L0laL33tz
L0la L33tz

Independent Journalist. Bylines in too many places. "Anonymous Internet Commentator" –US Department of Justice. Writes therage.co.

💌 DMs on Matrix only: @l0lal33tz:bitcoin.kyoto
💸 Support independent journalism: https://geyser.fund/project/therage

Public Key

npub1mznweuxrjm423au6gjtlaxmhmjthvv69ru72t335ugyxtygkv3as8q6mak

NIP-05 Address

L0laL33tz@cashu.me

NIP-57 Address

therage@getalby.com

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsd3fhv7rped64g77dyf9l7ndmae9mkxdz37099cc6wyzr9jytxg7cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsdmtpuj

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1mznweuxrjm423au6gjtlaxmhmjthvv69ru72t335ugyxtygkv3as8q6mak

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-03-05 13:00:02 UTC

Some years ago, we speculated that a black and white market price may develop for bitcoin.
Yesterday, BTC was traded at a high of ~88k € on exchanges – while people paid an almost 30k € premium for peer-to-peer sats.
Parallel economy bitcoin > Wall Street bitcoin ftw 🔥 https://image.nostr.build/f3d331245d5298a3754feed5442aa8f9d44ce918bb1bedb46eaa2237a427da02.jpg

2025-03-01 19:08:58 UTC

Inventing a life for yourself, as Dostoevsky once said, is extremely underrated. Fuck the system. Be who you want to be and do what makes you happy – fuck the money, fuck the fame, this is the only measure of success that matters 🩷

2025-02-27 08:07:19 UTC

- reply

🫡

2025-02-18 17:08:19 UTC

🚨 🚨 🚨 CALL FOR DONATIONS 🚨 🚨 🚨
To cover the Tornado Cash trial in April, as well as an upcoming Samourai Wallet hearing, The Rage needs $8000 USD CUCKBUCKS.
Court cases are long, and journalists need to be paid. Unless we can raise the $8000 USD we will not be able to cover the trial.
It's incredibly important that this case gets covered from a perspective critical of the DOJ's witch hunt that aims to put the proceedings in broader context on the effects it will have on all of us.
We make no money other than donations. We have no paywalls and no data-leeching advertisements. None of this money will go to me personally, all will be used to pay the reporting journalists. Please help us make this happen.
Donate on-chain for transparency:
bc1q6knt9ln4z2tvduc436ezsvx22q89a9memv964p
Or via Lightning on our Geyser Fund:
https://geyser.fund/project/therage

2025-02-06 20:12:46 UTC

Roman Storm is petitioning the Supreme Court to stop an order that would make him disclose his defense strategy to the Government.
If Roman loses this case, the US would become the first jurisdiction to enforce FATF’s excessively overreaching Recommendation 66, which would classify *any software touching cryptocurrency* as a money service business required to employ KYC/AML programs.
This case is the fork in the road between money as free software to empower the people, and another Wall Street pet rock that the selected few may trade as walled-garden compliance coupons.
https://www.therage.co/roman-storm-supreme-court/

2025-02-04 17:20:35 UTC

A lot of people approached me in the past weeks on a new regulation in Switzerland, which limits no-KYC Bitcoin transactions from 1.000 CHF per day down to 1.000 CHF per month.
Turns out that the regulation is likely illegal:
https://www.therage.co/leaked-email-finma-abused-authority-to-implement-new-kyc-rule-based-on-tabloid-news-2/

2025-01-27 18:28:55 UTC

Another day, another exchange I am suspended from.
All of my funds are conjoined or swapped between LN/XMR for privacy before sending to exchanges, triggering all sorts of nonsense AML flags.
The exchange I am with now is requesting proof of funds, meaning it wants to see fiat coming into my bank account from an entity I have a business relationship with, asking me to "kindly assist them" in surveilling me.
Except that all of my business relationships are handled in bitcoin – meaning that it is impossible for me to show proof of fiat funds.
Alternatively, the exchange says, I could send them “the address” to which I received payment in the last year, matching the amount of money I have exchanged on their platform.
Obviously no such address exists as I create a new address for each transaction (and so should you). Additionally, much of my money comes in through donations, for which I simply do not have an invoice.
I could now send them every single zap I ever received on nostr in the past year – for context, that would be over 250 zaps in the past week alone, s/o to all the zappers – or I could move my business to Switzerland, where I can exchange up to 1000 CHF per day KYC-free (for now), which is what I’m going to do.
However, since I’ll be more heavily relying on peer-to-peer exchanges from now on, I’ll likely have my bank account flagged for receiving weekly payments from randos on the internet, making it fairly foreseeable that I’ll be losing my bank account in the coming months as well.
Fundamental rights violations aside, the amount of complete nonsense work – and with that costs – this system creates both for the Government and private institutions is absolutely astonishing. If there ever was a true bullshit job, compliance officer would no doubt be it.
It’s time we end the global discrimination complex inherent to the financial system in which we are all guilty until proven innocent, only to upkeep an inefficient system that is useless in preventing crime but formidable for imposing mass surveillance on the people.
So no, I will not "kindly assist you" in surveilling me, and if I die on this hill.
Until then, shill me your favorite tools to pay my bills in bitcoin 👇
https://m.primal.net/ODEx.jpg

