[XMR] Monero Speculation

[QuantumQrack]

I'm not gonna lie guys; ever since I got loudly and publicly involved in cryptocurrency a year ago, there's been no end to the digital fuckery I have experienced and suspected on my personal machines.  
  
I have a Windows laptop for internet browsing and games (no cryptocurrency activity on this machine), and even after a fresh install, within weeks it will inexplicably begin to stutter and pause before saving any file.  I run pretty solid Malware Bytes scans, MSE instances and a Firefox browser with ad-block and Noscript; I'm not a wizard, but I'm not a dummy.  There is no reason why a top-of-the-line computer that was reformatted a month ago should be stuttering randomly and lagging when doing things as simple as saving a picture off the internet.  
  
As well, my cell phone began about November of last year to pause randomly to lose (possibly hijack) the internet connection.  It shows pinging or 'upload' status in the network icon during these moments.  Attempts to use downloaded apps to figure out what IP addresses it's connecting to during these times have only resulted in gibberish or proxies.  This behavior persists no matter how many times I 'reformat' my phone.  
  
This is kind of shit is increasingly pissing me off - I have come to accept that if I become prominent in crypto I will likely end up getting monitored pretty hard despite being open and honest about my actions, but whatever backdoor nonsense is happening is actually affecting the performance of my computer which is ridiculous.  Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but also perhaps not.  
  
If you are reading this, your shit is weak and gives off tell tale signs of a system being compromised - get it together.
  
 

Software-wise, I have about the same setup as you.  A few years ago I built a new computer.  This time, though, I ditched the Micron branded memory (I was having all sorts of problems with it) and went with G.Skill.  Also installed a 2nd gen SSD from Intel.  So for about 6 years now, this PC runs like brand new.  No issues really.  Rock solid.  So, like GingerAle has stated, you RAM may be bad.  Also, if you don't use an SSD as your primary OS drive, this is one of the best upgrades you can make.

Also, to stay on topic, I have noticed that XMR/USD is quite stable.  And on another tangent, I wonder if its really a good idea to base XMR speculation on USD rather than BTC.

[GingerAle]

ot
 

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Also, to stay on topic, I have noticed that XMR/USD is quite stable.  And on another tangent, I wonder if its really a good idea to base XMR speculation on USD rather than BTC.

Its funny. I quite literally use bitcoin as the rails to turn my fiat into monero. So, yes, bitcoin has definitely established itself as that platform.

I don't know if its necessarily a good idea or a bad idea to base XMR speculation on USD, what are your thoughts?

[smoothie]

I'm not gonna lie guys; ever since I got loudly and publicly involved in cryptocurrency a year ago, there's been no end to the digital fuckery I have experienced and suspected on my personal machines.  
  
I have a Windows laptop for internet browsing and games (no cryptocurrency activity on this machine), and even after a fresh install, within weeks it will inexplicably begin to stutter and pause before saving any file.  I run pretty solid Malware Bytes scans, MSE instances and a Firefox browser with ad-block and Noscript; I'm not a wizard, but I'm not a dummy.  There is no reason why a top-of-the-line computer that was reformatted a month ago should be stuttering randomly and lagging when doing things as simple as saving a picture off the internet.  
  
As well, my cell phone began about November of last year to pause randomly to lose (possibly hijack) the internet connection.  It shows pinging or 'upload' status in the network icon during these moments.  Attempts to use downloaded apps to figure out what IP addresses it's connecting to during these times have only resulted in gibberish or proxies.  This behavior persists no matter how many times I 'reformat' my phone.  
  
This is kind of shit is increasingly pissing me off - I have come to accept that if I become prominent in crypto I will likely end up getting monitored pretty hard despite being open and honest about my actions, but whatever backdoor nonsense is happening is actually affecting the performance of my computer which is ridiculous.  Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but also perhaps not.  
  
If you are reading this, your shit is weak and gives off tell tale signs of a system being compromised - get it together.
  
