@TheDesertLynx

@TheDesertLynx 15 July 2020

Why Are Some White People Anti-White? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX2NTj-Ptuc It has become fashionable to criticize white people in certain segments of modern society, and some of the most aggressive of such critics are, in fact, white people. But are they really self-hating, or is there a subconscious agenda to gain the upper hand against different white people? Donate! Please leave a tip if you enjoy the content, either here in LBRY or via any of the cryptocurrency addresses in my CoinTree link. You can also send a message with a CoinTree donation. I'd love to hear from you! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx Thanks to my recurring donors Kingsley Edwards and Colin! Join LBRY! If you're new to LBRY, what are you waiting for? Join! https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@TheDesertLynx:e

@TheDesertLynx 10 July 2020

The Next Killer Crypto App: Decentralized Monetized Organizing At the start of 2015, inspired by the Bitcoin revolution, I started an activism project called the Rights Brigade where I organized various pro-freedom activities across the state of New Hampshire, compensated by Bitcoin donations. Our highlight was informing jurors of their right to nullify bad laws, to the tune of many thousands informed at 10 of the 11 courthouses in the state, some days with five simultaneous operations around the state involving dozens of activists. I ran into some organizational headaches, most notably in the difficulty of sending payments to long ugly cryptographic hashes and the lack of decentralized recurring payments. When I heard Dash was working on exactly these things, I put the activism on hold and went on to work full-time towards the advancement of these crypto technologies. Now, in 2020, we're much closer to solving these organizing pain points, but we're still not quite there. Seeing what one guy alone could do five years ago with almost no budget and some really inferior tools at his disposal, I can easily see just how powerful for the world a streamlined, all-in-one, monetized, decentralized organizing app would be. To say that it could change the world would be a massive understatement. Here's what we need, what the perfect solution would look like, and where we stand now. What's "Organizing"?   What I mean by "organizing" is, essentially, collaborating, communicating, sharing resources, and executing plans of action. Basically, any situation where a bunch of people are trying to get stuff done on a voluntary and collaborative basis (i.e. they aren't on the payroll of a company or other entity that can simply tell them what to do). Here's a few of the key tools needed to make this sort of thing happen. CRM   Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is an important part of organizing as it lets you not just keep a list of potential activists, but record important details including their unique areas of interest, when the last time was that you contacted them, what their response was, and so on. Really, the only way to successfully engage many people for activism is through personal touch, and the only way to replicate this level of familiarity over a large group of people is by keeping accurate notes. CRM does this. Segmented groups   A good organizing platform will have the ability to segment into multiple smaller groups depending on the specific interest area. This lets activists and organizers focus on dedicated workgroups as part of a greater movement without running into information overload. Events/tasks   The ability to create events (which can function as literal gatherings or simply as specific tasks with an end date and defined participants) can further segment activities by participant group, this time for temporary and highly-specific purposes. Embedded communications   Finally, any good organizing platform should have direct communications embedded in the platform itself. This prevents segmenting into separate platforms to communicate directly, and allowing an easy move into and out of private and public messages keeps the whole operation running smoothly. Why Does It Need to Be Decentralized and Monetized?   Now those elements described above can be provided by any regular old app or company. Why does it have to be decentralized, and why does it have to have integrated financial transactions? Platforms like Facebook have shut down groups   First, activism, by its very nature, seeks to usher in change. This means that much of it can be very controversial to the powers that be, whoever they may be at the present time, and that means that crucial organizing platforms can run the risk of getting shut down. We've already seen Facebook do this with "boogaloo" meme-filled pro-gun groups, and it's easy to imagine this happen to others. We need something that's resistant to censorship. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-remove-anti-government-boogaloo-groups-n1232579 Funding is able to be shut down or is too difficult to disperse quickly   Second, controversial groups have always been targeted for demonetization. Using decentralized payment networks such as cryptocurrencies are naturally a great way to prevent against this, but let's not forget about the other silent financial censor: friction. The more of a pain it is to move money around, the less likely it will happen. In the interest of facilitating the running of functioning projects that make use of a wide spate of non-professional (i.e. not on a payroll) activists, monetary incentives and reimbursements have to be at the fingertips, every bit as much as every other aspect of organizing. Otherwise, you can have a well-oiled activism machine where lead organizers spend a lot of their valuable time and energy chasing around a hodgepodge of micropayments across a wide array of channels. Trust me, I've been there. The Ideal   Now I'm going to describe what the perfect system would look like for organizing activism. Some of this you can probably guess from what I've said previously, but some of it is very specific to pain points in running a movement that's as decentralized as possible, and trying to keep the ability to both benefit spontaneous action and top-down organizing. If you're a developer or an investor, pay attention to the following, because there will be serious value in creating a product such as this. Fully-decentralized, autonomous, customizable blockchain-based platform   The ideal system would be fully-decentralized, with no central group able to fail and take the whole rest of the system down with it. A blockchain-based network makes sense for this because of the decentralized architecture, and the fact that most of these systems have built-in incentive systems behind running the system, in contrast with other decentralized systems which may rely on the goodwill of people running it for free, or nonprofits (which then pose a centralization threat). It also should have the ability to be customized to fit the specific activism project's needs, as some may run on a more professional structure and others will be more of a "wild west" setup. A successful system will be able to cater to multiple needs. Unified identity system   One of the major pain points in decentralized organizing is the need to interact across multiple identities for the same person. They have one account on social media where a lot of the reporting happens, have a separate private messaging platform, also may need to be added to an internal workgroup on a third platform, and finally have completely separate payment information. An integrated organizing platform must have all of the above under one platform: the public-facing social media contact is the same one added to the private workgroup, who you can message privately and send money directly. All under one human-readable username. Public social "consumer" and private "producer" sides   To some