UK Speech Regulator Chief Melanie Dawes Says US Free Speech Lawsuits Are “a Sign That We’re Having the Impact We Want”

https://reclaimthenet.org/melanie-dawes-ofcom-lawsuit-online-safety-act-us

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Linux gamers, on your main gaming machine, what type of distro are you using?
#linux #llinuxgaming #distro #usage #type

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I tried a new crypto exchange today called Netcoins. I was interested in it because it is based out of Canada. I can give some impressions of what I have seen so far and most is positive.

Setup of the account was simple enough and similar to other exchanges I have been on. You will have to provide personal info, upload ID and take a selfie. After that it took about an hour or so for the account to be reviewed and approved. This seemed a tad longer than some other exchanges but not an overly long time. Once approved I easily setup 2FA. I was allowed to copy the key into my password manager which is KeePassXC and it worked without issue.

I can say that the funding part was also pretty easy. I added the exchange as an Etransfer contact and they provide a key specific to me to put in the notes field. Their etransfer account has auto deposit on. Once I sent the transfer I got a notification that the funds were active on my Netcoins account in less than 5 minutes. From there buying a coin was straightforward and as simple as anywhere else. I will say that Cosmos (ATOM) had a $10 minimum which is higher than it was on Kraken and also I don’t recall any coins on Wealthsimple having a $10 minimum. In any case that isn’t a real issue, just something I noticed.

Once I bought the coin I could view the transaction details but I couldn’t download a .pdf or .csv of the specific transaction. I could download the entire history into a .csv format so what I will probably do is after each transaction download the .csv and date it so that I have an updated trade log offline. I tried to import the .csv into Coinledger but it gave me an error so I had to manually import the transaction. The error was something about universal formatting. Coinledger also doesn’t support auto syncing with Netcoins at the time of writing.

The coin selection is a bit thin for stakable coins as it only has three coins for staking currently. There are plenty of non stakable coins if that is what you prefer. The three it has for staking are Ethereum, Solana and Cosmos.

I was able to get the Netcoins app working on GrapheneOS by downloading it through the Aurora Store. It gave me no issues opening and letting me log in. This is a big deal to me as financial apps are hit and miss when you want to go outside the normal Play Store to get them.

Netcoins is owned by BIGG Digital Assets Inc which is a publicly traded company and is on the TSX-V under the ticker BIGG. This is a huge plus for me because I love to invest in companies that make products I use.

Overall I would say that my experience today with Netcoins has been positive. Most of the issues I had were minor and more like subjective grievances. I would love to be able to auto sync transactions to Coinledger and to download individual transaction data but there are workarounds such as manual entry and keeping rolling transaction histories offline. If you want to use a Canadian crypto exchange then I would give Netcoins a try. The user interface and setup are simple and the positives so far outweigh the minor negatives. The only thing I have yet to try is staking and I will be doing that soon once I have my Wealthica setup to test how those two work together.
I wanted to highlight a stock I own and recommend to those that favour dividends and that is Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX:SLF). The company has increased dividends for 11 straight years, has a payout ratio of 58.12%, the dividend has grown 8.86% in the last ten years, the company has had 14 straight years of posting a profit, it has an annual dividend of $3.68 that is paid out quarterly, and the dividend yield is 4.26%.
I got my monthly statement for my TFSA account which is my main dividend account I use for passive income. For February 2026 I received $9.85 in dividends. It’s too early to do a year to year comparison as I hadn’t started investing until April of 2025. My projected yearly income for dividends, assuming companies don’t cut or drop, is $63.47 per year which averages out to $5.29 per month.

Months can vary because some stocks can have different payout schedules as well as I am still optimizing my portfolio and clearing out dead weight from before I went dividend heavy. January was $14.62 which is one of the heavier months. Also to give context my book cost of my TFSA account on February 28, 2026 was $4026.64.

For those who don’t know a TFSA is a tax free account which means all gains and income made in it are not taxable. It’s a great vehicle for Canadians to build wealth. Most people have way more contribution room than they think because unused room rolls over every year. That means you start accruing room at the age of 18 whether you have one or not and if you don’t start investing until you’re in your 30’s like me it means tens of thousands of contribution room as a starting point.
I wanted to highlight a stock I own and recommend to those that favour dividends and that is Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSX:GWO). The company has increased dividends for 11 straight years, has a payout ratio of 58.57%, the dividend has grown 6.56% in the last ten years, the company has had 30 straight years of posting a profit, it has an annual dividend of $2.68 that is paid out quarterly, and the dividend yield is 4.32%.

A #ThankGNU! to Morten Lind, Nicolas Avrutin, and Pablo González Otero for helping the FSF to promote #FreeSoftware. To see a longer list of those who have helped us financially in our advocacy for #SoftwareFreedom and awareness, visit: u.fsf.org/4ao

If we can agree that the stock market has volatility and a tad of chaos then we should be able to agree that the crypto market has those but on steroids. It turns some people off and that is understandable. What some people may not know is that there is a way to turn the crypto market into a calmer place to invest and it is much the same way many do so on the stock market. I choose dividends as my main focus on the stock market and the crypto market has a similar feature albeit different. It is called staking and you can use it to make passive income. Staking is where you stake a portion of your coins on your crypto exchange and in return you receive passive income from them. How much you receive and when varies based on the coin the the exchange. Why would they pay you to borrow your coins ? That reasoning can vary but think of it like a bank paying you interest on your savings so they can use that money to make loans. Also on some crypto networks, staking your coins helps secure the network itself, and you're rewarded for that help.

Think of it like a savings account in a bank. You deposit some of your money into a savings account, you earn interest while you park it there, you can withdraw it but then you will earn less interest. This is a crudely simple analogy but you get the picture. Where staking differs is that the interest you receive is usually paid in whatever coin you staked so you still need to convert it back to whatever currency you use and transfer it from your crypto platform and into a normal bank. A few things to note is that staking income is fully taxable in Canada currently and as for other countries I highly suggest looking up your local laws. In Canada it is also currently taxable regardless of whether you redeem the passive income you make. One more note is to make sure you understand the terms of staking as they can vary for each coin. Some can be withdrawn or “unbonded” immediately but others require a period of time before they can be returned to you. The staking income is available to be used as soon as it is paid out.

The reason I suggest staking is that much like dividends or savings interest it renders the chaos of the coin price going up and down to be of little consequence to you. It will affect you when you go to redeem your staking income but in the day to day you can earn passive income regardless of the coin price fluctuations. It has turned crypto into a more enjoyable way to invest for me. Not every coin can be staked but plenty can. Much like dividends and interest you won’t get rich quick like this but you will unleash the power of compounding if you can take a more long term view. If this at all sounds like something you want to do I suggest beginning your research and finding out which coins and exchanges work for your needs.
I wanted to highlight a stock I own and recommend to those that favour dividends and that is goeasy Ltd. (TSX:GSY). The company has increased dividends for 11 straight years, has a payout ratio of 36%, the dividend has grown 29.96% in the last ten years, the company has had 23 straight years of posting a profit, it has an annual dividend of $5.84 that is paid out quarterly, and the dividend yield is 5.33%.
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