 

Software-wise, I have about the same setup as you.  A few years ago I built a new computer.  This time, though, I ditched the Micron branded memory (I was having all sorts of problems with it) and went with G.Skill.  Also installed a 2nd gen SSD from Intel.  So for about 6 years now, this PC runs like brand new.  No issues really.  Rock solid.  So, like GingerAle has stated, you RAM may be bad.  Also, if you don't use an SSD as your primary OS drive, this is one of the best upgrades you can make.

Also, to stay on topic, I have noticed that XMR/USD is quite stable.  And on another tangent, I wonder if its really a good idea to base XMR speculation on USD rather than BTC.

Should base it on gold/silver other assets that have actual real value not this Fiat premined paper BS. 

[iCEBREAKER]

Some relevant reading: https://igurublog.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/julian-assange-debian-is-owned-by-the-nsa/

Also debian is planning to fully adopt systemd, that some argue is a giant potential backdoor (besides a clusterfuck) for the NSA/USG circumvent the Linux kernel.

Reason why I'll be moving to Slackware or BSD soon.

Worth quoting in its entirety!

Is systemd really an attempt of NSA to corrupt GNU distributions?

    Ignoring for the moment the various technical problems with systemd, I have my suspicions that its provenance and scope are cause for alarm.

    Systemd comes from Red Hat. Red Hat, in the Linux world, is the company with the largest ties to the US government and the various state security organizations around the world–including NSA. The US government (DoD) is Red Hat’s number one customer. Red Hat also happens to be Lennart Poettering’s employer.

    The Linux kernel, I believe, is clean. As long as Linus lives, you’re not going to subvert the kernel. Let’s just assume that is true for the sake of argument. If you can’t get into the kernel, what is your next option? You need something low level (PID 1?), ubiquitous, and vast in scope and complexity.

    This describes systemd perfectly. It was almost like it was designed to touch as much of a Linux system as possible. It has hooks into some many different subsystems and APIs that it’s almost impossible to build a modern distro with current software without pulling in systemd as a dependency. This happened almost overnight, and I think there are malicious forces at work here.

    We must remember Heart Bleed. Heart Bleed appeared to be an innocent mistake, and it was a tiny typo in one line of a C program. If it’s possible to do that much damage with a tiny little error, imagine when you have an attack surface as wide as systemd, written in a language like C that is almost designed to produce security holes when not written absolutely perfectly–and humans are not absolutely perfect programmers.

    Systemd is dangerous. It’s too big to be audited as quickly as its developed. Its complexity adds as much attack surface to a Linux system as the kernel itself. We can’t get away from these facts. Shitfighting about init systems is a waste of our time. Sytemd is horrible because of where it comes from and how complex it is. Backdoors will be hidden in it.

[aminorex]

BTCUSD dropping faster than it rose.  Some volatility in XMRUSD is likely to result.  Trader happy fun time.  Keep your eyes open.

SPX triggered a stop-loss at 2050 on 10/22, so I'm waiting to go short again, which I expect to be late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

As expected, SPUs turned south, on schedule.  I generally favor the downside on equities in the coming weeks, so I sell calls on the rips.  Not for everyone!

Wheat has me happy, but in a small way, as I fear possible USD strength too much to go large.  Softs have generally been outperforming. El Niño fears drive sugar, robusta pricing.  

Oil appears to have more than a week of downside bias ahead.  Metals are cheap and going to get cheaper for weeks, but too close to a short-term uptrend to enter any sigificant new shorts right now. Copper is tempting, but I refrain for now.  In dollar terms XAG, XAU should continue to trend down the rest of the week, but turn up for a week or two, with the turn roughly coinciding with the coming weekend.

Nothing really jumps out at me in FX right now, besides the obvious: Obey Mario, sell EUR.  

[ArticMine]

It is supposed to be created by a commercial company Zerocoin Electric Coin Company
http://www.bizapedia.com/de/THE-ZEROCOIN-ELECTRIC-COIN-COMPANY-LLC.html .

Since this is a USA company, NSA back doors and surveillance can be present. ANd why would it be made by a company? Why bitcoin ppl or just regular volunteers do it, like bitcoin was done?