organizers this may seem a little superfluous, but I strongly believe that there needs to be a social aspect to a successful grassroots activism project. In addition to private groups where activists communicate, plan, execute, and receive tips, there needs to be a public side where outside observers can see what's going on, get excited, provide feedback, help fund operations, and possibly decide to join as active participants themselves. Without both levels of participation available on the same platform, either the existing pool of activists will become more insular and closed-off in private groups (and possibly lose focus and momentum), or a great deal of organizing will start happening on other social media channels where exposure to the general population occurs. Serving both roles on the same platform guarantees that the most participation from the highest number of relevant people takes place. Of course, in the most perfect of worlds, this system would be built as part of a widely-used social media platform, so that people living their daily lives can nonetheless be exposed to an activism project and be able to easily join from any level, from keen observer to donor to active participant, without joining a new platform. Automated and customizable payment-splitting options   As fantastic and exciting as it is to run a decentralized system with no central funding source and leveraging spontaneous tips, one does tend to run into issues of either centralized funding chokepoints or lopsided compensation. If a project is centrally-run, all donations run through the chief organizers, which then have to be trusted to fairly compensate activists, and you can run into a situation where a founder who started a killer idea or brand soaks up all the resources while the tireless activists who do the actual work get little for their effort. Alternatively, an organizer can put countless hours of their time into research, community building, logistics, organizing, and more, and the star activist shows up on a path carefully curated for them and receives all the attention and donations. Both situations show potential for abuse, but even more likely they promise to restrain enthusiasm, the natural resource upon which activist operations thrive. The financial compensation, rather than an avenue for making a living, is a spark to light the fire of enthusiasm, a Pavlovian response generator that rewards good actions and in so doing creates more of them. If the incentives don't follow the actions, the actions slow or cease. An ideal system would add the ability to automatically split payments among participants in a customizable way. A few possible setups include a centrally-run group where activists on the roster automatically receive a portion of all donations to the cause; event or task-specific organizing where members of a successful operation split the donations generated; individual activists directly receiving all tips generated, with a percentage automatically going to the organizing group that lined up the opportunity and resources necessary to take effective action; or a combination of any one of these. A well-designed system with effective payment-splitting options can empower activists and organizers to simply get to work and not have to worry so much about whether everyone is getting treated fairly. Integrated and smooth crypto and fiat on-ramps   Finally, however the monetization of such a system is designed, it must include ways for people with fiat currency, or a different kind of cryptocurrency, to easily onboard. This can't be a throwaway "Here's how to buy" PSA, but has to be seamlessly integrated into every part of the platform possible. "Ugly Hacks" Today   During my time running the Rights Brigade I did what I could with the limited tools and expertise at my disposal. I used Facebook extensively for organizing, communicating with activists, and posting reports on achievements. I used a really clunky CRM called Bitrix24 to manage tasks and activists, a terrible Wordpress website to publicly post achievements (which were then shared to Facebook), and a hodgepodge of Blockchain.info Bitcoin wallets and QR code images to receive and distribute donations to the various activists. It was ugly, it was clunky, it was all pretty centralized around me and used mostly censorship-prone services, but I got stuff done regardless. Things have since changed, with a few key tools evolving, but it still remains very "bootstrappy" for activists today. Here's a few ideas on how to achieve similar results to a dream solution via ugly hack, much as I did back in the day. LBRY for publishing and monetization   Right now, the LBRY decentralized content platform takes care of quite a few problems from back in my day. First, it lets you create a channel for all different types on content (pictures, articles, videos, etc.) and host them in a decentralized fashion where they can't be taken down, and cost virtually nothing to host. Second, all this can be viewed by the general public by subscribing to content channels. Third, and most importantly, LBRY lets users tip for valued content, and not only do these tips constitute funding, but they boost the visibility of the content. This one service takes care of monetization, content hosting, and some elements of content sharing, all in an integrated and censorship-resistant way. Discord or alternative for organizing (and some payments), Hubspot for CRM   Now we get back to the ugly side of things. A Discord server can be made to handle organizing and messaging, and some private channels can be created to resemble CRM. Most notably, via the various crypto bots that Discord has available, you can actually tip out to specific activists in real time. You can also use a service like Hubspot to take on a more powerful CRM role, but that means that you now have to wrangle three services, not two. Flote: Promising contender or letdown?   There has been one promising contender that has potential to work for this sort of thing: Flote. Right now, Flote is basically a Twitter-like social network with encrypted messaging, Bitcoin payments, live streaming, and, most importantly, recurring Bitcoin donation packages. That takes care of some of the social posting, as well as communications and payments. But what's promised to be coming soon is what really makes this interesting. First, Flote plans to add groups (similar to Facebook), except these could be monetized (whether it be through ads or subscriptions), and has mentioned the future ability to run localized instances to improve censorship resistance. This could essentially make Flote a one-stop shop for organizing activism: create segmented groups for general fans, supporters (paid membership group), and activists, allow sponsorship for both activism groups and individual activists, organize all activism, and message and pay individuals, all on the same censorship-resistant platform. The catch is that Flote's development has been pretty slow, even to add more than one cryptocurrency, which hasn't happened despite the high Bitcoin fees wrecking the whole crypto Patreon model of small subscription payments, and the platform still has quite a few bugs. The whole idea of using Flote as the perfect platform revolves around several important future developments, which may or may not happen. Hence, I'm not necessarily holding out for this one. The world desperately needs the perfect organizing platform. Who will be the first to deliver? Donate! Please leave a tip if you enjoy the content, either here in LBRY or via any of the cryptocurrency addresses in my CoinTree link. You can also send a message with a CoinTree donation. I'd love to hear from you! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx Thanks to my recurring donors Kingsley Edwards and Colin! Join LBRY! If you're new to LBRY, what are you waiting for? Join! https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c

