January 2024 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

A Fed Whistleblower Reveals Efforts to Silence Him 30 Years Ago
by Gunnar Larson 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/01/a-fed-whistleblower-reveals-efforts-… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 22, 2024 ~ Walker F. Todd, Former New York Fed and Cleveland Fed Insider Walker F. Todd, Former New York Fed and Cleveland Fed Insider The U.S. Department of Justice needs to immediately appoint an independent Special Counsel to investigate how long and in how many ways the U.S. Central Bank (the Federal Reserve or simply “the Fed”) has been functioning as a protection racket for Wall Street mega banks. We’ll get to the latest revelation about the Fed bullying and intimidating a Fed official in a moment, but first some necessary background. In 2013 the American people learned that Carmen Segarra had been a bank examiner with a law degree at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one of Wall Street’s key regulators. Segarra charged in a Federal lawsuit that she was bullied by colleagues to change her negative examination of the powerful Wall Street mega bank, Goldman Sachs. Segarra detailed how her colleagues also obstructed and interfered with her investigation. When she refused to alter her findings, she was terminated in retaliation and escorted from the Fed premises, according to her lawsuit. Segarra’s lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge, Ronnie Abrams, whose husband was engaged in legal matters for Goldman Sachs. (See The Carmen Segarra Case: Welcome to New York, Wall Street and McJustice. See also, These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button.) Unfortunately for the New York Fed, however, the secret tape recordings that Segarra had made to document the matter, ended up going viral. Then there was the 2015 case of the Wall Street Journal reporter, Pedro da Costa, asking Fed Chair Janet Yellen an uncomfortable question about Fed leaks of confidential information and finding himself without a job. According to a deep dive by Max Moran, writing for The American Prospect, the individual who cracks the whip at the Fed to keep reporters in line is Michelle Smith, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Chief of Staff and the woman “who has served every Fed Chair of the last 30 years in some capacity—Powell, Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan.” Intimidating the press to toe the line on asking acceptable questions and writing acceptable articles is not compatible with a free society. See our report: There’s a News Blackout on the Fed’s Naming of the Banks that Got Its Emergency Repo Loans; Some Journalists Appear to Be Under Gag Orders; and Mainstream Media Has Morphed from Battling the Fed in Court in 2008 to Groveling at its Feet Today. Then there was the stench around former Fed Chair Janet Yellen stepping down as Fed Chair and embarking on a multi-million dollar money grab dressed up as speaking fees at the banks regulated by the Fed. (See Janet Yellen’s Cash Haul of $7 Million Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg; She Failed to Report Her Wall Street Speaking Fees from JPMorgan and Others in 2018.) Yellen was then reconstituted as the U.S. Treasury Secretary, where her rubber stamp is required under Dodd-Frank financial “reform” legislation in order for the Fed to throw more trillions of dollars at Wall Street. And, finally, more than two years after the former President of the Dallas Fed, Robert Kaplan, was exposed as trading like a hedge fund kingpin while sitting on confidential Fed information, there has still been no investigative findings in this matter shared with the American people by the U.S. Department of Justice; the Securities and Exchange Commission; or the Fed’s Inspector General. Against that backdrop, consider the latest news about intimidation and efforts to silence a Fed official – going back 30 years. Last month, financial writer Lynn Parramore conducted an interview for the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) with two former Federal Reserve Bank employees: Walker Todd, a former attorney and legal officer at the New York Fed and a former legal and research officer at the Cleveland Fed; and Bill Bergman, a Clinical Instructor in Finance for Loyola University who worked previously at the Chicago Fed. During the interview, Todd stuns with this revelation: “I had the misfortune of drafting an article for publication by the Cleveland Fed, which came out in ’93, about the emergency lending provisions of FDICIA [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act]. I explained how this came about. The sense of the provision was a section that said that the Fed was able to make emergency loans based on any collateral satisfactory to it – which could be just about anything. Changing that provision allowed securities firms to borrow directly from the Fed for the first time in history because the Fed discount window was originally set up to make loans only on types of collateral eligible for discount — and investment securities most definitely were not eligible for discount. “The Board staff turned out to be very unhappy with the submission of this article and kept intervening with my management to try to block publication. I was required to do 21 drafts over a year, which impeded my doing anything else. Eventually, it was published in mostly the same form in which I had originally submitted it, and at the last moment, a senior Board staffer called the research department at the Cleveland Fed to order them to stop the presses. But they couldn’t, because the president and research director were out of the office and couldn’t be reached. So it went out the door. That was it. I was given an unfavorable rating for the year and I left the next year.” For how this tweak to congressional legislation played out in real life, and how Sullivan & Cromwell’s Rodge Cohen’s fingerprints were all over it, see our report: Fed Announces Program for Wall Street Banks to Pledge Plunging Stocks to Get Trillions in Loans at ¼ Percent Interest. It’s all enough to make Americans sick to their stomachs at how their democracy has been strong-armed, bribed and bullied into a dystopian Wall Street casino. But is it enough to make Americans pick up their phones, call their U.S. Senators, and demand the appointment of a genuinely independent Special Counsel?

