At 12:02 AM 4/27/2007, you wrote: From: Andrew Del Vecchio <firefox-gen@walala.org> Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:55:31 -0700 To: or-talk@freehaven.net Subject: Re: Tor nodes blocked by e-gold Organization: MPAssetProtection.com User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (X11/20070306) Reply-To: or-talk@freehaven.net I was able to access my account as of a couple of days ago. Some tor nodes are in spam DBs, but only a few of them (as far as I know at least). Wikipedia has blocked tor nodes for close to a year now, as does some other sites. For this reason, I think it would be useful to make directory files compressed AND crypted, if possible/viable. Just my two rapidly devaluing Federal Reserve cents, though 8-). On 04/26/2007 10:49 PM, force44@Safe-mail.net wrote:

Hi,

Since 24 hours, e-gold has decided to block all TOR nodes, and not only. In fact they check 3 "spam databases" and if the user's IP is in one of them, e-gold just declines any operation, people cannot even login into their accounts.

About TOR particularly, I feel very strange that all exit nodes would be listed in spam databases, as most of them (if not all) don't accept sending mail requests. That is why I rather believe that e-gold in fact fetches the TOR exit nodes list, and directly block their IP addresses.

The problem is with Tor. It supports hidden server functionality (which is being improved all the time) but not hidden exits, AFAIK. Hidden exit support might encourage more people to run them. It might also provide another possibility, opportunistic exits using neighbor-neighbor open hot-spot WiFi. Here is a paper I wrote some months back but have only circulated in a small circle, called, "CUCKOO - an opportunistic P2P exit node": http://rapidshare.com/files/28243850/CUCKOO-Draft2.signed.txt.html

A friend, connecting from his home in Germany without TOR, without any proxy, cannot enter his account as his IP address (a dynamic one from a dialup provider) was listed 2 months ago for spam!!!

A few people are already complaining that they cannot get into their accounts, and so their money seems to be lost! E-gold was already known to block accounts without any warning and explanations, recently blocked accounts of all Iranian people and KEPT their funds, now they automatize the scam process!

E-gold is most certainly not a scam. But they have behaved foolishly, operating from US soil, and now are completely under the thumb of the U.S. government. Its highly likely that E-gold's operators have been served National Security letters in order to keep from the press what's really going on, which is that the U.S. dollar is under considerable financial pressure most of which is being kept out of the major news media and any economic safety means not under indirect control of the U.S. (e.g., gold-based) are being closed. As Alan Greespan noted in his seminal paper, "Gold and Economic Freedom," "An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense-perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire -- that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other. "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard." http://digitalmoneyworld.com/e-gold-hits-the-wall-government-seizes-major-ag... I don't agree with all the conclusions of this article, in particular that, "3. The only DGCs that operate from now on will: (a) Have no connection to the US (b) Have no USA users (exactly as Swiss banks have no USA users) (b) Will have higher ID requirements than e-gold currently does. " Its probably true the seizure will cause many to shy away from non-regulated currencies and payment systems (as our "masters" want) but others (e.g., eCache, https://ffij33ewbnoeqnup.onion.meshmx.com/doc.php) are sure to be emboldened by the audacity of the Secret Service. Nostra