@TheDesertLynx 1 June 2020

Live Free and Rant 12: Going Rogan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOirEctnrts We rant about censorship and big players turning to other networks that let them speak freely, foremost among them being Joe Rogan, the biggest podcaster on the planet, leaving YouTube and going to Spotify over the former's censorship issues. We cover the ever-shrinking subset of viewpoints allowable by the mainstream media and dominating platforms, and the rapid exodus to alternative platforms. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated, either here or via Patreon! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! Audio-only versions are available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. https://www.patreon.com/livefreeandrant https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://anchor.fm/livefreeandrant/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXdXhZ7ov1St2n1vg7fT1 https://www.breaker.audio/live-free-and-rant https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMDYwNDUxOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D https://pca.st/gtf37m3m https://radiopublic.com/live-free-and-rant-GyMrOp Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak!

@TheDesertLynx 30 May 2020

Why Dash Won the Bitrefill Transaction Speed Race and What That Means A company that allows users to use cryptocurrency to top up prepaid phones and buy gift codes to almost any business imaginable, Bitrefill held a contest to highlight the fastest ways users were able to use the system to pay their phone bill. A Dash user won first place, beating out a Lightning network user, paying the phone bill in a record 24 seconds flat. https://twitter.com/bitrefill/status/1263125649792917506 https://twitter.com/bitrefill/status/1266410497710137347 Now I should point out that, to begin with, this wasn't a purely apples-to-apples comparison as Lightning requires you to send funds to a payment channel ahead of time, and most Bitcoin wallets aren't Lightning wallets. This means it isn't an experience typical for a Bitcoin user, and required some setup time beforehand. The summary of this experiment is that, compared to all other options, even those requiring a bit of setup beforehand, Dash provided the fastest payment experience among cryptocurrencies. We can learn a lot from this. How Did Dash Come Out on Top? Having an intentional mechanism to make "zero-conf" transactions reliable   If you aren't very familiar with the inner workings of Dash, it has this special mechanism called InstantSend that basically locks transactions into place as soon as they're sent and keeps them from being reversed until they're confirmed in a block and permanently written to the blockchain. To the average crypto user, this means that you don't have to wait until you get a confirmation. To the average normie, this means that Dash just works, right away, with no major caveats. Services like Bitrefill will accept Dash payments right away, while for virtually every other coin they will make you wait. Not watering down security for an illusion of speed   Now, I'm sure just about every coin under the sun will have some kind of speed-based "look how fast this is!" hype. It's mostly nonsense. Typically such claims either rely on an extremely fast block time, some new and unproven (or shoddy) security model, or just completely ignoring security. Remember that just about every cryptocurrency on the planet will "show up" almost instantly after being sent. The key element is speed to security, or how fast can you be reasonably sure that your payment is permanent. If you have a seconds-apart block time, sure your transaction is "confirmed" in a few seconds, but it likely won't be trusted by a recipient until you have dozens of confirmations at least, because the risk of the transaction being rolled back by an attacker is still present. Same thing goes for trusting zero-confirmation transactions: the security model is essentially taking a risk. By creating extra mechanisms to make transactions secure instantly, Dash didn't take the shortcut for a cheap hit of hype, and instead made something that actually works. Why Did It Take This Long to Come to This Conclusion? No one really uses crypto for anything other than trading   I have no bank account and live entirely off of cryptocurrency. But I'm an engangered species. Most people, even if they've heard of crypto, don't use it, and most of those who own some have probably never used any in a retail transaction even once. Before paying attention to which payments system is the fastest, you have to actually use them all to begin with. The few real-world merchants out there just roll the dice on double-spends   A lot of in-person commerce with crypto tends to be between friends or fellow enthusiasts. As such, the merchant in question is typically more than happy to take a gamble and take a payment as soon as it shows up. The likelihood that someone is going to try to steal from them using crypto, and isn't just a fellow excited nerd, is very small, and even if that were the case, the paltry number of crypto transactions in the first place makes the risk negligible. We haven't seen enough major point-of-sale thefts   For the most part, no one has capitalized on the major threat of double-spends for retail commerce. There have been a few cases of ATM thefts involving double-spends and the occasional publicity stunt by a cryptocurrency community seeking to discredit a competing project, but for the most part no one has been clever and malicious enough to exploit this huge point-of-sale vulnerability. Once the word gets out in the underworld that you can make money this easily by simply buying something and later sending that money back to yourself, then you can bet point-of-sale systems and merchants will be requiring confirmations, or something instantly secure like Dash. https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2019/03/145354-canadian-police-seek-four-suspects-accused-of-double-spend-attacks-on-bitcoin-atms/ Dash didn't really work as advertised until relatively recently   Let's be perfectly fair here: Dash didn't have any meaningful competitive advantage in terms of payments for most of its existence. Despite being billed as a fast and payments-friendly alternative to Bitcoin, InstantSend was opt-in, cost an extra fee, was only supported by an extremely small subset of wallets, and didn't allow transactions to be instantly re-spent. Now that's all changed. For the past year or so, every single Dash transaction is instantly-confirmed and instantly-respendable, no matter which wallet is used, and for no extra fee. Users and companies may very well have looked past Dash as another Bitcoin clone for years, and not been entirely wrong to do so. Now that it's different, some may take a second look. What Will Happen When Crypto Adoption Surges? Almost all major coins will break   In late 2017, Coinbase was overflowing with new users buying Bitcoin. When they tried to move it and were unable, they tried to flock to Ethereum, which also didn't work because of Crypto Kitties and other related traffic, causing them to next fall on Litecoin, whose transactions (and fees) spiked dramatically. None could handle this surge in usage. The next time around there will be some top contenders such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV as well, and while both can certainly handle high volumes of transactions, there will nonetheless be delays as users won't necessarily be able to get their transactions in right away (particularly in the case of SV since a lot of its transaction volume is already taken up with bot and app-related functions). Either way, most of what are considered top projects today are nowhere near ready for a mass influx of users, and such an event will significantly thin out the herd. Users may or may not find a good alternative before giving up   Now of course, in this scenario we hope that all the non-functional projects fall by the wayside, and the good ones rise to the top. That's to be expected if there remains a consistent demand for a use case that only the cryptoverse can satisfy. However, to be frank, I can easily see a situation where masses flock to cryptocurrency, get burned on their first and possibly second experience, and simply don't try again for a long time. If we're talking a Bitcoin and Dash world, it's easy to see what would happen in a mass adoption scenario. But there are so many different coins in between that Dash could still get completely passed by in the event of a spike in users and interest in the space, either from trying and giving up, or from settling on a passable but inferior experience from a competitor like Litecoin. Functional tech like Dash, if discovered, will absolutely skyrocket in use   A lot of systems of today are in desperate need of replacement. The old financial system of dinosaur money causes users to lose value over time, costs a lot in fees, is full of hangups and delays, and (most importantly) requires permission from some authority in order to use and is completely useless once this permission is revoked. When something that absolutely doesn't work finally drives users to seek an alternative, and they stumble upon something infinitely better, the excitement and hype is a force to be reckoned with. We're starting to see the fringes of this with LBRY, where viewers are finding out they can see ALL content (not just what YouTube thinks is appropriate) and creators are finding out they can actually still make a living doing what they're doing. As a result, an often written-off project out of the top 500 by market capitalization came back with a boom, nearly cracking the top 100 already and clocking in several million monthly users (and rapidly growing). One more serious deplatforming of a YouTube star and a flood of users could make LBRY a top-10 project before you know it, and certainly a top 1-2 in terms of actual daily users. The same can potentially apply to Dash. If it gathers enough utility and acceptance at enough merchants, and if enough people actually try it out versus other competitors including fiat currency processors, combined with some mass financial censorship event, it could take off like nothing seen before. In the meantime, we have to just wait and see, and promote whatever excellent example of the future of money like the Bitrefill speed challenge that we can find. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 28 May 2020