2025-01-24 00:00:52 UTC

So the Trump's 'crypto* EO is out, and I'm seeing lots of weak bitches cry that its a shitcoin reserve.
Given the fact that the proposed digital assets stockpile would possibly be built on *seized* coins, let me give you a quick introduction to forfeiture law, and why crying for daddy to please please make its pile of flying horseshit "bitcoin only" *literally* the most retarded thing you could be wishing for, ever.
Forfeiture law – or civil asset forfeiture, to be precise – is this fun little game the government plays in which it does not have to accuse you of a crime to confiscate your property.
Instead of accusing you of a crime, the Government claims that the asset itself has facilitated a crime, and can therefore be seized by the Government.
In civil asset forfeiture, there is no innocent until proven guilty. To get your property back, *you* have to prove that the Government is wrong – which turns out pretty complicated seeing how its impossible to prove a negative.
Civil asset forfeiture results in cases that are not filed against a person, but filed against the property itself. This results in fun little cases like US vs. Binance Account XYZ, or US vs. 123 Wilmington Drive.
To extend this idea to Bitcoin, in a civil forfeiture case, the US Government is in theory able to seize *any bitcoin* that has *ever* come out of a criminal transaction.
Made some bitcoin for selling a service? Bought some bitcoin on a P2P exchange? Unless you checked that the UTXO you received has never touched a criminal transaction in its entire history, your coins can be confiscated, and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it.
As Cato Institute points out in its piece on civil forfeiture reform, forfeiture law is routinely misused to enrich the Government – Philadelphia, for example, has seized over 1000 homes, over 3000 vehicles, and over $44M in cash over an 11 year period. In 2010, the city tried to seize *an entire fucking house* because a woman's grandson sold less than $200 of weed out of the basement.
If you think that taxes are bad, civil asset forfeiture is straight up evil.
It doesn't matter whether you participated in a crime. It doesn't matter whether you know that someone else participated in a crime. If it involved your property, even if said property was fully legally acquired, the Government will come and take it.
Civil asset forfeiture is the most insane Government funding technique that is out there, and you most definitely do not want this declared as a strategic means to pump the Government's bitcoin bags.
You are *literally* asking the Government to steal your coins with a practice that *every* libertarian advocate wants to see abolished.

2025-01-23 15:18:29 UTC

Can we please remove the auto-follow primal friends thing when creating a new account, I just had to manually unfollow 228 people

2025-01-20 12:25:27 UTC

GM friendos,
I don't get notifications on my Geyser project and when I checked this morning, I saw that someone donated +1M sats to the project last week.
I don't think you guys know how far such a donation goes for an independent journalist like me. Thank you anon, whoever you are 🩷

2025-01-17 18:47:28 UTC

Oopsiedoozles, Chainalysis wrongfully attributed almost twice the volume of hacked funds to North Korea than funds it found actually related "upon further investigation"
This software is used to put people in jail
https://m.primal.net/NlOi.png

2025-01-13 16:51:11 UTC

Some of you may have missed it, but there's a new Bitcoin Bill in town – this time in Oklahoma.
While room temperature IQ bros are busy lobbying for the federal government to buy bitcoin, Oklahoma member of the Senate Dusty Deevers introduced the Bitcoin Freedom Act that actually works to protect Bitcoin and its users from Government overreach.
Not only does the Bill formalize for merchants to accept bitcoin as payment – it also exempts non-custodial services from requiring money transmitter licenses and protects their operators from Bank Secrecy Act applications.
The Bitcoin Freedom Act "ensures that participation is entirely voluntary, respecting free-market principles and empowering employees, employers, and businesses to choose the payment options that work best for them."
Fuck the snake Lummis and her lobby bros selling you their NGU schemes as some pseudo-game theoretic 5D chess moves to protect your privacy. *This* is legislation that Bitcoin needs.
https://m.primal.net/NexC.png
https://www.therage.co/oklahoma-bitcoin-bill/

2025-01-08 19:55:41 UTC

I want to talk about something that some people may find offensive, and that I can’t talk about on Twitter to not get shadow banned as I have to rely on reach for my work.
The first time I attended Chaos Computer Congress was over 15 years ago. It had the best parties in town, and we would sneak in for the nightlife.
As I rekindled my interest in politics, computers and the internet, I became more aligned with the CCC’s mission: hacking the planet to hold power to account.
While I was already disappointed with some of the CCC’s policies – particularly on things like COVID and Bitcoin – this year was the first time that I seriously lost hope for and trust in the CCC as an institution – starting with its opening speech.
The CCC’s opening speech sets the theme for the event. This year, it was dedicated to the global rise of fascism. Speakers talked about Germany’s protests against the far-right AFD, about Donald Trump, LGBTQ and abortions, and pro-democracy protests in countries like Georgia.
But not a single word was lost to the genocide in Palestine.
Checking the CCC’s schedule, I merely found a single talk on Palestine, which explicitly made clear that it did not take a stance on whether Israel was right or wrong in its operations.
There were still a lot of great talks at the congress, and many assemblies showed their solidarity, but this complete lack of mention is what really stood out for me.
To understand what a hackers congress has to do with genocide, we need to take an uncomfortable look at Nazi Germany.
What enabled the Holocaust 80 years ago was not just a bunch of bloodthirsty eugenicist maniacs high on ungodly amounts of speed and their fascist ideologies. It was the streamlining of exploitation and murder to never before seen efficiency, with the help of new, more efficient technologies.
It is these same advancements in technology that are fueling the genocide in Palestine today. It’s surveillance on an unprecedented scale, evermore invasive spyware, AI enabled targeting and automated drone warfare.
You can think of Palestine what you want, but this technology is being exported from Palestine to the rest of the world today.
It’s facial recognition systems and license plate scanners that Israel uses to enforce apartheid that you’ll soon see scanning your biometrics for your next flight on holidays, or your car on your next trip to work.
It’s spyware companies that test their products to soon sell them to governments around the world targeting activists, journalists and opposition.
It’s psychological warfare utilizing dating sites like Grindr to social engineer Palestinians into spying on their peers and extort their sexual preferences.
Just last month, the a16z portfolio company Skydio, which is a major Israeli military contractor, was caught providing its surveillance drones to Yale University to monitor and track student protestors.
Some of you may find this topic uncomfortable as it may not align with your political views.
But the reality remains that the genocide in Palestine is a testing ground for never before seen surveillance tech that will soon be used on you. And the world’s most renowned hackers are silent.