 
  
The final nail in the coffin for zerocoin and the trumpet sounding the inevitable rise of Cryptonote coins IMHO.  I would not trust any zerocoin/zerocash protocol instanced by an entity in a country where backdoors are mandated in software and projects.  Sorry, still a proud patriot, but I do not love the surveillance state that has errupted in the past decades - it is an affront to the principals we founded ourselves on, and I say that as a law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide.

This.

Some relevant reading: https://igurublog.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/julian-assange-debian-is-owned-by-the-nsa/

Also debian is planning to fully adopt systemd, that some argue is a giant potential backdoor (besides a clusterfuck) for the NSA/USG circumvent the Linux kernel.

Reason why I'll be moving to Slackware or BSD soon.

IMHO the next step (or already done) for NSA/USG is BIOS Backdoors in various devices. i dont think systemd is affected (i like it so i may be biased).

i am in the process of installing gentoo right now... together with qubes my two favorit distributions. (gentoo uses openRC by default; qubes is Fedora based)

I believe the risk with systemd is way overblown. It is after all FLOSS. As for BIOS the real issue is locked BIOS that forces the installation of operating systems signed by Microsoft.  This was done at the behest of the MPAA and other "big content" players such as the NFL, and not the US Government. The real culprits here are those that market DRM  "protected" content, not government agencies such as the NSA; however the NSA will of course take advantage of this. There is no need for back doors in the BIOS when there are already many back doors is Windows, especially Windows 10. 

[thelibertycap]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

anonymity being one of the few real features and not just gimmicks in the world of cryptocurrencies.

hello to all new people who noticed that bitcoin is still very much alive. just imagine how much could an altcoin move!

[digicoin]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

[cryptodromeda]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but the ease in which Zerocash is able to court the media is telling. Given what we know now about CoinTelegraph, I sometimes wonder how much of "the news" is simply just PR. I saw this all the time in the early days of Bitcoin. Maybe there's nothing "renegade" about any of these coins at all and exist only because of political or financial connections with higher powers.

[GingerAle]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

sure, it can be a task, but what is the execution? How is it done? And what is the end result? Unfortunately, I speculate the end result would somehow include "no GUI"  blah blah blah. But who knows. Maybe there's someone in the conventional media that would actually dig into monero to really see whats going on under the hood.

[funnyman21]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

sure, it can be a task, but what is the execution? How is it done? And what is the end result? Unfortunately, I speculate the end result would somehow include "no GUI"  blah blah blah. But who knows. Maybe there's someone in the conventional media that would actually dig into monero to really see whats going on under the hood.

Media attention is needed now. The GUI may not come very soon. Here is one suggestion to deal with this objection
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/3rd123/private_internet_access_send_this_vpn_an_email/cwn8zcp

[canth]

I'm not gonna lie guys; ever since I got loudly and publicly involved in cryptocurrency a year ago, there's been no end to the digital fuckery I have experienced and suspected on my personal machines.  
  
I have a Windows laptop for internet browsing and games (no cryptocurrency activity on this machine), and even after a fresh install, within weeks it will inexplicably begin to stutter and pause before saving any file.  I run pretty solid Malware Bytes scans, MSE instances and a Firefox browser with ad-block and Noscript; I'm not a wizard, but I'm not a dummy.  There is no reason why a top-of-the-line computer that was reformatted a month ago should be stuttering randomly and lagging when doing things as simple as saving a picture off the internet.  
  
As well, my cell phone began about November of last year to pause randomly to lose (possibly hijack) the internet connection.  It shows pinging or 'upload' status in the network icon during these moments.  Attempts to use downloaded apps to figure out what IP addresses it's connecting to during these times have only resulted in gibberish or proxies.  This behavior persists no matter how many times I 'reformat' my phone.  
  
This is kind of shit is increasingly pissing me off - I have come to accept that if I become prominent in crypto I will likely end up getting monitored pretty hard despite being open and honest about my actions, but whatever backdoor nonsense is happening is actually affecting the performance of my computer which is ridiculous.  Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but also perhaps not.  
  
If you are reading this, your shit is weak and gives off tell tale signs of a system being compromised - get it together.
  
