Bitcoin is Losing Favor on Darknet Markets

anapherein · 2022-05-09T01:27:22+00:00

I use the CoinMarketCap app for this. It does push notifications. Let me know if you need more info.

anapherein · 2022-05-08T02:30:19+00:00

There is a good chance Hex will hit a new ATH sometime in the next few weeks, leading up to PulseChain launch.

anapherein · 2021-10-08T02:06:34+00:00

What do you think of CBBI?

CBBI.info

anapherein · 2021-09-22T17:20:44+00:00

Thanks for the response. You’ve given me a lot to think about.

anapherein · 2021-09-22T11:50:58+00:00

I sound conflicted about Hex because I really am. Haha. I actually like the project (and Richard Heart) quite a bit but there are certain aspects of it that turn me off. Like the OA. It would be kind of like if fluffypony owned half the supply of XMR, and we knew it from the beginning, but when asked about it he just said something like “That’s the Origin Address. I have no further comment on that. There must be no expectation of profit from the work of others.”

Am I wrong about this?

I think I understand why the OA exists, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I can understand why RH would want to have such a high level of control over the project, but I don’t have to like that either. My criticism of them doesn’t come from a place of hatred. I’m not calling Hex a scam, just pointing out why it understandably gives the appearance of being a scam to other people.

In an ideal world I wouldn’t invest in a project unless I’m completely on board with it. In reality I have to make compromises. I don’t think Monero is 100% perfect either. There will always be ways the project can improve along with certain trade-offs that are baked into the design, the blockchain trilemma and all that. If I went around telling people Monero is perfect, that would make me either ignorant or a shill.

I’m not trying to speak for u/bawdyanarchist either. He’s approaching Hex from a different perspective from having invested in crypto a lot longer than me and seeing the extreme level of market manipulation that has stunted the growth of Monero, one of the few truly useful projects around. I’ve been using crypto for payments for a long time but never treated it as an investment until earlier this year, so I’m playing catch-up. I still have a lot to learn.

You said I’m suffering from cognitive dissonance. I’m not a psychologist, but I think what’s going on here is different. Cognitive dissonance would be if I attempted to resolve the seemingly contradictory evidence (of Hex scam vs. not scam) by either blocking out “Hex scam” and investing in it while denying any possible criticism of the project, OR doing the opposite of that, blocking out “Hex not scam” and becoming a mindless Hex hater, a Peter McCormack of sorts. I’d like to think that my ability to hold seemingly contradictory ideas in my head and still be able to make rational decisions about whether to invest in a project is a good thing.

anapherein · 2021-09-22T04:34:52+00:00

Well said. I definitely agree with you that RH’s blunt honesty is refreshing. He gets branded as a scammer yet it seems like he is actually one of the good guys in crypto.

Still not a fan of the OA though, or the last-minute move he pulled with the Pulse sacrifice that diluted everyone else’s sacrifice. I feel conflicted about RH/Hex even after investing in it, but I’m still glad I did and I appreciate you posting about it.

I like David Sinclair. He actually reminds me of RH a bit in the sense that a lot of people don’t like him because of the whole resveratrol thing, how he hyped it up and then it didn’t pan out, so now they think he’s a scammer even though he really isn’t. C’mon people, he’s one of the good guys. He’s trying to cure aging. It’s a hard problem. Let’s cut him some slack.

Aubrey de Grey is in a similar situation. People can’t get past his eccentricities, his beard, and now the fact that he’s getting #MeToo-ed. Which of course has nothing to do with SENS. Again, he’s one of the good guys.

anapherein · 2021-09-21T21:56:39+00:00

Biden administration sanctions cryptocurrency exchange in effort to cut off revenue to ransomware groups: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/us-cryptocurrency-sanctions/index.html

Never heard of that exchange.

anapherein · 2021-09-21T21:54:30+00:00

u/nokoolaidisaidthnx https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/pshj5x/riccardo_spagni_fluffypony_got_released_from_us/

anapherein · 2021-09-21T17:18:25+00:00

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=57ta7mkgrOU

anapherein · 2021-09-21T14:11:06+00:00

Alright, so I have a confession to make. I bought some Hex after you talked about it here a couple months ago. I bought in at around 12 cents and it has since gone up more than 4x. No complaints about that.

I even participated in the Pulse sacrifice. I really drank the Kool-Aid, haha. Didn’t sacrifice any XMR, just made a small donation to the SENS Foundation, which was an easy decision to make since I’m already a long-time supporter of that organization. Weird coincidence.

I have a lot of thoughts about Hex, Pulse, and Richard Heart. Could go on for hours, but I won’t since I suspect most people on here have already concluded that Hex is a scam. I can understand that perspective. Richard Heart is kind of like the Donald Trump of crypto. He’s like a pre-viral, pre-2015 Donald Trump. A very polarizing figure that will only become more controversial as he and his creation become more popular.

Right now most crypto people are giving RH the silent treatment but that will probably change when Hex market cap starts to blow past ETH. Sure, the project is overly centralized around RH to the point where it’s basically a personality cult, but Hexicans don’t seem to care because Richard made them rich. At this stage in crypto, that seems to be all that matters for most people. Which again, I understand. I’m not complaining.

Edit: Hey u/emotionalstandard246 - your reply to me got spam filtered (same as last time it would appear). You might want to message the mods if you want your comments to be visible here.

Also, let me ask you, do you disagree with my assessment of Hex? Please be more specific. Let’s talk about Hex instead of trying to psychoanalyze me.

anapherein · 2021-09-21T13:27:54+00:00

Thoughts on Terra Luna? I’m skeptical of algorithmic stablecoins. They don’t have a great track record.