2025-01-03 08:42:40 UTC

Good morning! It's January 3rd, which means its not your keys, not your coins day.
Unfortunately, this year the EU has decided to make withdrawing from exchanges a hell of a lot harder by extending FATF's Travel Rule to digital assets.
The FATF Travel Rule is not just a remarkable shitshow for your financial privacy and security – it's also a law to which authorities appear to have no data on its effectiveness to prevent financial crime.
What this means for you: If you want to withdraw funds exceeding €1.000, you'll need to prove that you own the address you are intending to withdraw to to your custodian.
It also means that exchanges are required to forward your personal information, including things like your name and address, to any custodian you are transacting with, and that an exchange may collect information on whom you are sending funds to and whom you are receiving funds from.
The Travel Rule does not just make withdrawing from exchanges harder, as custodians will need to employ third party software, employ a signing protocol like AOPP, or have you conduct a micro transaction to the custodian before making your transfer.
It also poses an incredible risk to your financial privacy and security, as your KYC info will not just be stored with a custodian you trust, but with any custodian you transact with – increasing the risks of hacks and identity theft.
In its current form, the Travel Rule has been mandatory in tradfi in the EU since 2012 – But nobody seems to know whether it actually works to prevent money laundering or not.
That's why I filed a FOIA request with German authorities last month, requesting data on all money laundering convictions in Germany since 2008.
Interestingly, the Ministry of the Interior responsible for national security and overseeing Germany's law enforcement, responded that it had no such information - instead asking me to file FOIA Requests with the German Ministry of Finance, the German Customs Authority, as well as with every public prosecutors office...
...which means that the updated Travel Rule is the extension of a law to whichs effectiveness law enforcement appears to have no data.
(FOIA Response in picture translated with ChatGPT)
https://m.primal.net/NQCL.png
Full Story:
https://www.therage.co/travel-rule-crypto-surveillance/

2024-12-27 21:59:33 UTC

ok can we chill with the fucked up ideas for like 5 minutes
https://m.primal.net/NIgK.png

2024-12-27 18:26:34 UTC

The IRS just finalized its new broker rule, finding that control is not necessary to be considered a broker subject to IRS reporting requirements.
It's a nightmare for every non-custodial exchange and swap provider.
Built a website to let users swap between currencies? You're a broker under IRS reporting requirements.
Built a mobile app to let users swap between currencies? You're a broker under IRS reporting requirements.
Built a browser extension to let people swap between currencies? You're a broker under IRS reporting requirements.
As long as you have the ability to collect fees on a trade, or have the ability to affect the terms under which a trade is provided, or a whole bunch of other nonsense, you're a broker, which makes pretty much any non-custodial exchange or swap provider a broker.
While wallets without swap or exchange features are excluded by the broker rule, it's a taste of what's to come for BSA reporting requirements for non-custodial software.
INB4: "bUt ThEy CaN'T FoRcE mY nOn-CuStOdIaL wAlLeT tO Do aNyThiNg"
That's right they can't. But they can force the people building the software and services. And if they don't, they'll go to jail.
Unless challenged, the rule goes into effect in 2027.
https://www.therage.co/broker-rule-irs-requires-non-custodial-services-to-report-trading-information/

2024-12-23 19:07:19 UTC

Bitcoiners, last week:
"Lots of bad takes around the strategic Bitcoin reserve on the timeline.
For intelligent well informed up to date takes on the SBR I recommend following Matthew Pines."
Matthew Pines, this week:
"The benefits to bitcoin holders are secondary to the broader objectives of securing America’s place in the global financial system."
"The government’s strategic adoption of bitcoin is not about rewarding private holders. It is about national interests."
😘
https://www.btcpolicy.org/articles/a-global-economic-reordering-us-china-competition-and-bitcoin-as-tool-of-us-statecraft

2024-12-22 12:46:51 UTC

The success of bitcoin can be defined in two ways.
On the one hand, there is the success of bitcoin as an investment asset. On the other, there is the success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
The success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system will always guarantee the success of bitcoin as an investment asset.
The success of bitcoin as an investment asset does not guarantee the success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
The success of Bitcoin as an investment asset is the blue pill – It’s the decision to stay in a safe, predictable world and avoid confronting uncomfortable truths. Scaling and privacy aren’t just not needed, but seen as actual risks.
The success of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system is the red pill – It’s the decision to break out of the Matrix and build a world where financial censorship becomes an impossibility, but it requires future updates to the protocol.
Since the notion that self-custody is undesirable for users has increasingly been floating around, let us make this very clear: If you do not take custody of your funds, you do not get to decide.
https://m.primal.net/NDQW.jpg

2024-12-17 20:16:38 UTC

David Bailey just posted the draft for an executive order for the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve under Trump – and it's an absolute nightmare for anyone using bitcoin as money.
First, the draft order defines Bitcoin as "a finite store-of-value asset, akin to digital gold."
As someone who has lived on Bitcoin for a fairly long time, I can say that Bitcoin is not merely a "store-of-value asset", but a money for payment and day to day purchases.
Defining Bitcoin as a "store-of-value asset" reinforces the ossification narrative (who needs to move a stonk several times in a day?) which may put developers at risk when prioritizing changes to btc to make it more usable as money (think scaling for example).
With this definition, a softfork to activate covenants may become an issue of US national security that goes against the US' definition of its primary goals - directly putting developers in the firing line of the United States Government.
The draft states that federal agencies, such as the US Marshall's Service, may not auction seized Bitcoin off, but must contribute them to the strategic reserve.
This not only reduces the Bitcoin in circulation available to the public, but additionally sets the incentive for the US to increase its seizing efforts – think increased AML/KYC.
While I'm no fan of the strategic reserve in general, this draft is an even bigger disappointment than Sen. Lummis' proposed Bitcoin Act.
To compare this to how El Salvador has implemented Bitcoin, which I admit I initially wasn't a fan of either, ES directly gives citizens rights to use Bitcoin as money - which is a huge upside to benefit the people, and not just the national security state.
No offense, but letting a couple of children that just graduated college and a guy who runs a magazine draft US policy is a scene straight out of idiocracy.
Next time, maybe try speaking to the people actually building and using bitcoin, not just to the boomers and national security goons that sit on the money like a fat kid at the cake buffet.
Incredibly unprofessional conduct here by BPI, a huge risk to anyone using Bitcoin for anything other than an investment, and a testament to the people involved being more interested in furthering their own importance than to empower people with a money without state.
Sincerely hope that this EO is drastically challenged on all levels and hopefully somehow deemed unconstitutional to protect btc and the people developing it.