 

Software-wise, I have about the same setup as you.  A few years ago I built a new computer.  This time, though, I ditched the Micron branded memory (I was having all sorts of problems with it) and went with G.Skill.  Also installed a 2nd gen SSD from Intel.  So for about 6 years now, this PC runs like brand new.  No issues really.  Rock solid.  So, like GingerAle has stated, you RAM may be bad.  Also, if you don't use an SSD as your primary OS drive, this is one of the best upgrades you can make.

Also, to stay on topic, I have noticed that XMR/USD is quite stable.  And on another tangent, I wonder if its really a good idea to base XMR speculation on USD rather than BTC.

+1. I have a 4 year old i7 desktop still running the same install of Windows 7. SSD boot drive, 8GB of crucial memory, Radeon 7970 (mined my first BTC on that puppy). It's not the NSA or Microsoft - it's either a hardware problem or a driver issue.

And yeah, XMR/USD is very stable and that can't all be due to mining since that's less than half of a low day of trading in volume.

[cAPSLOCK]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

sure, it can be a task, but what is the execution? How is it done? And what is the end result? Unfortunately, I speculate the end result would somehow include "no GUI"  blah blah blah. But who knows. Maybe there's someone in the conventional media that would actually dig into monero to really see whats going on under the hood.

Media attention is needed now. The GUI may not come very soon. Here is one suggestion to deal with this objection
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/3rd123/private_internet_access_send_this_vpn_an_email/cwn8zcp

I am dubious that a VPN company would be troubled by a cryptocurrency because it uses the command line!  Lol.

[canth]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but the ease in which Zerocash is able to court the media is telling. Given what we know now about CoinTelegraph, I sometimes wonder how much of "the news" is simply just PR. I saw this all the time in the early days of Bitcoin. Maybe there's nothing "renegade" about any of these coins at all and exist only because of political or financial connections with higher powers.

Media loves writing stories about controversial things like 'anonymous drug money' so it's no surprise that Wired or other mainstream news will want to write articles. Good press, bad press - it all gets clicks.

I want to see how the next round of funds zerocoin electric tries to raise is put together and who decides to invest. https://angel.co/zerocoin-electric-coin-company/followers

[canth]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

sure, it can be a task, but what is the execution? How is it done? And what is the end result? Unfortunately, I speculate the end result would somehow include "no GUI"  blah blah blah. But who knows. Maybe there's someone in the conventional media that would actually dig into monero to really see whats going on under the hood.

Media attention is needed now. The GUI may not come very soon. Here is one suggestion to deal with this objection
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/3rd123/private_internet_access_send_this_vpn_an_email/cwn8zcp

I am dubious that a VPN company would be troubled by a cryptocurrency because it uses the command line!  Lol.

Really? I'll bet the vast majority of VPN users who do care about privacy are still not regular command line users. It creates a learning curve which creates friction which reduces the user base. I don't disagree with the priority set for core development, but there's no question that not having an easy to use GUI is an impediment to adoption. Not having a localXMR doesn't help either.

[dEBRUYNE]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

sure, it can be a task, but what is the execution? How is it done? And what is the end result? Unfortunately, I speculate the end result would somehow include "no GUI"  blah blah blah. But who knows. Maybe there's someone in the conventional media that would actually dig into monero to really see whats going on under the hood.

Media attention is needed now. The GUI may not come very soon. Here is one suggestion to deal with this objection
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/3rd123/private_internet_access_send_this_vpn_an_email/cwn8zcp

I am dubious that a VPN company would be troubled by a cryptocurrency because it uses the command line!  Lol.

Really? I'll bet the vast majority of VPN users who do care about privacy are still not regular command line users. It creates a learning curve which creates friction which reduces the user base. I don't disagree with the priority set for core development, but there's no question that not having an easy to use GUI is an impediment to adoption. Not having a localXMR doesn't help either.

We've got moneroclub -> https://www.moneroclub.com/

[XMRpromotions]

the upcoming release of zerocash is good news to all anonymous coins because it will spark a debate about the fungibility of bitcoin. i believe there are many people who have heard about zerocoin early on who will investigate and start thinking about this issue.

I think that XMR needs media attention before zerocash releases its first version. Journalists who care about financial privacy and zerocash should be kept informed about XMR as an (better and more practical) alternative to "experimental" zerocash.