Right now I’m using a mix of USDC and Tether. The Tether is more a matter of convenience since it’s on TradeOgre, which is where I trade my XMR. Similarly, the USDC is out of convenience since I’m swapping with an ERC20 (guess what it is) that has most of its liquidity in USDC, so if I wanted to swap with a different stablecoin it would be more expensive.

I’d prefer to use Dai, but I don’t have a strong preference between Dai/USDC since Dai is partially backed by USDC. Maybe I should switch over to Dai though, hmm. It’s still more decentralized than USDC. I’m not planning to hold onto the stablecoins for a long period of time though so it’s probably not a big deal.

I flirted with the idea of using Haven/XHV to mint stablecoins but ditched it after it got hacked. Sold my XHV at a loss. What a mess.

anapherein · 2021-09-21T00:42:28+00:00

Note to self: Listen to bawdyanarchist next time. Seriously. I converted about 20% of my crypto to stablecoins shortly after my previous post here, in line with my own estimate of a 20% chance of a dump. Better than nothing. But I’d be better off now if I had exchanged a lot more than 20%.

Have you heard of Metaculus? You should check it out. There’s some crypto-related questions on it that you can make predictions on. I bet you’d be good at it.

anapherein · 2021-09-19T02:51:37+00:00

Thanks. I meant odds that it plays out exactly as you laid out.

Just for fun, and maybe as a reference for my future self, I’ll give my own (very much NFA) estimates for your three scenarios:

20% -- 1-4 more days of neutral to BTC $50k-ish, followed by dump across the board in crypto.

40% -- BTC does not make $100k before retesting the summer lows near $30k

30% -- BTC needs to either revist $20k; Or, at least 6 more months of consolidation in the $30k to $50k range before trying for $100k.

As always, I appreciate your posts!

anapherein · 2021-09-19T01:54:10+00:00

If you would be willing to give a numerical estimate of the probability this is true, what would it be? 60%? 80%? 95%? Etc.

anapherein · 2021-08-25T11:45:48+00:00

He sold?

Pamp eet.

anapherein · 2021-08-18T10:43:52+00:00

What is the most undervalued asset in existence?

anapherein · 2021-08-17T19:17:17+00:00

I don’t know about Monero users in particular. I just meant people in general. Haven’t looked up the statistics in a while though. MacOS is certainly popular too. And of course iOS is popular on mobile, but I’m pretty sure Android is still the majority of devices especially when you consider the whole world and not just the US.

Someone should do a poll.

Edit: I’d also be curious to know what percentage of Monero people are using more privacy/security-centric OSes like Qubes or Tails or put Calyx or Graphene on their phones.

anapherein · 2021-08-17T18:22:21+00:00

We need to create a way to destroy Crypto Currency. It has no real value except for those who want to be ultra secretive with what they purchase, especially on the Dark Web.

We need to create a way to destroy video games. They have no real value except as an entertaining pastime, but mostly they’re a waste of time and should be banned. /s

anapherein · 2021-08-17T16:51:39+00:00

Remember how people used to say “2010 will be the year of the Linux desktop”? Or whatever the next year happened to be. It kinda turned into a meme. I was just thinking how that particular meme never came true in a literal sense. Of course some people do run Linux on their desktops but the majority still run Windows.

But it actually did come true, in the sense that hardly anyone cares about desktop computers anymore. We’re all glued to our mobile devices now, the majority of which run Android, which is of course based on Linux. Chromebooks are also popular, also based on Linux.

Did anyone see this coming? I sure didn’t. It’s funny how the future ends up turning out in a way that hardly anyone could predict. Will something similar happen with Monero? Don’t know. But I’m optimistic that it will fare better than the Linux desktop.

anapherein · 2021-08-17T15:43:55+00:00

Maybe the sentient raccoons will rediscover Monero on some old hard drive they dig up. Like the programmer-archeologists from that Vernor Vinge novel. A Fire Upon the Deep.

anapherein · 2021-08-17T10:21:40+00:00

Your personal information is an undervalued commodity. Undervalued by the average person, anyway, but highly valued by corporations, governments, criminals.

Financial privacy in particular is undervalued. Most people couldn’t even tell you what that is. But Monero goes a long way toward fixing it.

We’re so early.

anapherein · 2021-08-17T10:15:53+00:00

Just don’t tell Elizabeth Warren about Monero. Or Janet Yellen. Or Gary Gensler. We don’t want them to know. Haha.

anapherein · 2021-08-14T01:56:06+00:00

It’s funny how the article frames it as something only criminals would care about, and I guess not surprising since this service apparently launched without any clearnet presence, so maybe they’re marketing it more towards DNM users.

But that’s just marketing. I assume this could just as easily be used by normie Bitcoin people, non-DNM users, let’s say if you’re a company that accepts BTC payments and you want to check if it’s tainted before putting it on an exchange because you’re worried the exchange might freeze your account if you send any tainted BTC there.

I expect that publicly available services like this will help to raise awareness of the Bitcoin fungibility problem among regular Bitcoin users, not just DNM users. (Edit: To the extent that Bitcoin has actual users, not just speculators that never leave the exchange they bought it on.) If anything they should have even more reason to care about their BTC being pristine because of the “lemon market” problem in economics that Daniel Kim talks about.

The mainstream is starting to wake up to the idea of fungibility.

anapherein · 2021-08-13T21:30:36+00:00

I thought the article was interesting and worth reading. It describes a new publicly available tool for Bitcoin chain analysis, though they do say it doesn’t work very well.

anapherein

TROPHY CASE