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Bitcoin or Gold? Oaktree’s Howard Marks Sees Little Difference
by Gunnar Larson 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

Bitcoin or Gold? Oaktree’s Howard Marks Sees Little Difference https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-19/oaktree-s-howard-marks-o… Faced with a choice between Bitcoin and gold, Oaktree Capital Management co-founder Howard Marks doesn’t see much of a difference. According to Marks, both lack intrinsic value. “Gold is a little more tried and true, but it also lacks any kind of analytical raison d'etre,” Marks said in an interview on this week’s Merryn Talks Money podcast with host Merryn Somerset Webb.

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Naming Names: Professor Exposes the Banking Cartel that Has Hijacked U.S. Democracy
by Gunnar Larson 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/01/naming-names-professor-exposes-the-b… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 23, 2024 ~ Gerald Epstein is Professor of Economics and a Founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A book he has spent the past decade researching and writing comes out today from the University of California Press: Busting the Bankers’ Club: Finance for the Rest of Us. Anticipation of this book’s release has caused some sweaty brows in the halls of Congress, on Wall Street, at Big Law, and in the economics community. That’s because Epstein is naming names – the names of the people who have sold out American democracy and the public interest by becoming sycophants for, or actual members of, the Bankers’ Club. The Chairman of the Bankers’ Club is the Federal Reserve, writes Epstein. That’s because the Fed has strongarmed its way to becoming both the supervisor of the Wall Street mega banks while also being able to create money at the flip of an electronic switch, which it uses to funnel trillions of dollars in cheap loans to bail out the mega banks behind a dark curtain. Alan Greenspan’s unprecedented 19-year reign as Fed Chair laid the foundation for this power grab while his successor, Ben Bernanke, enshrined the concept of regulator-turned-bailout-kingpin during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis, (funneling $29 trillion in largesse to prop up a financial structure that had collapsed under the weight of its own corruption). Gerald Epstein, Author, Busting the Bankers’ Club: Finance for the Rest of Us. Photo Credit, Stan Sherer The unprecedented power of the Bankers’ Club is underscored by the reality that after the worst financial collapse in 2008 among Wall Street firms since the Great Depression, the legislation passed to remedy the corruption, excesses, and abuses (the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010) was little more than a draft, left to compromised regulators to fashion into final rules. Epstein describes how Citigroup, with help from pals in the Bankers’ Club, gutted a key part of the legislation meant to rein in derivative abuses. (For more on this sleazy episode, read our report: Meet the Two Congressmen Who Facilitated Today’s Derivatives Nightmare at Wall Street’s Mega Banks.) Other key members of the Bankers’ Club according to Epstein are the politicians (particularly on key committees in Congress) who have sold out to the Bankers’ Club in exchange for funding of their political campaigns; bank regulators who have one foot on government soil and the other foot heading toward the revolving door and a much bigger paycheck; Wall Street’s outside lawyers from Big Law who sneak language favoring the Bankers’ Club into legislation; a swarm of dozens of lobbying groups working on behalf of Wall Street banks in the corridors and offices of Congress; and even members of his own profession – economists – who promote unsound ideas purporting to show that Wall Street mega banks serve the interests of the public and that more regulation is inefficient and negatively impacts economic growth. In each of the categories above, Epstein names names. A member of Big Law, the Senior Chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, H. Rodgin (Rodge) Cohen, makes the following appearance in Busting the Bankers’ Club: “…The dean of Wall Street lawyers, H. Rodgin Cohen, chair of the Wall Street firm Sullivan & Cromwell, had his hand in virtually all the key legal and enforcement actions promoting financial deregulation during this period. The work of these lawyers dovetailed with the lawyers and economists who developed the field of ‘law and economics,’ which, in a powerful alliance with the economists I mentioned earlier, provided a theoretical legal-economic basis for deregulation and a less interventionist state….” Opposing this conspiratorial Bankers’ Club is a talented, creative army of good guys, whom Epstein calls the “Club Busters.” High on Epstein’s list for accolades are the nonprofit watchdogs, Better Markets, Americans for Financial Reform, and the public banking advocacy groups across the country. While these groups deserve the accolades, along with the other groups and individuals mentioned by Epstein, there are two critical impediments preventing the Club Busters (including Wall Street On Parade) from achieving a serious victory in rolling back the power of the Bankers’ Club and genuinely reforming Wall Street. Those critical impediments are the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933) allowed Wall Street’s trading houses to control the trillions of dollars of life savings of mom and pop depositors. The repeal meant that global trading behemoths like JPMorgan were allowed to merge with federally-insured banks, back-stopped and thus subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer. Today, JPMorgan owns more than 5,000 Chase Bank branches spread from coast to coast across America, accepting federally-insured deposits from average Americans, who have no idea that their money is being used to corrupt foreign officials; rig markets; and prop up Ponzi schemes. To be more precise, the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act is allowing Wall Street casinos to corrupt everything that Americans hold dear while using Americans’ own life savings to do it. The underfunded nonprofit watchdogs that make up the Club Busters’ simply can’t compete against this vast arsenal of weaponized deposits. Likewise, the Supreme Court’s Citizens’ United decision, and its progeny, opened the floodgates to corporate money’s ability to control U.S. elections. The U.S. is no longer a representative government of the people; it is, to an unprecedented degree, representative of corporate interests, the source of the money required to get into high public office. Until Americans understand clearly that Glass-Steagall must be restored and Citizens United must be overturned, we’re all just pesky little bull dogs nipping at the heels of the bankster class.