The Race Is On For a Blockchain Twitter Alternative Trump signed an executive order in response to Twitter placing "fact-checking" labels on his tweets claiming that mail-in ballots would lead to voter fraud. However this may shake out in the short-term, you should be deeply concerned about the near future of social media. And yet, there is no decent decentralized Twitter alternative yet. This is a baffling oversight, but you can bet that there will soon be a race to develop the holy grail of decentralized social media. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/28/trump-targets-social-media-with-executive-order-after-twitter-fact-checks-him.html Censorship has been a rapidly escalating issue   The issue of censorship on social media has been heating up for quite some time now. Facebook now fact-checks even humorous memes and auto-bans certain words or phrases, even in private messages. Twitter bans users for "deadnaming" or referring to trans persons by their past names. YouTube demonetizes or removes content that provides an alternative to the World Health Organization's take on the recent pandemic. It goes on and on, with examples piling up at a frighteningly fast pace. https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/27/18113344/twitter-trans-user-hateful-content-misgendering-deadnaming-ban https://open.lbry.com/@lbry:3f/whothinks:8?r=Gd7GBo8adnW7dSEBDc2pPP8Ytw9Rw3L9 The introduction of state intervention makes this a much more urgent need   The looming threat of government involvement in social media rapidly accelerates the need to migrate to something decentralized. Private companies, even tech giants, care about losing customers. If the Twitter experience becomes unbearable with too much speech policing, users will go away, possibly to competitors. While this doesn't stop them from doing bad things, it slows the rate at which they do them, and limits just how bad they can get before they either reverse course or fall to a competitor. But if government gets involved, everything can change overnight, not just for the platform in question but for all. At that point it's no longer a waiting game until the free market balances out the offerings in the social media space, but a mad dash to create something that can't be shut down and get enough people on it in order to make it too big to fail. A decentralized blockchain alternative is needed, not another company   Of course, this is where plenty will be sure to chime in suggesting non-mainstream platforms as alternatives, claiming a commitment to free speech or other similar platitude. To be frank, we need an actually decentralized, blockchain-based alternative. Simple "new Facebook" type sites won't work, because they're vulnerable to the exact same issues which prompted having this discussion in the first place: censorship, either by the stewards of the platform themselves, or by outside coercion through government. It needs to continue to run if the main website/company/team is shut down, and all speech and content needs to be backed up somewhere it can't be taken down or altered. Why get people to uproot their way of living their lives to migrate over to essentially a ticking time bomb of a platform that will eventually fail them the same as the last one has? I already covered how Joe Rogan moving to Spotify may just delay the inevitable censorship problem. Do it right the first time. https://open.lbry.com/@DigitalCashNetwork:c/RoganSpotify:8?r=Gd7GBo8adnW7dSEBDc2pPP8Ytw9Rw3L9 Current decentralized Twitter alternatives, frankly, kind of suck   But, you may say, what about * **insert social media platform***? I'm sorry to say that most of them are nowhere near something I can recommend to an average user. Twetch (probably the strongest contender) has a long and nasty multi-stage sign-up process, is expensive to an average user doing regular daily posting, and has little engagement outside of BSV-related content (upon which the platform runs) and insider memes. Memo.Cash is barebones and still resembles a proof-of-concept stage. Flote looks promising but is not actively aiming for decentralization and still has quite a few rough edges. https://twitter.com/HelloDavidBond/status/1266067472517455872 And to be fair, this is pretty much the case across the whole blockchain space, but at least some key categories have strong competitors. Pure payments/money has all kinds of Bitcoin variants, and in Dash it has an efficient, scalable, and secure digital money, that hopefully should become very easy to use once blockchain usernames hit mainnet. Blogging/content has Hive and others. The star of the show so far is LBRY, which provides a slick and actually decentralized YouTube alternative that works for other content types including text (where you may very well be reading this article). But pure decentralized social media, now that is as of yet far from being fixed. Just like digital cash, this is a need that will make whoever fills it wildly successful   Why am I harping so much on something as silly as social media as a top priority? Quite simply put, it's probably the single largest and most important nexus of humans and technology. The percentage of our time spent interacting with content and other users on social media is staggering, and it's where most of us receive our news, entertainment, communication (both in semi-public and in private messages), and more. Every other application, whether it be articles, videos, website, etc. frequently gets shared and accessed through social media first. It's essentially the gateway by which most of us access the internet as a whole, and whoever manages to create a great social media experience that can't be censored will be quite handsomely rewarded. The digital cash use case is similar, and it's the entire reason why Bitcoin (and therefore the rest of the cryptospace) ever became more than a simple novelty. Pretty much none of us (except me) are using cryptocurrency for daily transactions, and most projects have moved past this key use case to newer, sexier, more flashy focuses. But the value proposition of money that no one can stop and everyone can use is so great that when it finally is solved, whoever built it will certainly prosper. Compare this with an area such as social media that's probably more in demand than any other (content/speech censorship affects far more "regular people" than financial censorship), and it's easy to see why it's baffling that no one is taking the development of alternative platforms seriously. https://open.lbry.com/@DigitalCashNetwork:c/digital-cash:f?r=Gd7GBo8adnW7dSEBDc2pPP8Ytw9Rw3L9 Control the people's everyday speech and communications, and you control the world. Free them from control in these areas, and you etch your name in the blockchain of history. Make a viable decentralized Twitter alternative, already! *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 25 May 2020