Should it be a new task?

sure, it can be a task, but what is the execution? How is it done? And what is the end result? Unfortunately, I speculate the end result would somehow include "no GUI"  blah blah blah. But who knows. Maybe there's someone in the conventional media that would actually dig into monero to really see whats going on under the hood.

Media attention is needed now. The GUI may not come very soon. Here is one suggestion to deal with this objection
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/3rd123/private_internet_access_send_this_vpn_an_email/cwn8zcp

I am dubious that a VPN company would be troubled by a cryptocurrency because it uses the command line!  Lol.

Hopefully you are just implying their objection was dubious and not doubting my reporting of it. I believe I forwarded this email to fluffypony so he should be able to confirm its authenticity.

Companies make decisions that they think will help their bottom line and not complicate the user experience. Obviously this VPN believes an official GUI will make things easier for end users. Of course I mentioned existing alternatives such as our webwallet for non tech savvy users but some merchants want more. Personally I think those who adopt Monero early will benefit tremendously from the loyalty of Monero users eager to spend xmr at businesses that care about financial privacy.

[cAPSLOCK]

I am dubious that a VPN company would be troubled by a cryptocurrency because it uses the command line!  Lol.

Hopefully you are just implying their objection was dubious and not doubting my reporting of it. I believe I forwarded this email to fluffypony so he should be able to confirm its authenticity.

Companies make decisions that they think will help the bottom line and not complicate the user experience. Obviously this VPN think an official GUI will make things easier for end users. Of course I mentioned existing alternatives such as our webwallet for non tech savvy users but some merchants want more. Personally I think those who adopt Monero early will benefit tremendously from the loyalty of Monero users eager to spend xmr at businesses that care about financial privacy.

I have no doubt that your reporting is accurate.

I just find it a strange reason for a company as technically deep an a VPN provider to give for a reason not to accept a certain cryptocurrency.  I think if a significant portion of their userbase would want to pay in Monero then they would take it.

If they choose not to take Monero I can think of several reasons before "there is no GUI" that make more sense.  Like "Not enough of our users would use it" for example.

If they were a T Shirt maker I would get the GUI thing.  But they are a company that works in the command line.

[smooth]

]Hey douche bags how about staying on topic ?
i should report half of you..

You douche bags are hanging around bumping this non stop to advertise with any half ass bs comment.

I wouldn't mind so much if you guys were actually discussing something to do with the coin
but your not.. your simply using this topic as a spam platform to bump.

Monero guys are the most irritating in all of crypto hands down !

You guys won't shut the fuck up for one single second and it reeks of severe desperation.

There is no way in hell most of us here could get away with this bloody bullshit either
If i had a Jackpot coin topic i spammed with friends to 550 pages i'd be banned and the topic deleted.

The above (which I deleted) contains no content relevant to the topic. Consider this a warning to stay on topic

[canth]

I am dubious that a VPN company would be troubled by a cryptocurrency because it uses the command line!  Lol.

Hopefully you are just implying their objection was dubious and not doubting my reporting of it. I believe I forwarded this email to fluffypony so he should be able to confirm its authenticity.

Companies make decisions that they think will help the bottom line and not complicate the user experience. Obviously this VPN think an official GUI will make things easier for end users. Of course I mentioned existing alternatives such as our webwallet for non tech savvy users but some merchants want more. Personally I think those who adopt Monero early will benefit tremendously from the loyalty of Monero users eager to spend xmr at businesses that care about financial privacy.

I have no doubt that your reporting is accurate.

I just find it a strange reason for a company as technically deep an a VPN provider to give for a reason not to accept a certain cryptocurrency.  I think if a significant portion of their userbase would want to pay in Monero then they would take it.

If they choose not to take Monero I can think of several reasons before "there is no GUI" that make more sense.  Like "Not enough of our users would use it" for example.

If they were a T Shirt maker I would get the GUI thing.  But they are a company that works in the command line.

A VPN service is essentially an ISP. By default they will be far more sophisticated than their end users. "There is no GUI" = "We don't believe a significant number of our end users will use it and it's not worth an investment in time and support to integrate it until that changes."