a security. Not sure whether that means that the case will establish precedent of any sort ($LBRY did not). That will determine whether the impact of the Ripple case is one that will send shockwaves throughout the entire space or simply harm the interests of Ripple & those invested in that ecosystem.

Riccardo Spagni (Former Monero Lead Maintainer & Dev) is on Twitter right now telling everyone, "At no point have I ever met with and/or helped a law enforcement agency, or a government, or an individual, or a government agency, or a company, or ANYONE to trace Monero." How the fuck can that be true when you commissioned an entire whitepaper "which helps regulators, law enforcement, exchanges, and others who deal with privacy-focused cryptocurrencies to have some understanding about how they can comply with existing legislation and still interact with these cryptocurrencies"? (his words, not mine) Make this make sense. Yes, it sucks to swallow - but this guy is someone that sold out the entire Monero community to kiss the asses of law enforcement and regulators because he really only cares about flipping Monero into a corporate hustle for himself (via Tari Labs), not privacy. He never cared about privacy. He's no Timothy May. He's not a Phil Zimmerman. He's not a Wei Dai, Hal Finney or Satoshi Nakamoto. He's not part of or about that life and never was. Thus, it doesn't matter to him if he sells all of you out to ensure that he doesn't face any legal liability or backlash from Monero.

"This feature protects commerical and individual privacy by preventing unwanted third parties from being able to view transaction details, while leaving the door open for the transacting parties to assist with financial intermediary compliance." (backdoor) "Specific view keys can be shared with any third party to grant insight into the account associated with the view keys. This enables users and VASPs to disclose certain transaction details associated with a given account to a third party." This is just what Spagni threw into a publicly disseminated document "which helps regulators, law enforcement, exchanges, and others who deal with privacy-focused cryptocurrencies to have some understanding about how they can comply with existing legislation and still interact with these cryptocurrencies" (his words, not mine) This was 6 months before Interpol contacted him. He went out of his way to publish this "regulatory framework whitepaper", unprompted. Why wouldn't Interpol reach out to this guy?

Proving Riccardo Spagni Cooperates with Law Enforcement to Help Them Trace Monero (Part Two; NEW INFORMATION) So on October 27th, 2020, Riccardo Spagni did an interview with crypto publication 'beincrypto'. In that interview he said, "There are a couple of aspects here. Tari Labs has worked together with Perkins Coie, which is an international law firm, to put together a regulatory whitepaper, which helps regulators, law enforcement, exchanges, and others who deal with privacy-focused cryptocurrencies to have some understanding about how they can comply with existing legislation and still interact with these cryptocurrencies." Riccardo Spagni is the co-founder and lead developer of Tari Labs. He has spoken publicly on behalf of Tari Labs, specifically taking credit for their design, developmental and organizational decisions and he was just on Twitter 7 days ago tweeting about Tari Labs lawsuit against Lightning Labs "we (1) reached out ages ago, multiple times, via email / Twitter DM / in person at a conference; (2) offered to help with all the work (including design effort) for a rebrand." So there should be no doubt he holds control of this entity. Okay - to the point. Here's a link to that whitepaper that he collaborated with Perkins Coie on. Highlights: - "Certain features and inherent characteristics of various privacy coins can provide supplemental ways for VASPs [virtual asset service providers] to satisfy their respective AML compliance obligations." - "As noted above, these VASPs can already comply with various KYC, AML, and sanctions-related compliance obligations via traditional methods (i.e., because they can require whatever informatoin they choose, in accordance with their AML program, from customers using their services, regardless of the characteristics or features and aspects of any cryptocurrency or privacy coin). But it is worth emphasizing these supplemental methods of to underscore that privacy coins, far from being technologically incompatible with AML compliance, can FACILITATE such compliance through CERTAIN FEATURES." - "If VASPs serve as custodians of their private keys of their users, they will be able to see the amount of privacy coins received by their users or the amounts their users transact with." - "These VASPs will also be able to report on suspicious activity, pursuant to and in compliance with their respective AML Programs, should such activity be identified." - "Lastly, the privacy coins discussed in Part 2 EACH ENABLE compliance in SUPPLEMENTAL and UNIQUE WAYS. We look at a few mechanisms that each privacy coin currently uses below." In case you're not catching on, this document outlines specific features native to various privacy coins that facilitate the tracking of transactions in a manner that's supplemental to the obvious ways that an exchange or service provider could track you (i.e., forcing you to provide driver's license/passport upon registration, etc.)