2024-12-11 13:19:15 UTC

This is a community note proposed to Anita's post, and I think we need to talk about it.
https://m.primal.net/MszH.jpg
The past years have brought a swarm of new people into Bitcoin, and these posts and comments show how hard we failed them.
First off, to address the majority of commenters in Anita's post that also like to spam my posts with the same nonsense (and then tell me that I'm stupid because I have a vagina (?)), in the Bitcoin network, you do not get to vote for anything. Your node allows you to control the rules that your node runs by. That's it. That's all it does.
There is no voting in Bitcoin.
Second, miners run profit oriented businesses. This means that miners follow the rules adapted by the nodes with the majority of economic activity.
In the event of a hard fork, it does not matter how many nodes you run – if the majority of nodes generating profit for miners apply new rules, those are the rules the miners will follow.
Bitcoin positions do matter to the extent that they generate economic activity.
I understand that the voting analogy can be helpful, so here's one that you can make: in Bitcoin, you vote with your feet.
If a large exchange was to signal for, say, a Bitcoin compliance fork, you can threaten to pull your money out – to the extent that the exchange still allows you to.
Lastly, what Anita is referring to in her post is Bitcoin's social layer.
Bitcoin is run by humans, and humans can be influenced.
Humans can be influenced by setting positive incentives, such as gov subsidies or developer grants, or by applying violence, such as threatening to throw the people running and building Bitcoin in jail.
This is a reality of human nature and should not be controversial - How to prevent such actors from influencing open source development is often discussed in the open source community.
If this topic interests you, look up Operation Orchestra at FOSDEM.
Let's remember that the memes are not always your friends.
Influencers spent the past few years so focused on "hyperbitcoinization" that half-truths about how Bitcoin works are now taken at face value.
Because so many "Bitcoiners" now genuinely believe things like "Bitcoin can't be censored," "one node equals one vote", "Bitcoin is for enemies," or "everything is good for Bitcoin," we have created a culture that believes paying attention to the creation of an adversarial environment is unnecessary.
These memes are mental shortcuts. They are true to some extent, but do not reflect reality.
In the case of my posts, next to the obviously snarky comments here and there, the majority of commenters are not posting these things with bad intentions - they genuinely think that this is how Bitcoin works.
If you are an educator, influencer, or in any other way have the capacity to better explain these things to people, _please_ take the time to do so.
The memes are fine to get people interested, but we all need to do a better job at combating these misconceptions. The future of BTC could depend on it.

2024-12-04 23:53:29 UTC

- reply

It takes zero political capital for him to free ross, so i doubt that he'd be stupid enough to betray the trust of one of his most loyal voter bases for something that's of zero consequence to him.
On the other hand he can't run for reelection, so he might actually just not give a shit. Would still be insanely stupid though.

2024-12-03 09:08:35 UTC

Coinbase last week: flagging all crypto users as high risk because of a few fraudulent projects is discriminatory banking 🦾
Coinbase this week: Criminals use VPNs so we flag all VPN users 🫠
https://m.primal.net/Mmjg.png

2024-12-01 18:39:55 UTC

Just saying but debanking would become a hell of a lot harder if all banks ran on ecash

2024-12-01 02:42:55 UTC

Over on the hellsite David Marcus is complaining about the government shutting down his Libra/Diem stablecoin so I thought now would be a good time to remind everyone that this actually saved you from running head first into a CBDC testflight program
There's not a lot of times to be thankful for the government, but I'm pretty sure that this is one of them
https://m.primal.net/MlGn.png

2024-11-27 00:13:07 UTC

A judge just ruled that Tornado Cash is to be removed from the OFAC sanctions list.
The court found that Tornado Cash smart contracts do not constitute property, finding that Tornado Cash software is not covered by the IEEPA's.
The court found that while "OFAC’s concerns with illicit foreign actors laundering funds are undeniably legitimate," "perhaps Congress will update IEEPA [...] to target modern technologies like crypto-mixing software."
"Until then," the court found, "we hold that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the “property” of a foreign national or entity, meaning they cannot be blocked under IEEPA, and OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority."
This is hugely good news for anyone developing privacy software and will likely have a positive impact on Roman Storm's trial, where it is debated whether the court may criminally charge the developers of software.
s/o to all the people that fought for our right to privacy on this ❤️
https://m.primal.net/MiOT.png
(this is a developing story – we'll update this article as we go through the information available): https://www.therage.co/fifth-circuit-lifts-tornado-cash-sanctions/

2024-11-20 21:23:00 UTC

In October, we reported that Colombia's Financial Intelligence Unit was under investigation for the purchase of Pegasus Spyware.
Now the US admits that it helped make the deal:
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/colombia-pegasus-nso-group-israel-white-house

2024-11-08 15:34:04 UTC

Hate to be the one to shit on the Parade, but a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve *will* be built through confiscation and taxation.
Here's Senator Cynthia Lummis already hard at work to make it happen:
Cynthia Lummis teamed up with Elizabeth Warren to propose the regulation of Bitcoin under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws to "combat anonymous crypto asset transactions".
Cynthia Lummis also re-introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act "inspired by Senator Warren", which introduces higher penalties for "crypto asset crimes", regulates "mixers and tumblers", and increases KYC requirements.
For the amount of time Bitcoiners have claimed to be of peculiar intelligence, you are all getting played *incredibly* hard right now.
https://m.primal.net/LwoC.jpg https://m.primal.net/LwoD.png