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New York Life Strikes Deal To End Workers' 401(k) Suit
by Gunnar Larson 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

New York Life Strikes Deal To End Workers' 401(k) Suit <https://www.law360.com/insurance/articles/1788633?nl_pk=59612751-8689-4b1e-…> By Kellie Mejdrich New York Life Insurance Co. and thousands of current and former insurance company workers told a New York federal court Monday that they had struck a deal to settle a case alleging mismanagement of the employees' 401(k) retirement plan. Letter attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/insurance/articles/1788633?nl_pk=59612751-8689-4b1e-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/insurance/articles/1788633?nl_pk=59612751-8689-4b1e-…>

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PayPal Says Merchant Rules Level Playing Field In Exit Bid
by Gunnar Larson 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

I think Kiva.org uses PayPal as a processing method. ---- PayPal Says Merchant Rules Level Playing Field In Exit Bid <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1788449?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Henrik Nilsson PayPal urged a California federal judge on Friday to toss a proposed class action alleging the financial tech giant illegally boosts online retail prices by enforcing restrictive merchant agreements, saying PayPal's practices enable it to compete on an equal footing with other payment options. Memorandum attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1788449?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1788449?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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Long running APster contract on Bill Gates ( my 2k sats )
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

Whiney little bitches and antivax fruitloops prefer nagging him to death. So? https://stiffs.com/celebrity/billgates Timewasting, gasbag Grarpamps go fuck yourself. Take your epoch times garbage with you. SCRAM!

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A New Bio of Zelenskiy Shows a Performer at His Best—and Worst
by Gunnar Larson 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

Gunnar is a grower.... --- A New Bio of Zelenskiy Shows a Performer at His Best—and Worst https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-22/zelenskiy-book-shows-ukr… As The Showman opens, Volodymyr Zelenskiy is still a celebrity comedian and upstart presidential candidate. “On the night we first met, backstage at his show in spring 2019, Zelenskiy looked more scared than I would see him for a while,” writes author and Time correspondent Simon Shuster.