Who the Winners and Losers Will Be in the Censorship Wars The wars deciding control over global information flows are starting to heat up. Facebook has taken to "fact checking" information shared, even clearly comedic memes. YouTube disallows content that disagrees with the World Health Organization. Podcasting giant Joe Rogan signed an exclusivity deal with Spotify in an alleged move away from platforms like YouTube which prevent him from featuring certain guests representing controversial viewpoints. There's a great media shakeup coming on the horizon, and like any true shift or conflict, it will hurt many while benefiting others. These are a few of the biggest groups of winners and losers we can expect to see in the coming years. The Winners **1: Censorship-free content platforms**   Without a doubt, the biggest winners will be whichever platforms manage to serve the market most completely by providing a home for all the best content that consumers want. This includes, of course, controversial content which has been subjected to censorship elsewhere. Entrepreneurs who notice a crying need will attempt to capitalize on it by taking great risk and employing great ingenuity to solve this key problem. Those who are successful will be rewarded handsomely, and seeing the evergreen demand for free speech, you can bet that the permissive content platforms of tomorrow will create quite a bit of wealth. **2: Content creators successfully leveraging persecuted status**   Being targeted and silenced by the very platform you use to make a living is a terrible misfortune. Unless it isn't. An otherwise unremarkable (or simply undiscovered) voice can successfully leverage persecution in order to rise above the rest and grow their audience. Become a symbol of a great injustice and you can skyrocket in the rankings, especially if you lead the faithful on an exodus from the old platforms to a new promised land like some kind of digital Moses. **3: Non-controversial creators closely watching their edgy peers**   While the character mentioned above endures risk and hardship, not everyone standing to benefit from a shift to free speech platforms is necessarily in that same position. Some creators remain perfectly safe and in the good graces of their digital masters, but nonetheless closely watch what their riskier peers are doing, quietly joining alternative communities when they determine that's the way the wind is blowing. Sure, even some of the nicest, most wholesome voices may someday end up being silenced anyway, and thus be forced to exit their old content homes. But even those running absolutely no risk of being deplatformed can still see a shift in global audiences towards more permissive venues for speech, and add their quieter voices to the mix. The Losers **1: Censored platforms**   This one is pretty self-explanatory: the tech giants like YouTube and Facebook will lose market share. At first this is only in the key affected demographics, but eventually enough non-controversial creators will get caught up in the unforgiving net of censorship, and they and their followers will look elsewhere. By the time the platforms take notice that their heart and soul has left for greener pastures, it will be too late as other platforms will have become the new and "cool" places to frequent. Once that social shift has happened, it's all but impossible to reverse it, leaving old platforms to join the Google+ and MySpaces of the world. **2: Creators hanging on to mainstream platforms too long**   I see this all too often. Creators start to see the writing on the wall, but for whatever reason hold on to their old homes for far too long. Maybe they're naïve and believe that censorship storms will come and go. Maybe they're so invested and reliant in the old platforms that they don't want to divert any of their audience somewhere else for fear of falling behind. Whatever the reason, they fail to make the calculated decision to start investing in a better home for their work, and invariably get left behind on a metaphorical sinking boat. I've even seen creators who are actively being demonetized or censored continue to promote their channels on those same platforms, completely neglecting to promote their decentralized alternatives. At some point it may be too late to switch over and save their audiences. **3: Creators rage-quitting too early or to the wrong platform**   On the other hand, jumping ship too soon can also be a huge mistake. If a creator declares that they've had enough of the censorship and completely abandons the largest platform in favor for a new decentralized alternative, they risk losing almost all their audience if unsuccessful. They also get caught in the tough spot of either sticking with their decision and fading into obscurity in the process, or sheepishly returning to the old platform minus a sizable chunk of credibility. The timing, and the choice of alternative content platform, must be just right. **4: Platforms or creators who lose focus on making a great product**   Offering an alternative to censorship can buy an immense amount of goodwill. But it can't buy a pass for making a lousy product. The content giants of today got to where they are because of a relentless pursuit of a great experience for users. Any alternative worth its salt must at a minimum approach, if not equal or exceed, the experience for both creator and user of the service that it seeks to replace. Don't mistake the pro-free speech market signal for a sign that people actually like your product, or you could sink money into building something that no one wants to use unless they have no other option. You owe it to your philosophy to study how to win. Learn how to become a winner after the dust of the censorship wars has settled. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 18 May 2020

Live Free and Rant 10: Lesser Evil? https://youtu.be/VJxdEPgQMY4 The tenth installment of Live Free and Rant has a fed-up rant for the ages as Chris is on fire. As the lockdown of New Hampshire and most of the country continues, Chris starts to make the inevitable shift towards anarchist tendencies, rejecting the fallacy of the necessity of voting for the lesser of two evils, which ultimately advances evil. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated, either here or via Patreon! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! Audio-only versions are available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. https://www.patreon.com/livefreeandrant https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://anchor.fm/livefreeandrant/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXdXhZ7ov1St2n1vg7fT1 https://www.breaker.audio/live-free-and-rant https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMDYwNDUxOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D https://pca.st/gtf37m3m https://radiopublic.com/live-free-and-rant-GyMrOp Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak!

@TheDesertLynx 16 May 2020

Rodrigo Ambrissi on Losing His Crypto YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUWbcuGpAHk I had the great pleasure of interviewing Rodrigo Ambrissi of Dash Brazil, longtime and prominent crypto YouTuber, about the recent and abrupt deletion of his channel. We talked about the loss of years of hard work in an instant, and the rallying of the community around him to help recover it, including contacts directly within YouTube. We also talked about the concept of censorship and the tools, such as LBRY, to avoid losing years of hard work. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak!

@TheDesertLynx 14 May 2020

How to Live on Crypto: Buy Some Crypto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvRADkJ_zm4 Hi, welcome back to how to live on crypto! In the first part I showed you how to use a wallet, the basic mechanism for sending and receiving funds. Now I’ll show you how to actually get some crypto to spend. Now I’m separating this into two different sections: ID and no ID. Basically, the first category includes services like banks that are pretty streamlined and easy to use, but just like banks they require you to verify your financial identity. The second category does not. While the first probably has a faster and easier user experience, it still has the same restrictions and issues of the old financial system, the system we’re trying to avoid when we use crypto. But, if you already have a bank account, don’t feel bad about using a similar service if it’s easier for you. **How to Buy Online** Go to Dash.org, under “individuals” click on “buy online.” Select your currency, and then sign up for one of the supporting exchanges. Note that some of these may not be that easy to use for new users as they’re geared towards traders. I recommend you use Uphold as it’s easy and straightforward to use, supports a lot of different currencies, and is even integrated right into the Dash mobile wallet! This is the easiest way to buy Dash. To sign up for Uphold, go to the website, click “sign up,” and follow all the instructions to create, and verify, an account, and add a payment option. You can then buy Dash by creating a “Dash card” and choosing a payment method. In your mobile Dash wallet, go to “buy and sell Dash,” and link your Uphold account. The absolute easiest way to transfer your newly bought Dash out to your wallet is on mobile. Simply press “buy and sell Dash,” then “transfer from Uphold,” enter the amount, hit “transfer,” and it will show up in your wallet. If you’re doing all this on your computer it’s a slightly longer process. Go to your wallet and copy your receiving address (they way I showed you in the last video), go to your Uphold dashboard, click on your “Dash card,” click on “send to cryptocurrency or utility token,” select Dash, paste in that address, enter the amount, and hit send. Other than Uphold, Coinbase is another great user-friendly option. If you want to buy with a credit card rather than linking your bank account, try Changelly. **Buying Without an ID** Now, let’s get to how to buy some crypto if you don’t have a bank account, or don’t want to use your ID. The best way to buy some crypto privately is in-person for cash from someone you know. If you have a friend who is willing to sell you some, it’s as easy as receiving any other transaction in your wallet, and, once it shows up, exchanging the cash. If you don’t know anyone personally, try going to a meetup near you. The best place to look is probably Facebook or Meetup.com, or just through a search engine like Google. Search for things like “crypto meetup” or “cryptocurrency meetup” or “Bitcoin meetup.” The next best way is through an ATM, or crypto vending machine. These work about how you suspect: you walk up to the machine, input how much crypto you want to buy, the machine will scan the QR code on your phone wallet, you stick cash into the machine, and you get some crypto. Depending on the machine operator, and on how much you’re trying to buy, there may be some ID requirements. Typically, for smaller amounts there is either no special requirement, or it asks for your phone number only. With large amounts they’ll ask for your ID, and at that point you may be better off just using an exchange, unless you don’t want to link your bank account, or you don’t have one. To find an ATM near you, go to Dash.org, and under “individuals” click on “find an ATM.” That will bring up a global map of ATMs where you can find one near you to buy from. If you have some crypto already, but it isn’t something that’s easy to spend or commonly used as money, you can swap it some something like Dash that is. This is much easier than exchanging it for regular money. Using a service like SwapSpace, enter the amount you want to exchange or receive, enter the receiving address of the crypto you want to receive, and then pay the resulting invoice with the crypto you already have. Of course, the very best way to get some crypto is the same way you get money today: getting paid with it. There will be a video later on focusing on just that, but in the meantime if you can get someone to agree to pay you in crypto, you can receive into your wallet just the same way you receive any other transaction. That’s it for this episode, and once again, all the links to every service discussed here are in the description. Next time I’ll show you how to buy stuff online. See you soon! **Links** Dash website https://www.dash.org/ Uphold http://uphold.com/ Coinbase http://coinbase.com/ Changelly https://changelly.com/ SwapSpace https://swapspace.co/