Why is the Founder of Monero Calling Me a Scammer? Anyone else find that weird? He posted up a thread a few hours ago alleging I was a "scammer". https://twitter.com/fluffypony/status/1637710312378970113

Monero Transactions Could be Traced in March 2021 Yes, at that time (March 2021), Monero transactions could be traced. So don't just wave this off as though it were some moot point. Research paper is here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9461084 Its paywalled, so visit sci-hub.se and enter the DOI and you'll get the full text. This paper details an extremely easy method for tracing Monero transactions that's so cost effective, it was damn near profitable if you go with the researchers' recommendation and execute the attack with mined Monero. Study's Results According to the study, "Our results show that after flooding the network for 12 months, the attacker can identify the true spend of 46.24% of newly created transaction inputs by conducting the strongest attack and 14.47% by using the low-profile strategy." Let's be clear here. They're not saying that the chances of tracing a transaction are ~46%. Instead, they're saying 46.24% of ALL transactions on Monero (regardless of who sent them, how and from where), could be traced with this attack. To be clear, I published messages detailing this attack in this channel before this paper was ever published. How? The attack was somewhat obvious if you understand how Monero is constructed + how ring signatures work. This is not a weakness in the cryptography, its a weakness in how its instantiated. The implementation of a 'key image' has always been a weak point for Monero. But that's aside from the point. Main point is there did exist at LEAST one way of uncovering, reducing or outright destroying the privacy of Monero transactions in a non-interactive manner. So, in theory, if...let's say the lead maintainer of Monero were contacted and asked to provide some helpful tips or suggestions (which Spagni admits in court docs he eagerly accepted the chance for), its not beyond the realm of conception to suggest he could've provided a couple of tips. No?

Exposing the Founder of Monero Working With Interpol to Trace Transactions Court document show that Riccardo Spagni was working with Interpol in March 2021 to help them with an "asset tracing" request. As we all know there's really only one asset he's been tied to or linked with - Monero. Read all about it here: https://twitter.com/librehash/status/1637907642638008325?s=20

House Speaker McCarthy and Other Republicans Issue Statements about Impending Trump Arrest Not sure if this makes it any more real for people - but apparently the Speaker of the House (McCarthy, R) feels this news is valid enough to warrant comment. Politico reports that the Speaker, "would direct House committees to investigate the Manhattan district attorney's potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump." https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/18/republicans-trump-indictment-mccarthy-00087741 McCarthy is quoted as stating this is, "an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA" (this quote is in Associated Press as well). This is Not a Political Channel Therefore, no opinion here on this move other than obvious observations. 1. Regardless of how you feel about this - its undeniable that this is going to cause a lot of social unrest in the U.S. if this takes place. 2. The arrest of a former president is pretty unprecedented. Adding further fuel to the flames is the fact that he was (and is) the likely leading candidate to challenge Biden on his re-election bid next year. 3. This could be unexpectedly bullish for crypto because Congress isn't going to have any more time to focus on cryptocurrency regulation if they arrest Trump. There's simply no way. Maybe that's presumptuous, but its hard to imagine that Congress won't be going to war about this every single second of every day. 3a. This could be unexpectedly bearish for crypto. The timing of this news coincides with the overall panic in society about the health of the broader U.S. financial system (banks, specifically). As we saw on (albeit a much larger scale) when the global pandemic hit in March 2020, market volatility increases substantially during times of general uncertainty or discord in the U.S. 4. If Trump is indeed arrested, one would have to imagine Biden has a clear lane to re-election (could be wrong though). If that's the case, then the crypto space should brace itself for another 5-ish years of hard crackdowns on the crypto space.

Donald Trump to be Arrested Imminently This is according to Donald Trump himself. Supposedly he's going to be indicted by a jury in Manhattan at some point in the near future. Throwing this in here since it could be tangentially related to cryptocurrency as this could impact the social climate of the United States. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/trump-indictment-arrest-protests.html

Keep Shit Simple = Make Money Four positions. Matic, Aptos, Bitcoin & USDC. Allocated 25% to each. Let’s say…$10k to play with. Call made 3 pm EDT Sunday. No S/L we watched like hawks that day. Matic up ~25%+, Aptos up ~25%+, Bitcoin up ~25%+ & USDC nearly at parity, so we’ll take our 5% free cash there too - shoutout to the markets. Simple, widely available and highly liquid assets w fairly predictable movements that are highly correlated w Bitcoin. BTC may dominate due to ACTUAL fear about banking stability in US. This is the one time the whole (don’t trust banks or 3rd parties) narrative might compel some folks. Don’t fuck it up this time Bitcoin promoters & you might find yourselves on to a potential paradigm shift…

“Pile back into Bitcoin, Aptos, Matic & USDC if you can get it below $1” Think USDC was going for…$0.94 still at that point? This is 3 in the afternoon (EDT) on Sunday. OG plan was pull out around 3 am if no news from gov’t. Then Janet came through for us, so we remained in position & won. Yes, just 4 calls. That’s all you need.

Thank you for those that joined the Discord. As a show of appreciation, I told everyone lever back into every position Sunday evening when Bitcoin was $20k. Pushed the news about Treasury PR announcing they’ll cover all deposits & we just aped in the markets from there. If you’re not >25% in profit in these last 48 hours stop doubting me. I stayed up all day Friday & Saturday through Sunday tracking SVB & reading every minute update & alert. I’m never going to set you up for danger. Scout’s honor.