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Jan6: The American Gulag
by grarpamp 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

Political persecutions, witch trials, gulags, false flags, agents provocateur, false witness, lives destroyed taken as prize for nothing but grotesque political maneuvers, and more. One of many sites now helping document the absurdity, the bias in entities, the imbalanced cruel and unfree nature of democracy. https://americangulag.org/ Number of people arrested: 631 Number of people charged with insurrection: 0 61-Year-Old Jan. 6 Defendant and Veteran Who Begged Police For Help During Capitol Riot Dies Awaiting Trial on Trumped-Up Charges Anderson’s attorney, high-profile defense lawyer Marina Medvin, confirmed his death to WUSA9, saying in an email that the deceased was a “good-hearted man.” Oklahoma Man Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor for Taking Nancy Pelosi’s Beer on January 6 — Will Serve 6 Months in Federal Prison for the Crime Prosecutors will drop three related misdemeanor charges in exchange for his plea. IT WAS A SETUP! FBI Admits Jan. 6 Was Deep State Operation – They Were Running At Least One Operative in the Crowd at the US Capitol (VIDEO) We all already knew this was happening as The Gateway Pundit reported back in June. G.W. Bush Appointed Judge Says Individual Who Took Selfie in Capitol on January 6 Should Be Locked Up “You’ve disgraced this country in the eyes of the world and my inclination would be to lock you up.” Must Watch: Tucker Carlson Raises Questions About Jan 6th Security Footage Showing Black-Clad Operatives Leading the Charge into The Capitol Building; “How Many Federal Agents Were Involved?” – (Video) In the video, a group of Black-clad operatives can be seen breaking into the building, only to disappear seconds later as the crowd rushes in behind them. Letter from Prisoner in Solitary Confinement! DC Gitmo Violating International Codes on Torture! Mellis has been detained without bond since his arrest in February. BREAKING: House Committee Investigating Jan. 6 Issue Subpoenas for Steve Bannon, Dan Scavino, Kash Patel and Mark Meadows on Night Before AZ Audit Results Here we go. The House Committee investigating the protests on Jan. 6 issued subpoenas for Steve Bannon, Dan Scavino, Kash… Read more » ‘Justice For J6’ Rally Organizer: Ashli Babbitt And The Political Prisoners Deserve Justice And We Are Going To Get It For Them As legitimate terror threats fester overseas, hundreds of patriots who are deemed domestic terrorists and insurrectionists by the Biden administration… Read more » Was Rosanne Boyland Beaten By Female Officer Before She Died on January 6th? (Video) Rosanne was killed on January 6th when she was beaten, pepper-sprayed and trampled on the US Capitol Steps. Greg Kelly Suggests Trigger-Happy Killer Lt. Mike Byrd May Work This Weekend at DC “Justice for J6” Protest (VIDEO) In July, The Gateway Pundit confirmed that Lt. Mike Byrd was Ashli Babbit’s shooter. Lt. Byrd killed Ashli Babbitt in… Read more » Three California Recall Ballots Sent to Address of Deceased American Veteran and Patriot Ashli Babbitt, Who Was Shot and Killed at Capitol on Jan 6 Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed at the Capitol on January 6th. This past week multiple ballots were sent to… Read more » Capitol Fence Going Back Up Ahead of Rally in Support of January 6 Political Prisoners on September 18: Capitol Police Chief (VIDEO) The fence at the Capitol will be returning. The elites hate the American people and will continue to impose their… Read more » “Children of the Same Foul Spirit” – George Bush Compares January 6 “Domestic Extremists” to Islamic Terrorists in 9/11 Speech (VIDEO) Former President George W. Bush delivered remarks on Saturday on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack. Bush was… Read more » EXCLUSIVE: Lawyer for January 6 Clients Released From Hospital, Says Reports That He Was ‘Missing’ Are False John Pierce of Pierce Bainbridge, the law firm representing seventeen January 6 protesters has finally recovered after an 12 day… Read more » Registered Democrat Caught Storming US Capitol, Attacking Police Pleads with Court for Light Sentence Because He Is Not Trump Supporter Robert Maurice Reeder was arrested after he was caught inside the US Capitol on January 6th. Robert Maurice Reeder is… Read more » EXCLUSIVE: ROGER STONE Hits Back Against Left-Wing Lawfare Using the Courts Against Him and His Ailing Wife Guest post by Roger Stone The far-left continues its assault on Roger Stone with a new suit against him and… Read more » “Q Shaman” Pleads Guilty to One Felony Charge “Obstruction of Official Hearing” in Connection with Jan. 6 in Deal with Feds – Faces Up to 4.5 Years in Prison (Minus Time Served) Jacob Chansley, AKA, the “Q Shaman” pleaded guilty to one felony charge on Friday in connection with the January 6… Read more » Another FBI Manufactured and Funded Operation in the Works? Fake News Media Warns “Extremists” May Attend Sept 18 Rally in DC (VIDEO) In October 2020, the FBI announced during a press conference that it thwarted a plot by a so-called “right-wing militia”… Read more » MUST READ: Iowa Man Charged in Capitol “Insurrection” Is Sent Back To Jail For Watching Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium Hundreds of people were arrested for entering the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Inside the Capitol, several Republican lawmakers… Read more » Pelosi’s GOP Spy: RINO Liz Cheney Chosen as Vice Chair for Pelosi’s Sham Jan. 6th Commission On Thursday, RINO sellout Liz Cheney was appointed to leadership within the sham Jan. 6th select committee. The unhinged congresswoman… Read more » International Day of the Disappeared: Gateway Pundit Announces Upcoming Launch of Jan. 6th Prisoner Information Website – AmericanGULAG.org By Jim Hoft Monday marked the annual International Day of the Disappeared, observed by human rights advocates and families of… Read more » The New Witch Hunt: Dem Jan 6 Committee Demands Data From 15 Social Media Companies The witch hunt against President Donald Trump and his supporters continues. The Democrats’ Jan 6th committee is now demanding that… Read more » Official Complaint Filed with UN Human Rights Committee Over Mistreatment of Jan. 6 Prisoners An America First community organizing group called Look Forward America and Citizens Against Political Persecution (CAPP), gathered outside the United… Read more » WATCH: Ashli Babbitt’s Husband Appears on Tucker Carlson to Respond to MSNBC Interview With Her Killer Ashli Babbitt’s husband Aaron appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Thursday and responded to the MSNBC interview with his wife’s… Read more »