2024-11-08 13:51:07 UTC

More miners chiming in on censorship.
If we want Bitcoin to remain a tool for freedom of transaction and humanity, IEEPA and the Bank Secrecy Act need to be abolished – or at the very least drastically reformed.
This is not the time to sit around and wait how things play out.
https://m.primal.net/Lwjc.png

2024-10-31 16:12:19 UTC

Never a dull day
https://m.primal.net/LoOG.jpg

2024-10-24 12:58:32 UTC

SCOOP: In an alert issued yesterday, FinCEN finds cryptocurrencies are not a preferred financing method for Hezbollah.
Who would have thought.
https://www.therage.co/fincen-alert-hezbollah-financing-cryptocurrencies/

2024-10-21 17:06:34 UTC

Just when you thought US courts couldn't be any more retarded, a New York Judge just dismissed the defamation suit against Chainalysis because he says the software enjoys free speech protections.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/chainalysis-defamation-dismissed/

2024-10-18 10:15:49 UTC

🫡
https://m.primal.net/LZlD.jpg

2024-10-15 15:24:50 UTC

TD Bank's plea is an interesting read for anyone who believes that justice has been served in the US banking industry.
If its “historic fine” tells us anything, it's that that crime pays when you're a banker.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/untitled-2/

2024-10-11 19:15:53 UTC

SOUS LES PAVÉS, LA RAGE https://image.nostr.build/54d81f6e8d2a7ecdb6206e87952133bb98ad80eaf5c0e65d2d45d308b61ac3a9.jpg

2024-10-06 14:33:03 UTC

Now Hitlary Clingon wants to get rid of Section 230. Trump tried to get rid of Section 230 for much of his last presidency.
“We should be in my view, repealing something called Section 230, which gave platforms on the internet immunity … Whether it‘s Facebook or Twitter or X or Instagram, or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don‘t moderate & monitor the content we lose total control,” says Clinton.
Section 230 of the1996 Communications Decency Act is "a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity," says Trump.
They're the same picture.
https://m.primal.net/LMyT.mp4
https://m.primal.net/LMyU.png

2024-10-04 21:37:04 UTC

I read the just introduced Saving Privacy Act so you don't have to, and it's pretty fucking badass. If passed, it would completely reform financial privacy in the US.
The Bill removes SARs and CTRs filing requirements, makes financial information only accessible via a search warrant, specifically introduces fourth amendment protections, bans the creation of central databases holding personally identifiable information without the establishment of a dedicated law granting a US agency such right, bans the US Government from creating CBDCs, and introduces criminal penalties for any US official violating your financial privacy rights.
Yes, please.
https://m.primal.net/LLSl.png https://m.primal.net/LLSm.png https://m.primal.net/LLSn.png
https://www.therage.co/untitled/

2024-10-04 14:19:11 UTC

The World Bank and the IMF have created a system
Of modern-day colonialism that make the people
Of the developing world poorer
And the multinational corporations richer
And take the power away from all of us
It's time to take back control of our lives
And tear apart these monuments to greed
And build our new world from the broken pieces
Leftöver Crack, Super Tuesday, 2004
https://m.primal.net/LLDD.mp4

2024-10-01 23:18:46 UTC

When $5.5 Million in cash are flown into Israel on a private jet, declared at customs, and shortly after placed in an NSO Group bank account, Financial Intelligence Units may just forget to launch an investigation, or so the story goes.
Colombia has publicized a suspicious activity report obtained via the Financial Intelligence Unit of Switzerland, and is now investigating how much FIUs knew about the alleged sale of Pegasus Spyware to the Colombian Police under its former government.
Don't you try to go and spend your cash though. There's rules for us, and rules for them.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/colombia-investigates-financial-intelligence-unit-in-pegasus-scandal/

2024-10-01 06:41:25 UTC

Julian Assange addresses the Council of Europe
https://www.youtube.com/live/Mq85IZMeigc

2024-09-30 19:53:49 UTC

Last year, 58 Congressmen sent a letter to Secretary Yellen asking for clarity on the scope of Hamas' cryptocurrency financing. But Secretary Yellen's response was never published.
Today, I filed a FOIA Request with the Department of Treasury for Yellen's response.
We already know that the dollar amounts published in the media were inaccurate and that cryptocurrencies are not a popular tool used by Hamas and the PIJ in their terror financing efforts.
Yellen's official response could still be instrumental in combating the current alarmist narrative that cryptocurrencies pose a threat to US national security to demand tighter regulation and increasingly unproportionate AML/CFT measures for the entire industry.
https://m.primal.net/LGph.png
Questions asked and link to the full letter:
https://m.primal.net/LGpm.jpg https://m.primal.net/LGpn.jpg https://m.primal.net/LGpo.jpg
https://emmer.house.gov/_cache/files/3/d/3d43d8c0-a0a8-40ed-864d-059ba2b5a681/CBF7D1BC15D13A231C7270CDD161308D.te.pmc.fh.rt.letter.11.15.23.pdf

2024-09-30 19:50:31 UTC

- reply

Sorry I'm not reading all of this

2024-09-30 10:40:55 UTC

- reply

How ironic that the entirety of privacy tech is on the line and all you can think about is complaining that no one uses your dumb fucking shitcoin

2024-09-30 08:55:46 UTC

You can donate #bitcoin to Roman Storm's defense.
The Tornado Cash trial will set dangerous precedents for the entire industry and greatly affect arguments made in the Samourai Wallet trial. Defending Roman means defending us all.
https://m.primal.net/LGRM.png
https://wewantjusticedao.org/donate

2024-09-27 21:46:13 UTC

Yesterday, Tornado Cash judge stated code is not speech, non-custodial software providers can be money transmitters, and specific knowledge of criminal activity is not required to be charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
A breakdown of all the arguments:
https://www.therage.co/tornado-cash-code-not-speech-non-custodial-msbs-knowledge-not-required/

2024-09-27 08:58:12 UTC

- reply

https://m.primal.net/LDVG.png

2024-09-27 00:51:58 UTC

Tornado Cash judge says code isn't speech and control isn't needed to qualify as MSB. Article coming tomorrow. GN 🫂
https://m.primal.net/LDHC.png