@TheDesertLynx 7 May 2020

Kenn Bosak on the #FiatFreeChallenge and Living on Crypto's Dark Side https://youtu.be/FLlj3kY2HME I had the great pleasure of speaking with the incomparable Kenn Bosak, crypto influencer and user, about his experience living on crypto, which is much different than mine. We talked about the #FiatFreeChallenge and how it can be used to separate the poser influencers from the real crypto OGs. We covered how Kenn lives off of crypto, what he does for income, and how he spends it. Finally, we went over the dark side of living on crypto, its challenges, and how we're still very much in the early stages. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak!

@TheDesertLynx 7 May 2020

I Closed My Bank Account - Living on Bitcoin with Joël Valenzuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rrLNF257lI I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by David Bond about my journey living on crypto. We went over the usual story, from moving to New Hampshire for the Free State Project to closing my bank account and living entirely off of Bitcoin, to eventually having to switch to Dash because of Bitcoin's high fees and confirmation times. We went deep on the current crypto culture of simply buying and hoping to make crazy gains, rather than focusing on using it for its payment and censorship resistance capabilities. We also go deep on why Dash vs. something like Bitcoin Cash, and its unique properties in living on crypto. And finally, we hit on whether you talk to girls about crypto on the first date. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 7 May 2020

Live Free and Rant 9: Civil Disobedience Is So Hot Right Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N95bbfIwJQs Civil disobedience: so hot right now! Chris and I cover the resurgence in civil disobedience thanks to the COVID lockdowns, with desperate businesses opening up in defiance of lockdown orders, and throngs of protesters calling for said lockdowns to end. We also finish up with some light-hearted fare on Alex Jones, including an ending song you don't want to miss. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated, either here or via Patreon! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! Audio-only versions are available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. https://www.patreon.com/livefreeandrant https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://anchor.fm/livefreeandrant/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXdXhZ7ov1St2n1vg7fT1 https://www.breaker.audio/live-free-and-rant https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMDYwNDUxOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D https://pca.st/gtf37m3m https://radiopublic.com/live-free-and-rant-GyMrOp Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards, AnarchyRadio, and Kenn Bosak!

@TheDesertLynx 5 May 2020

Corona and Crypto with Joël Valenzuela - Liberty Block https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3G8CWoomVg I had the great pleasure of appearing on the Liberty Block to chat about my journey living on crypto, and much more. We covered the fiat currency crisis that is just on the horizon, and the economic implications of the COVID lockdowns and what they mean for the value proposition of scarce assets such as precious metals and cryptocurrency. We also went into a hard deep dive on cryptocurrency and asked some hard questions on whether it's actually resistant to inflation, actually resistant to takeover, and really a viable alternative to the fiat system. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 3 May 2020