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Microsoft Windows and Bill Gates still suck Donkey Dick
by grarpamp 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

Attention: Bill Gates... Go Fuck Yourself !!! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30019307 Long-time Microsoft employees explain changes in Windows: Designers were handed full control over UX. Engineers who fought for usability over a slick-looking interface burned out and left after repeatedly being overruled. Microsoft has been reduced to little more than an online cloud-based SpyVeillance platform.

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Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin Miners Blocking Transactions
by grarpamp 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

If you're not using privacy coins, your transactions will be canceled. https://miningpool.observer/ https://github.com/0xB10C/ofac-sanctioned-digital-currency-addresses https://b10c.me/observations/08-missing-sanctioned-transactions @0xB10C My project, miningpool-observer, aims to detect when Bitcoin mining pools are not mining transactions they could have been mining. Over the past few weeks, it detected six missing transactions spending from OFAC-sanctioned addresses. This post examines whether these transactions were intentionally filtered because they spent from OFAC-sanctioned addresses or if there are other possible explanations for these transactions to be missing from blocks. I conclude that four out of six transactions were likely filtered. In September and October 2023, the RSS feed of my miningpool-observer instance reported six blocks missing an OFAC-sanctioned transaction. One block was mined by the ViaBTC mining pool, another by the Foundry USA pool, and four by F2Pool. An OFAC-sanctioned transaction is a transaction spending from or paying to an address sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. I maintain a tool to extract a list of OFAC-sanctioned addresses from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list published by the OFAC. [–]garloid64 63 points64 points65 points 17 hours ago (3 children) buh buh the byzantine incentive matrix should make this literally impossible! they're losing money by rejecting those transactions the free market does NOT allow it permalink embed save report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 25 points26 points27 points 17 hours ago* (2 children) They choose not to mess with governments and regulators . They can sacrifice that amount of money for their peace of mind... But how bitcoin looks like then ? permalink embed save parent report reply [–]SinibusUSG 24 points25 points26 points 15 hours ago (0 children) I'm sure the affected parties can lodge protests at the centralized Bitcoin agency. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]otherwisemilkPonzi Schemer 13 points14 points15 points 13 hours ago (0 children) They told me Bitcoin is immune to government control. What gives? permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Nuka-Crapola 48 points49 points50 points 17 hours ago (11 children) I am not knowledgeable enough to evaluate your claims for myself but I am choosing to believe you regardless because this is fucking hilarious. They can’t even do the one thing they said they could do. permalink embed save report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 38 points39 points40 points 17 hours ago (10 children) It's true. Of course Buttcoiners can claim that "it's manipulation ! They can censor transactions but there always be a miner who will accept restricted transaction ! " Well, it's not that simple. If all significant pools agree to ban transactions of certain type then individual miner will never be able to do that too - because to do that he must mine a block. Comparing hashrates of small miners to pools like ViaBTC or F2pool there is almost zero chance he will win the competition to mine a block. So we can assume if pool decide not to mess with governments and start banning restricted transactions then bitcoin becomes basically a fully censored network - in the similar way like banking system. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]paul__k 29 points30 points31 points 13 hours ago (0 children) This is one of the overlooked flaws of BTC and similar systems: there is no guarantee of service, and there is no way to enforce "neutrality" of the network. Miners are completely free to choose what transactions they will process. Theoretically, they could also form a cartel that blackmails whales by rejecting their transactions unless they pay a ransom first. If they don't, their coins would be virtually useless. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]leducdeguisefakeception intensifies 19 points20 points21 points 16 hours ago (0 children) in the similar way like banking system Minus the positive side of it permalink embed save parent report reply [–]The_Motarp 12 points13 points14 points 11 hours ago (1 child) Even better, the government can threaten to punish miners not just for mining blocks that contain forbidden transactions, but also for building on blocks that contain those transactions. As long as a majority of miners are within reach of the government, any block that contains forbidden transactions can always be superseded by a longer chain that doesn't contain that block, guaranteeing that any miners who don't follow the rules will never get block rewards and will be unable to pay for electricity. As soon as you have an external authority enforcing rules all the fancy game theory about decentralized and uncensorable falls apart. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]ApprehensiveSorbet76 4 points5 points6 points 9 hours ago (0 children) Wait until they punish miners for processing blocks where the miner does not have full KYC details for all sending and receiving addresses. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Fearlessthrowaway42 4 points5 points6 points 10 hours ago (2 children) What do you say Bitcoin is actually centralized no way but butters said Bitcoin is decentralized. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 3 points4 points5 points 10 hours ago (1 child) It depends how you define decentralization. It's not under control of one party but it's definitely under control. My theory why this whole business isn't illegal is because many govt. agencies find it useful for it's own purposes and to track people and operations they are interested in. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Fearlessthrowaway42 1 point2 points3 points 10 hours ago (0 children) It's a decentralized scam. I would say Bitcoin is now so big that no government wants to make a black swan event since it would piss off a lot of people. They are butters but butters can still vote. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]marvn23 1 point2 points3 points 11 hours ago (2 children) Do you know if there is a system that is tracking how many blocks were mined by non-pool miners? I wonder if anyone is still trying to mine solo as it's so improbable to actually "strike gold". According to this https://coincodex.com/article/31820/how-long-does-it-take-to-mine-1-bitcoin/, you would need to invest 55M USD to buy 22k antminers to solo mine a single block every day. Also these miners would consume a shy of 72MW of electricity, so it wouldn't be cheap to keep them running. But with enough money and severe lack of judgment, you can still pay your way around of such censorship. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 3 points4 points5 points 11 hours ago (1 child) You can check https://miningpoolstats.stream/bitcoin You can see there which pools mined blocks. It's also visible that 0.1 % of mined blocks founder is defined as UNKNOWN and you can also see two or three addresses there that also have a very small share in blocks finding. This is the percentage share of block mined by something that isn't a known pool (could be solo miners or small private pools). So yes , sometimes you can see a block mined by someone else than one of major pools. Still they must have significant amount of hashpower - this isn't definitely mined on one ASIC maschine in someones garage... permalink embed save parent report reply [–]ApprehensiveSorbet76 2 points3 points4 points 9 hours ago (0 children) If other miners ignore that block and continue to mine off of the previous one, the underdog miner who finally won one will find his block orphaned and his reward will be zero. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]AmericanScream 9 points10 points11 points 15 hours ago* (6 children) Can you tell us more about those transactions? Are the wallet owners identified? How did their fee rate compare with the standard free rate of included transactions? How much were the transactions and where were they going? (Reading some of this blockchain data doesn't always seem intuitive) >From what I see, these transactions also seem to be of trivial amounts, so perhaps they're just test transactions? permalink embed save report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 14 points15 points16 points 14 hours ago (5 children) Yes, the wallet owners are identified. The list is updated constantly. For example address 3PKiHs4GY4rFg8dpppNVPXGPqMX6K2cBML is identified as : WANG, Hongfei (Chinese Simplified: 王洪飞), China; DOB 02 Dec 1991; POB Hebei, China; nationality China; Email Address shuokangw(a)163.com; Gender Male; Digital Currency Address - XBT 3PKiHs4GY4rFg8dpppNVPXGPqMX6K2cBML; Phone Number 8615927270571; alt. Phone Number 8613313017588; alt. Phone Number 8615030111720; National ID No. 13053119911202021X (China) (individual) [ILLICIT-DRUGS-EO14059] (Linked To: WUHAN SHUOKANG BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD; Linked To: YAO, Huatao). permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Stenbuckp***s 23 points24 points25 points 14 hours ago (4 children) Permissionless - oops need permission from the miners Uncensorable - lol guess not Anonymous - rofl the thing is publicly associated with his DOB, email, name, phone number, company and crime. Fast - no Low fees - LOL Decentralized - not in this life Secure - lmao permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 16 points17 points18 points 14 hours ago (3 children) 3PKiHs4GY4rFg8dpppNVPXGPqMX6K2cBML The best thing is : when you buy bitcoins you can receive coins that are connect with restricted addresses in the past and that could result in some serious effects for you. You could be investigated as someone who is involved in "illegal things" ... permalink embed save parent report reply [–]jimicus 7 points8 points9 points 10 hours ago (2 children) Don't even need to do that. You could receive coins that have been through a laundry. At which point you have zero evidence where the money comes from, and any reputable bank will run a mile in the opposite direction because you'll fail anti money-laundering checks. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 2 points3 points4 points 8 hours ago (1 child) It's a bit different but i get your point... Banks doesn't deal with bitcoins they deal only with fiat currencies. It's the crypto exchange that can block your bitcoins cause they will have perfect excuse to steal it - sorry mate , our security systems detected that your bitcoins was processed through mixer and were involved in illegal activity - we will confiscate it till you provide us proof everything is ok (which is obviously impossible so we can keep your bitcoin forever or sold it to another stupid customer) permalink embed save parent report reply [–]jimicus 2 points3 points4 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Which will doubtless lead to cries of "Won't someone regulate the exchanges!" permalink embed save parent report reply [–]inputwtf 7 points8 points9 points 14 hours ago (0 children) You gotta share this with the Crypto Critics Corner podcast permalink embed save report reply [–]ApprehensiveSorbet76 6 points7 points8 points 9 hours ago (0 children) The miners who believe a 20 dollar fee is more valuable to them than avoiding a DOJ raid and corresponding prison sentence sure do have their priorities straight. permalink embed save report reply [–]eigenman 2 points3 points4 points 12 hours ago (0 children) Interesting project. I'll check out your site. permalink embed save report reply [–]CommitteeSalt8099 2 points3 points4 points 11 hours ago (0 children) Doing the lords work! permalink embed save report reply [+]PanneKoppPonzi Schemer 6 points7 points8 points 16 hours ago (0 children) good job permalink embed save report reply [–]ApprehensiveSorbet76 1 point2 points3 points 9 hours ago (2 children) Are these transactions censored indefinitely or did some miner somewhere eventually process them? permalink embed save report reply [–]Plastic-Pressure-207[S] 1 point2 points3 points 8 hours ago (1 child) I guess as long as they will be in the mempool there is chance that it will processed. It just must wait till the block will be mined by miner that does not censor the transactions. That can take long time. In theory if every miner decide to censor then this transaction will never be processed. permalink embed save parent report reply [–]ApprehensiveSorbet76 0 points1 point2 points 7 hours ago (0 children) Whoever decides to process it becomes an instant target of US authorities, and if authorities know the token transfer is used to finance military conflict against the US then it tends to become a very serious crime. But hey, there is a 5 dollar fee as an incentive. lol permalink embed save parent report reply

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