2024-09-27 00:28:32 UTC

- reply

Computer says no
https://m.primal.net/LDHC.png

2024-09-26 23:36:19 UTC

- reply

Im pretty sure the SEC could call your mom a security if it wanted to, though there may be precedent with dropping the ETH investigation
https://consensys.io/blog/sec-closes-ethereum-2-0-investigation-will-not-pursue-ethereum-enforcement

2024-09-26 23:01:18 UTC

Swan employees allegedly coordinating an epic takedown of Swan's mining operations coordinated via *checks notes* their Swan email accounts somehow has me skeptical of the criminal mastermind allegations
https://m.primal.net/LDEC.png

2024-09-26 22:37:23 UTC

- reply

Why do I get the feeling that you wont be telling the DOJ „nostr dgaf“ when they knock on your door

2024-09-26 22:30:04 UTC

- reply

Gensler says he does not classify Bitcoin as a security (he apparently reiterated this today), but that doesn't mean that the next administration won't. It also doesn't keep devs working on comms protocols safe that people may use to negotiate trades. You know, like the one we're chatting on now.

2024-09-26 22:13:46 UTC

Tornado Cash? Needed a banking license. Samourai Wallet? Needed a banking license. WhatsApp, Apple, X, probably all need licenses too.
Sounds retarded? Correct. That's why the SEC has proposed a rule to formalize licensing requirements for communication protocols.
In a speech at the annual U.S. Treasury Market Conference, Gensler announced to rule on proposed amendments to the Exchange Act by November, which expand the definition of the term "exchange" to mean "systems that bring together buyers and sellers of securities [...] (i.e. "communication protocols")."
Critics argue the rule may be weaponized to criminally indict software developers given the already hostile environment for crypto- and privacy devs.
If this rule passes, we are fucked beyond comprehension.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/gensler-to-rule-on-licensing-requirements-for-communication-protocols-2/

2024-09-25 12:43:30 UTC

Good morning, Keir Starmer wants to spy on your bank accounts
A bill proposed yesterday would enable the mass surveillance of financial transactions beyond AML/CTF regulations to "stop benefit fraud"
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/keir-starmer-wants-to-spy-on-your-bank-account/

2024-09-24 22:25:15 UTC

💚Say hello to Privacy Index: a guide of guides for all things digital privacy.💚
I started working on Privacy Index in the beginning of the year because I was frustrated by the one-fits-all solutions I was being sold by other privacy projects.
Privacy Index is the opposite: it's a resource for resources, so you can choose what tips, tools and tricks best fit your needs.
I would love for this project to grow and encompass all content others have found helpful on their own privacy journey – be it stories that inspired you, books that you read, tools that you use, or guides you found helpful – some of my favorite additions are highlighted below.
Privacy Index is by no means complete. But it's free and open source, so anyone can contribute on github. And the more people contribute, the better it will get 💚
s/o to @HRF
for funding this work 🤝
http://privacyindex.net
https://m.primal.net/LBAV.jpg

2024-09-24 12:09:48 UTC

- reply

🫡

2024-09-24 10:11:20 UTC

Good morning! Lots of talk yesterday about the German government's new security package enabling mass biometric surveillance & suspicionless searches.
But the proposed law also drastically expands the surveillance of bank accounts.
According to the proposed law, banks are to be alleviated of the suspension of accounts under investigation for AML/CTF violations, enabling the prolonged and undetected surveillance of bank accounts via the German federal police.
In 2023, the German FIU received 337,000 suspicious transaction reports, of which roughly 63,000 had little or nothing to do with AML/CTF violations.
Under the proposed law, close to 20% of accounts under investigation for AML/CTF violations would be subject to increased and unjust spying on their financial activities through police.
Full Story:
https://www.therage.co/german-government-plans-expansion-of-bank-account-surveillance/

2024-09-20 14:34:59 UTC

GM, the German Government just flat out lied denying the use of chain analysis software.
In an answer to a inquiry made by MPs, the German Government denied the use of chain analysis software for asset seizures – but procurement records show contracts with Chainalysis for German federal agencies, which directly advertises its software for the use of asset seizures.
Questions on the use of mixers to conceal criminal activity were classified as secret citing risks to national security, while the Government responded that the German FIU and customs had received merely 27,000 reports regarding crytocurrency transactions on suspicion of money laundering between 2020-2024, compared to over 280,000 suspicious transaction reports overall in the year 2020 alone.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/german-interior-ministry-dodges-questions-on-chain-analysis-software-mixer-risks/

2024-09-20 13:28:52 UTC

Four weeks ago, I sent the UK National Crime Agency a Freedom of Information Request to disclose the data used to deem crypto & E2EE a risk to national security. The request remains unanswered to this day.
Today I'm teaming up with Freddie New and Bitcoin Policy UK
to remind the NCA of the law. Governments must be held accountable for their actions.
https://m.primal.net/Kvkd.png
#note1xac…asnq

2024-09-19 11:22:12 UTC

First they came for Bitcoin projects funding aid in Palestine, and I did not speak out, because I was not Palestinian.

2024-09-19 11:20:24 UTC

Geyser Fund has shut down the crowdfunding project Bitcoin for Palestine, citing regulatory uncertainty.
Let this be your reminder that you cannot code faster than the state can invoke arbitrary penalties. Permissionless money is under massive threat by the global AML regime. It's time to wake up.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/geyser-bitcoin-for-palestine/

2024-09-17 19:06:19 UTC

- reply

BREAKING: Judge Richard M. Berman has denied a motion by Keonne Rodriguez to remove home detention as a condition of his bail ahead of his trial.
Government prosecutors presented the court with documents retrieved from Rodriguez' home detailing plans to flee the U.S. - though defense counsel pointed out that the document did not specify that the plans were meant to be enacted in response to law enforcement.

