xianc78 @xianc78@gameliberty.club

@PurpCat @SockPuppet @Spingebill I can never get away with that. So many nearby towns here are the ones that intentionally make their speed limits low and hide cops everywhere because their income comes from ticketing people. I take extra caution in those areas (or try to avoid them as much as possible), but if you are just 1/2mph above the speed limit for more than 5 seconds, expect blue and red.

@SockPuppet @PurpCat @Spingebill Unfortunately, it's hard to do the latter without doing the former right now, due to inflation. So unless you win the lottery or inherit a bunch of money/land from a recently deceased relative, there is either scam or be dependent on states and systems.

I mean, even Luke Smith had to scam credit card companies in order to afford all that country-side land.

https://lukesmith.xyz/articles/making-free-money-off-credit-cards/

@PurpCat @Spingebill Those markets are already saturated. You need to either think locally or think outside the box.

@PurpCat @Spingebill
>The dream of wagies is to escape the cage.

The only true way to ever "escape the cage" is to find a way to be self-employed (and be successful at it) or to homestead and be 100% self-reliant (grow your own food, generate you own electricity, etc). Even before crypto, people who won the lottery were under the impression that they would never have to work again, but eventually the money dries up.

@sapphire You are at the mercy of a single entity who can drop you at anytime.

And before you bring up the electric company and ISP, if they drop you, you aren't going to be running a VPS or donating to FOSS projects either way, so it's a moot point.

@sapphire It's better than having a centralized man in the middle. I'd rather have random people take a cut of my transactions than some single, rich monopolist taking a cut.

Can someone with experience with GNU Taler tell me if it's potentially better than crypto? Do any of the government laws regarding crypto also apply to something like GNU Taler? What are it's shortcomings outside of it's obscurity.

I'm well aware that crypto has some major flaws but I really do think that it's important for us to have a digital exchange medium that is decentralized and allows us to made (somewhat) anonymous transactions.

@sapphire No man in the middle. With bank transfers transaction fees go to the banks and payment processors (single corporate entities). With crypto, transactiion fees go to the nodes and miners (literally anyone who sets up a rig).

@sapphire I don't get this argument. I never hear anyone made the argument that it should replace cash/barter or be used for all transactions. I think it should be used for things like renting VPSes or donating to open-source projects. Both of which wouldn't be options anyway without electricity.

And as I said in another post, it's use as an investment is just a psyop made to undermine it's intended use.

Another thing that amazes me about the whole crypto thing is all the governments banning and regulating it because while they claim that they don't want people to use it for illegal purposes, by banning it or regulating it to hell and back, they are ENSURING that people will ONLY use it illegally. White market businesses won't be able to accept it anymore, while the black and gray markets will continue to use it.

Granted the real reason is probably because they want people to stick to fiat and eventually use CBDCs, but the illegal business argument makes no sense.

@RoboftheVolcano I'm talking from the perspective of someone who advocates for decentralization and those who have been deplatformed from banks and payment processors, not so much for businesses trying to maximize profits. But yeah, transaction fees are a problem.

@Spingebill Apparently, crypto being used as an investment rather than a medium of exchange was a psyop to undermine it's use, but this is all a rumor and I have no confirmation on it.

@RoboftheVolcano At least it's not going to a single entity. They go to miners.

It amazes me that the anti-crypto crowd would rather be at the mercy of the payment processors that they hate than to accept any crypto transactions.

Crypto isn't perfect, don't get me wrong, but these "all crypto bad" types prefer you not to use it, even for donations because otherwise you are catering to those evil ancaps and contributing to climate change.

Unfortunately, there really is no other option for those who want to donate or purchase things online (semi)-anonymously and/or without a man in the middle. Maybe something like GNU Taler will fix that, but I don't know who uses that or how that works.

@PurpCat @Reluctant_Weeb That's what I really hate about the whole trans/non-binary issue. There is literally no way to be neutral or silent on it. At least with something like same-sex marriage, you can work with gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, and say nothing about your beliefs (unless you are bullied to say it). When it comes to the transgender issue, you have to choose whether to refer to them by their "preferred pronouns" or the pronouns corresponding to their biological sex.