How to Live on Crypto: Get a Wallet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1tYAt1e9j4 Hi, and welcome to this video series on how to live on crypto. If you’re looking to learn how to live completely off of cryptocurrency, you’ve come to the right place. I’m Joël Valenzuela. I’m a cryptocurrency and freedom advocate and have been involved in the space since 2013. My main claim to fame is the subject of this video series: I’ve been living off of cryptocurrency, without a bank account, since 2016. I’m here to help you try to do the same. The cryptocurrency I use in daily life is Dash, which stands for digital cash, a currency focused on being useful as an everyday money and payments system with instant transaction settlements, high security, and very low fees. **What’s a wallet?** First, you’re going to need a wallet. A wallet is where you store your money. It’s kind of like an account, except you can create as many as you want for free and without restrictions or permission from any third party. Think of it like the wallet you keep for your paper cash, except this one is for digital cash, and instead of in your pocket or purse, you keep it on your phone or your computer. Depending on how you already feel comfortable dealing with your finances, you will want either a mobile or a desktop wallet, or both. Go to Dash.org, under the “individuals” menu click on “downloads”. Under “Desktop Wallets” I would recommend the Exodus wallet as the easiest to use for beginners. It also works for cryptocurrencies other than Dash. Click “downloads”, hit that big “download” button, and then click to download the desktop wallet. Install and open, and you’re ready to go. The same goes for getting a mobile wallet: Dash.org, individuals, downloads, except this time you scroll down to “mobile wallets” and download the official Dash one. https://www.dash.org/ **Wallet security** NOW REMEMBER! This isn’t like a bank account where someone holds your money for you an keeps it safe for you. This is digital cash, and just like physical cash, keeping it safe is entirely your responsibility. Just like you wouldn’t show off your wallet in public, or let strangers go digging through your pockets, or leave money out in the open on your desk, you should keep your crypto safe as well. Keep your wallets pin and password-protected, practice good device security on your phone and computer, and back your wallets up. About that, here’s how to back up your wallet. On Exodus, click on “backup”, create a password, confirm it, and then HANDwrite down your recovery phrase, which is used to recover your funds if your computer gets damaged, hacked, or stolen. On the mobile Dash wallet, go to the menu in the bottom-right corner, go to “security”, go to “view recovery phrase”, and once again, HANDwrite it down to back it up in case your phone gets destroyed or stolen. Now, DO NOT take a screenshot of your seed words! DO NOT copy and paste them, DO NOT even type them out anywhere. Don’t let ANYONE see them over your shoulder. That’s a HUGE security risk. Instead, write them out with a pen and paper. Store that paper in a safe place, somewhere no one will find it, but somewhere you remember. And try not to write something really obvious on it like “cryptocurrency backups” or “all the digital money I have in the world.” Also, in case it wasn’t clear before, don’t lose your backup or forget your password or pin. No one can help you get them back. **Sending and receiving** Ok, now on to how you send and receive transactions. Cryptocurrency works by sending and receiving to cryptographic keys called addresses. An address is a big long string of letters and numbers, and in Dash’s case they begin with an X. Anyone who you give this address to can send and receive money to it, but they can’t use it to take money out. It’s one-way only. Now, modern wallets have essentially an infinite number of addresses, and a new one is created every time you go to receive funds. Think of them like disposable, single-use addresses, with a new one every time someone wants to send you money. People can still send you money to old ones, however. It’s like using disposable plastic cups: you probably want to get out a new one every time, but you can still receive a drink into an old one. You just probably shouldn’t. The way you send people money is to one of these addresses. You get an address from a friend, or from an invoice when you go to buy something. Just copy and paste that address into your wallet, enter the amount, and hit “send”. Of course, the easiest way of doing this is by scanning a QR code, and that’s typically what you do with a mobile wallet: just scan a QR code (which grabs the address that you otherwise would have manually copied and pasted), enter the amount, and send. That’s it. Now remember: be careful and double-check when sending! Cryptocurrency transactions are one-way and permanent. If you send to the wrong address, you can’t get it back, unless the person you mistakenly sent it to gets in contact with you and returns it. Digital cash is just like physical cash: you hand it over, the transaction is finished, and if you made a mistake you have to work it out with the person who you paid (or who paid you). That’s it for the basics of how to get and use a wallet. Subscribe to the channel and watch for the next video where I show you how to actually get some Dash. See you next time!

@TheDesertLynx 30 April 2020

Ultimate Proof-of-Work vs. Proof-of-Stake Discussion with Crypto Ramble https://youtu.be/LZQRPzL3Z0k I had the great pleasure last year of having a comprehensive discussion on the main cryptocurrency anti-sybil mechanisms, proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, and their various drawbacks and advantage. We cover the difference between the two and the difference in sunk capital in the security models for each, token versus mining equipment ownership, and which one may work better for security. We also discuss whether it's possible to start out purely as a proof-of-stake project and remain decentralized, or whether all functional projects need a proof-of-work start. Finally, we cover hybrid models that may combine the best of both worlds, or the best of neither. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio!

@TheDesertLynx 28 April 2020

Live Free and Rant 8: Of Censorship and Karens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u1nNTXCV70 In the latest episode of Live Free and Rant we cover the increasing censorship war waged by platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to censor key narrative bits about the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the mainstream media's propaganda to demonize protesters. We also cover the increasing trend of the #KarenBoom, and the possible shaming tactics we can employ. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated, either here or via Patreon! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! Audio-only versions are available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. https://www.patreon.com/livefreeandrant https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://anchor.fm/livefreeandrant/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXdXhZ7ov1St2n1vg7fT1 https://www.breaker.audio/live-free-and-rant https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMDYwNDUxOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D https://pca.st/gtf37m3m https://radiopublic.com/live-free-and-rant-GyMrOp Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio!

@TheDesertLynx 27 April 2020

Interview With Joël Valenzuela "Living Entirely on Crypto" - The Unconstrained Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf5Aj_uwX3o I had the great pleasure of appearing on the Unconstrained Podcast to talk about my story of living on cryptocurrency. We covered my entry into the space in 2013 and fiat-free income pledge at the end of 2015 all the way up until the present day, and went over why it matters to limit your exposure to the fiat currency system, especially in the wake of the global hyperinflation disaster that may befall us as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. We also mentioned previous struggles with Bitcoin in becoming a true digital cash for the world, and the disillusionment many felt when buying into the fiat-replacement hype that the coin ultimately failed to deliver. Naturally that went to my encouragement to try again, that it is possible to live entirely off of cryptocurrency in the present day, and an urging to join the #FiatFreeChallenge this May and see how far we can get without fiat currency. https://hive.blog/trending/fiatfreechallenge *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 25 April 2020

Roger Ver on the #FiatFreeChallenge and the State of Cryptocurrency Adoption https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n010vmbKjkU I had the fantastic pleasure of interviewing Roger Ver of Bitcoin.com and general cryptocurrency adoption legend status fame. We went deep into the state of adoption today, how far the technology has come, and how far it still has to go before it becomes used in everyday life on a mass scale. We covered what happened to Purse.io, how it went down, and why it's coming back. Finally, of course, we covered the #FiatFreeChallenge, and how pushing people to use cryptocurrency in everyday life is revealing what actually works and what doesn't. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c Thanks to my recurring supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio!

@TheDesertLynx 24 April 2020

How To Use Crypto At Your Local Or Online Stores - Fiat Free Challenge Chat With Joël Valenzuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4OOS2XzH4 I had the great pleasure of appearing on Sylvain Cloutier's channel to talk about the upcoming #FiatFreeChallenge, where we encourage as many people as we can do live off of cryptocurrency for the month of May 2020, either completely or partially, in a demonstration of independence and self-reliance in the face of economic calamity. We went relatively in-depth into the various ways to actually spend crypto and the top tools of the trade, including of course Bitrefill to buy gift codes to almost anything and top up phones, and Lamium to pay bills. We also covered the challenges of living off of crypto, including balancing massive price fluctuations with the need of regular bills. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or [via CoinTree](https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx). Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!*

@TheDesertLynx 23 April 2020

Kenn Bosak Fireside Chat with Joël Valenzuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1HkdebK4tg I had the great pleasure of appearing on crypto influencer Kenn Bosak's channel for a 90-minute livestream fireside chat. We covered the upcoming #FiatFreeChallenge, where we will attempt to live as much off of cryptocurrency as possible. We went over the various tools to help people avoid using fiat currency, from Bitrefill to buy gift codes for major brands worldwide, to Lamium to pay bills. We also talk about privacy and regulatory compliance, including the challenges of living on crypto before it becomes mainstream and regulated, such as the problems being tied with early exchanges that close down for regulatory reasons, and a whole lot more. https://hive.blog/trending/fiatfreechallenge *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 22 April 2020