2024-09-17 18:01:12 UTC

- reply

Updates from the Samourai Wallet hearing:
December 17th has been set for the hearing of pretrial motions.
Motions will include a defense motion to dismiss on the basis of what Hill's lawyer described as "extraordinarily unusual" facts of the case.
The defense plans to argue that even if all claims made in the initial indictment were true, they would not "meet the bar for the charge," and that "this is not how Congress intended the [money laundering] statutes to be used."
Prosecutors said they had seized 44 electronic devices from Rodriguez, but had only been able to access access and extract the contents of 15 of those devices. Of 27 devices seized from Hill, 25 have been accessed and extracted.
According to the Defense, the full contents of discovery, including business records and social media archives, amounted to as much data as 75% of the entire Library of Congress. If printed out and stacked, the documents would extend from Earth to the Moon and back, 22 times.
The court will resume shortly and hear arguments about the conditions of Rodriguez' bail.

2024-09-17 16:30:13 UTC

- reply

Theres no stream for the hearing but well try to update here asap

2024-09-17 14:57:21 UTC

On the way to court to cover the Samourai Wallet hearing starting at 1pm EST with David Z Morris. Watch this space for possible updates and a full report 👇

2024-09-14 17:13:04 UTC

According to the US Government, all three of these services have violated sanctions law. One was just kindly asked to revise its AML program. The founders of the other are facing tens of years in prison. Spot the difference.
https://m.primal.net/Kptx.png

2024-09-14 16:30:03 UTC

GM, the OCC has issued an enforcement action against Wells Fargo Bank for AML violations – no fines imposed.
When banks fail to implement efficient AML programs, they get a slap on the wrist – but when developers fail to implement efficient AML programs, they get charged as criminals. Let this be your reminder that there's one set of rules for them, and another set of rules for us.
https://m.primal.net/Kprf.png

2024-09-13 21:24:28 UTC

- reply

#note17sl…rrwf

2024-09-13 21:19:42 UTC

A Kraken spokesperson has issued a correction of statements made by Kraken Support attributing the halting of Lightning Network support for German clients to regulatory changes. Updated story 👇
https://m.primal.net/KpDP.png
https://www.therage.co/kraken-germany-lightning-support/

2024-09-13 10:33:00 UTC

Kraken Germany removed support for the Lightning Network due to "new regulations that came into effect on September 10th".
The only problem: German banking authority BaFin says it doesn't know anything about new regulations taking effect on that day.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/kraken-germany-lightning-support/

2024-09-11 16:30:48 UTC

- reply

Land of the free!

2024-09-11 16:13:36 UTC

Let's also remember that the US has killed 124 times more US Americans since 9/11 than the 'most significant' terrorist attack on earth with an average of 44 (!) veteran suicides PER DAY. 🇺🇲
https://m.primal.net/Kmvo.png

2024-09-11 14:53:49 UTC

Curious that just when Monero announces a PR for FCMP++ Chainalysis leaks a video claiming to be able to trace XMR. Coincidence? I think not

2024-09-09 21:51:22 UTC

Short break from research camp bc the White Stripes are suing Donald Trump 🤘
https://m.primal.net/KlQA.png

2024-09-02 21:04:38 UTC

- reply

Interesting, this is exactly how I feel about audio info – might as well be speaking Chinese to me. I hear the words but they don't compute.
The other day I asked someone for the results of the Eurocup games, and they read the stats off their phone to me. Had to ask them to repeat it four times. They thought I was retarded.

2024-09-02 20:10:46 UTC

- reply

This is interesting bc I find music theory to actually be very logical (at least for guitar). Everything you do happens in scales, and what happens within a scale usually sounds good together. Hendrix mostly played pentatonic scales, so did John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They're essentially playing the same thing, just approached differently. Which goes to say that once you see the fret board in terms of scales – not disconnected notes – you'll know what comes next!
Anyway I cant process auditory information so people who enjoy podcasts are an absolute mystery to me

2024-09-02 20:09:11 UTC

The amount of bankers pissed with AML that are afraid to speak out against it publicly are a good indication of where we’re at with our ‘democracy’.

2024-09-02 10:59:47 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp2G8EJkq4E

2024-09-01 21:52:26 UTC

- reply

I know I saw! and it's re-introduced based on a non-public document. gotta love yourself some EU democracy.

2024-08-30 10:57:07 UTC

The Dutch Foundation Human Rights in Finance has formally requested a human rights evaluation from the European Commission on the EU's 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, citing privacy infringements and procedural abuse.
"The right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, the innocence presumption, the right to property, the right to not be discriminated/profiled and the right to access to health care, universal services (via a the right to a bank account) are violated due to the excessive regulations and policy initiatives initiated and driven by the European Commission".
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/hrif-human-rights-evaluation-amld5-european-commission/

2024-08-28 15:08:46 UTC

I have been chasing this story since October 2023.
I spoke to sources in Gaza whose Binance accounts had been frozen – The addresses they provided were not listed in Israel's official seizure orders.
https://m.primal.net/KRqe.jpg https://m.primal.net/KRqf.jpg
I was then put in touch with Turkish and Saudi Arabian nationals whose Binance accounts were frozen, who were allegedly told to contact Israeli police.
https://m.primal.net/KRqm.jpg https://m.primal.net/KRqq.jpg
The claim that Binance is freezing all Palestinian accounts, to my knowledge, is not correct. And this is what kept the story from being published.
Palestinians in the Westbank appear to be unaffected, while Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were only affected so long they had a certain balance in their account. But we couldn't figure out what that threshold was, as communication into Gaza was effectively cut off.
So I reached out to other news outlets hoping that I'd get help investigating the story. I reached out to CoinDesk editor in chief Kevin Reynolds, both via email and on the personal phone number he gave me – and got ghosted.
I reached out to Forbes, who were initially interested in the story, but Forbes refused to let me publish under my pseudonym.
Just recently I reached out to Bennet Tomlin
and Cas Piancey of Protos and got ghosted there too.
In November 2023, a journalist from Reuters contacted my source to write about the account seizures, but dropped the story as well.
Binance owes us an explanation under what legal framework it seizes the accounts of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip not listed in official seizure orders, and under what legal framework it seizes the accounts of foreign nationals on behalf of the Israeli government.
#note17en…8f89

