What's the deal with VPNs? I noticed many instances don't work over VPN but didn't know where to ask.
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
43 points (97.8% liked)
Privacy
4964 readers
226 users here now
A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy
Rules:
- Be civil
- No spam posting
- Keep posts on-topic
- No trolling
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Great, subbed, hope it goes well!
I'm deeply concerned about their anticrypto discussion stance. Digital fungible money is a key component of any privacy discussion.
Many privacy focused services accept payments in crypto, such as vpns, web hosting, email services, etc
Not being able to discuss this axis of digital exposure is antithetical to a healthy discourse about privacy.
Hi, it's against dbzer0's rules.
There are less harmful and private ways to pay, too. Such as sending physical money directly to the service (like Mullvad) or if the service doesn't accept it, something like GNU Taler.
Services that accept crypto are allowed but as db0 said, promoting crypto is banned. (you won't get banned, just removed)
PS: Crypto is not private at all, the ledgers are public. Only Monero is.
I've seen people on Lemmy promote Monero like they were getting paid to promote it, mentioning it in any thread they could squeeze it into the conversation.
jfc, even his wallpaper??? lmao. thanks for sharing this, got a crack out of me
I forgot about the contents of some of those. An extra ironic message to a sex worker:
We like to see you get fucked too. What is your Monero tip address?
Monero is the gold standard for that very reason.
I accept the policies of DBZer0, That's why I didn't start this discussion on their instance.
My core thesis still stands, a discussion about privacy must include all options, including private fungible digital money
Moving all of the privacy discussion to a place where the privacy discussion is limited to a subset of things that are private. It's probably not good for the privacy community
Crypto is banned on the instance in general, i have my own reasons for disliking it but if you get Db0's approval i have no issue and will remove it. He created the rule, surely he has the reasons.
It's harmful for the environment and [most] of them are public (excluding monero but the first point stands), i assume that's Db0's reasons.
Moving all of the privacy discussion to a place where the privacy discussion is limited to a subset of things that are private. It's probably not good for the privacy community
Perhaps, but i'm bound by the instances rules.
Perhaps, but i'm bound by the instances rules.
This is the fediverse, you are not bound to an instance
The community itself is hosted on to dbzer0, so i kind of am (the rules of the community, you can praise monero outside the instances' communities).
We are here, on lemmy.world, redirecting people to the community on DBZer0. That is why I'm concerned
The discussion is about the right home for privacy discussions. I'm happy that privacy@dbzer0 exists, but I am disturbed that we are trying to consolidate all conversations to a community that does not allow all conversations.
a community that does not allow all conversations.
LW has blocked !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com, how do you think they'll react if people start asking "which VPN should I use to be anonymous and torrent"?
As I said in another comment, crypto can be discussed in another community.
I am disturbed that we are trying to consolidate all conversations to a community that does not allow all conversations.
privacy@dbzer0 is just another community, if you don't like it there's 4 more privacy communities to choose from, that's the magic of the fediverse :)
I'm not trying to consolidate all conversations to privacy@dbzer0, it's supposed to be a community that solves the problems in the original fedigrow thread. If you don't believe that they're problems, then you are more than free to keep using !privacy@lemmy.world, !privacy@lemmy.ca. They're all great :)
I’m not trying to consolidate all conversations to privacy@dbzer0
To be honest in order to have a chance to offer a real alternative to !privacy@lemmy.ml, some consolidation is needed, otherwise the .ml community is just going to stay the one main community forever.
@QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz, it seems like you are the last active mod on !privacy@lemmy.ca, would you be okay if I created a meta post there to suggest to lock it and redirect to !privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com ?
@QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz, it seems like you are the last active mod on !privacy@lemmy.ca, would you be okay if I created a meta post there to suggest to lock it and redirect to !privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Fine by me!
Thanks, will do that when I have some time
... Besides ML, I should have specified 😂
There are some cool users over there tho :/ gonna miss them
There are some cool users over there tho :/ gonna miss them
We'll make sure they come join us
Monero and ZCash. Everything else is the opposite of private.
Hello @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com @unruffled@lemmy.dbzer0.com, could you please clarify?
From what I understood, promoting privacy services which allow to pay in crypto is OK, but not to promote cryptocurrencies themselves?
I'm ok with people promoting services which accept cryptocurrencies (hell, Lemmy itself accepts crypto donations). However promoting cryptocurrencies itself is a no-no in our instance.
Also: Crypto is a not private. The blockchain is public.
Crypto is a not private. The blockchain is public.
Not necessarily true for all ledgers, such as monero.
https://www.getmonero.org/get-started/faq/#anchor-different
Monero uses three different privacy technologies: ring signatures, ring confidential transactions (RingCT), and stealth addresses. These hide the sender, amount, and receiver in the transaction, respectively. All transactions on the network are private by mandate; there is no way to accidentally send a transparent transaction. This feature is exclusive to Monero. You do not need to trust anyone else with your privacy.
Monero users can and have been deanonymized by the police. Monero also acts as a de-facto tumbler, meaning by using it, you're money laundering for criminals as a matter of course.
Crypto is a not private. The blockchain is public.
Not necessarily true for all ledgers, such as monero.
Necessarily true for Monero. Theirs is public too, freely available for anyone to download and analyze. The rest of your response did not refute this. An honest response might have been "transactions are public, but..." and you could have laid out your rebuttal, but denying a fact and following it up with irrelevant PR does not make me more confident in the project.
That, and the simple explanation that evangelizing Monero has a perverse incentive I hadn't even considered (it benefits money launderers in addition to speculators) makes me trust it all the less.
I'm not trying to defend monero here, but the ability to have a conversation about such things.
but not to promote cryptocurrencies themselves
My core complaint still stands, digital fungible money is part of the privacy conversation. Especially threat modeling for people.
Personally it's okay with me. Feel free to have a look at the previous thread (https://feddit.org/post/6950586), but long story short
- LW is not ideal as they don't allow VPNs
- lemmy.ml is known for admins powertripping https://feddit.nl/post/16246531
- programming.dev recently had federation issues (still do based on my last posts on !privacy@programming.dev )
- lemmy.one's admins are always silent
Lemmy.dbzer0 has a very good record of stability and management. If we need to discuss crypto in a dedicated discussion, why not. To be fair, I expect some backlash of any pro-crypto discussions in a general privacy community anyway.
But I'm here?
It's only a click away!
Noooooopoopo