2024-08-28 12:25:31 UTC

German party Die Linke just filed a formal inquiry into the use of blockchain surveillance software with the German government.
It wants to know the government's minimum requirements for error rates and verifiability of the software used. It directly references the use of Chainalysis Reactor, the accuracy of which was recently questioned in the trial of alleged Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov. Die Linke states that:
"In the view of the questioners, there currently seems to be no apparent evidence that the methods used for the forensic analysis of virtual payment flows meet scientific standards".
But that's not all. Die Linke wants to know how many cases have been filed with Financial Intelligence Units on suspicion of money laundering, and how many cases actually resulted in criminal prosecutions – noting that, in light of a total estimated volume of more than €100 Billion laundered in Germany each year, the portion of cryptocurrency value contributing to overall money laundering volume is expected to be "negligibly small".
And here's the best part: Die Linke also wants to know how the government distinguishes between legitimate use of mixers and criminal use of mixers, and whether the government is planning a potential mixer ban or other forms of regulations.
Die Linke states that "coinmixing" and other anonymization software "corresponds to a widely held need to protect one's privacy in times of ubiquitous technological surveillance by digital corporations and government authorities".
Bullish af on financial privacy today.
Full story:
https://www.therage.co/german-parliament-faces-questions-on-blockchain-surveillance/

2024-08-28 09:46:58 UTC

https://image.nostr.build/569f25f57a7b231f7afff89f8591d3777306aec1485075dccd1747cf7577a217.jpg

2024-08-26 20:27:16 UTC

The French government's press release on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is completely unhinged. It not only references complicity in CSAM, money laundering, organized crime and drug trafficking, but also seems to state that Telegram did not acquire a license to provide "cryptology services".
This is interesting because France apparently *does* have regulations which require licenses for the distribution of cryptology unless used for authentication purposes, as governed by the Code de la Defense.
[Not a lawyer, just researching my way through this hot mess.]
https://m.primal.net/KOUE.png
https://m.primal.net/KOSz.png
https://m.primal.net/KOTJ.png
Full press release:
https://www.tribunal-de-paris.justice.fr/sites/default/files/2024-08/2024-08-26%20-%20CP%20TELEGRAM%20.pdf
Full regulation on cryptology:
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/JORFTEXT000000801164

2024-08-26 12:50:05 UTC

- reply

Nooooo you cannot undermine my completely made up political philosophy with coherent arguments ***shrieks in Hoppe***

2024-08-25 20:40:19 UTC

- reply

Interesting, do you know how this compares to Foucault? Will check this out!

2024-08-25 20:35:35 UTC

- reply

Greeks and Romans were statist cocksuckers, sorry not sorry

2024-08-25 20:13:21 UTC

- reply

nice!

2024-08-25 20:09:07 UTC

Supremely bored by bitcoin Twitter's book recommendations. It's always the same thing – Hayek, Mises, Rothbard, Ayn Rand, that sovereign individual, yawn, yawn, yawn.
I want books that make me think, not books that reinforce what I already know. Give me niche post-structuralists, anarchists and revolutionaries. Give me poets and weirdos and outcasts, not CIA funded neocon thinkbois. Escape the echo chamber, anon.

2024-08-25 13:02:05 UTC

Mental illness https://image.nostr.build/84e35a2932079cc35d3bb99a5ec4e304d8ffd8c1dc379c9a9bdf25970007d5f7.jpg

2024-08-23 09:55:02 UTC

- reply

This is awesome, thank you for sharing!

2024-08-23 09:01:09 UTC

Deutsche Bank has terminated the account of a UN accredited human rights activist.
AML/CFT laws are routinely weaponized to silence dissent without any recourse or due process. It's the outsourcing of policing powers to private institutions without democratic oversight, where the presumption of innocence and right to fair trial do not exist.
AML/CFT needs to be abolished today.
https://m.primal.net/KJFG.png

2024-08-20 08:18:15 UTC

The National Crime Agency is making some pretty bold claims on cryptocurrency and end-to-end encryption, but provides no data to back up its claims. I filed a freedom of information request to find out how it came up with its conclusions.
Make FOIA your self care routine 🤝 https://image.nostr.build/ca035847523e43058be6f98059ca968ac77fc24efa0af6541497c7f0811e0247.jpg

2024-08-19 13:44:19 UTC

Oh boy. The UK National Crime Agency's latest Risk Assessment finds "cryptoassets are increasingly used to launder non-digital proceeds of crime" and names increased risks to children through end-to-end encryption.
The only problem: the assessment provides no concrete data to backup its claims and stands in direct contrast to industry findings.
You will be surveilled and you will be happy, even though we are terminally incapable of publicly demonstrating a need for increased surveillance at all.
Source: trust us bro.
https://www.therage.co/uk-nca-national-risk-assessment-2024/

2024-08-18 14:39:54 UTC

"So how's it going with your Bitcoin thing"
https://m.primal.net/KDPD.mp4

2024-08-15 18:18:00 UTC

But can it get any worse?
https://m.primal.net/KAic.png
https://m.primal.net/KAig.png
https://m.primal.net/KAij.jpg
#note15w8…lghw

2024-08-15 17:51:35 UTC

You dummies are getting played like a fiddle
#note15w8…lghw

2024-08-15 17:46:50 UTC

"I watched the Crypto4Harris town hall, let's make bitcoin bipartisan!"
lol, lmao
https://m.primal.net/KAhC.png
https://m.primal.net/KAhF.png

2024-08-15 17:42:22 UTC

- reply

Hi! Not an expert in monopoly breakups, but cory has some good thoughts on this https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/

2024-08-13 20:39:26 UTC

🤝
#note1zt4…7nhj

2024-08-11 22:53:49 UTC

- reply

https://m.primal.net/JwXj.png