Live Free and Rant 7: Rise Up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TINvuB3-Tw In this episode of Live Free and Rant we go over the COVID protests around the country that have absolutely dominated the news cycle in some areas. We talk about the ultimately proposed trade-off between safety and liberty, and how sacrificing liberty has in this case resulted in people losing safety as well, at least in the financial domain. We covered how millions are losing their jobs, and that puts their health and safety at risk in a much more real way than the virus in some cases. This was a high-energy and exciting episode, so don't miss it! Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated, either here or via Patreon! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! Audio-only versions are available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. https://www.patreon.com/livefreeandrant https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://anchor.fm/livefreeandrant/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXdXhZ7ov1St2n1vg7fT1 https://www.breaker.audio/live-free-and-rant https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMDYwNDUxOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D https://pca.st/gtf37m3m https://radiopublic.com/live-free-and-rant-GyMrOp

@TheDesertLynx 21 April 2020

Announcing the 30-Day Fiat-Free Fast Challenge! I'm here to tell you about a new and exciting challenge: to live as much as possible off of cryptocurrency, while staying away from government-issued fiat currency, for a whole month. It's an idea I believe passionately in, and have been living for the past several years myself. I'm very excited to get others to try it with me. Why Go Fiat-Free? Before encouraging everyone to try using little to no government-issued money, we may as well do a quick rundown of why this is a good idea: **We've come dangerously close to a run on the banks** Right as the pandemic lockdowns loomed, people went en masse to withdraw physical cash from the banks, prompting some withdrawal limitations. Any worse and we could have had a full-on panic as banks would have quickly run out of cash. https://www.verdict.co.uk/retail-banker-international/news/us-banks-struggle-with-large-cash-withdrawals-amid-covid-19/ **The purchasing power of the dollar is going to plummet** Due to the measures being taken to supposedly stimulate/save the economy, we could soon face a situation where the value of the dollar (or any fiat currency) sharply declines. In that situation you really don't want to be caught with all your savings rapidly bleeding value, and even if you're safe by moving into scarce and manipulation-resistant assets, that won't do you much good if you can't spend it on necessary goods and services. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-hyperinflation-looms-buy-gold-124257282.html **Financial censorship may start hitting people who aren't looking for trouble** Right now, most of the people you see running into trouble with getting financially censored can arguably be labeled as "edgy" in some way, whether it's political dissidents, bleeding-edge innovators, sex workers, and so on. This still amounts to monetary persecution and as such is terrible, but at least the people affected may have some kind of idea that they run such a risk. That may change soon. Perfectly legal and established industries such as gun shops have already started to experience censorship, and just as YouTube has begun demonetizing and deplatforming a growing array of creators, we can expect the same thing to happen eventually in the financial system. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-bankofamerica-idUSKCN1G900U Financial freedom is just generally a good thing to practice Finally, it's just a good idea to actually own your own money and practice how to use it in a way that no one can stop you. Just like good health, self-teaching, and all other forms of discipline and self-ownership, taking personal control and responsibility over your money is a great idea. The Challenge Myself and a group of other cryptocurrency and freedom advocates have decided to launch a challenge called the 30-Day Fiat Free Fast. The idea is to attempt to **live for one month, starting May 1st of 2020, while using as little fiat currency as possible**, hopefully none at all. This is to help people who may have been on the fence to get out of their comfort zones and actually give it a shot at living all on cryptocurrency. You may be surprised at how far you can get! **Step 1: Watch my upcoming videos on how to live on Dash!** Over the coming weeks I'll be releasing a video series on how to live completely off of cryptocurrency without using fiat currency. I've been living on Dash for nearly four years now, and am eager to share how I do it to the rest of the world. This should make it easy enough to actually participate in the challenge without doing days, if not weeks, of research. The videos will be published on my channel, the Digital Cash Network, on LBRY, YouTube, and 3speak, and streaming live podcasts to the above and Flote as well, where you can jump into the live chat and ask questions about living on Dash. Just follow along and live the grand experiment. https://lbry.tv/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCduLugW5-tkzxIde8Iz72mw/ https://3speak.online/user/thedesertlynx https://flote.app/thedesertlynx **Step 2: Post things you buy with the #FiatFreeChallenge hashtag** As you're learning how to live fiat-free, post on social media what you've bought, where you've bought it, how you bought it, your experiences, anything related to the challenge. Use the hashtag #FiatFreeChallenge to maximize exposure and connect with other people who are trying the same thing as you. **Step 3: Post an end-of-month recap of your results** At the end of the month, go through your expenses and add together everything you've been able to pay for with crypto, and compare it with all your fiat expenses. See how far you managed to get, and also share that under the #FiatFreeChallenge hashtag. If that's too complicated or too personal, or you were only able to pay for a few things, just post about whatever you bought with crypto. Anything is a step in the right direction! The future of being able to live without government money is here right now. Go give it a try! *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 21 April 2020

Layah Heilpern on Professional Journalism in the Cryptocurrency Space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgKoywIoH1w I had the very distinct pleasure of speaking with independent journalist Layah Heilpern on the transition from traditional journalism, including the BBC, to joining the exciting world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. We cover the main differences between the two, including the improved ability to make a living covering crypto, as well as the positivity difference between covering blockchain and the traditional space, as well as a host of other subjects. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c

@TheDesertLynx 18 April 2020

Will the YouTube Purge End Bitcoin Maximalism? **YouTube and other legacy platforms are going after crypto hard**   We've already seen numerous YouTube channels get taken down, from Tone Vays to BTC Sessions to demonetization affecting Naomi Brockwell and channel strikes against Ivan on Tech and others. One thing's for sure: the establishment doesn't like crypto. It could be that they view such new systems as risky and potentially fraudulent, or that they represent competition to the fiat processors already integrated into centralized platforms, which serve as gatekeepers and middlemen taking a nice cut. Or it could be something more totalitarian and sinister than even that. But either way, this won't be the last time we see crypto-focused content creators forced out of today's dominating platforms. **Edgy Bitcoin maximalist ethos keeps creators from playing it safe**   The Bitcoiner of old could wax lyrical about the disruption that the technology represented to the dominant financial system, or gush about what a neat and useful tool it was. Now, one can only realistically focus on the former. The store-of-value approach means you have to keep talking about how the price will go up, and combine that with the "ain't scared of nobody" attitude prevalent in this field, and you have a recipe for constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be considered borderline scammy content. This means that we'll always see a Bitcoiner throwing a fit for being unjustly deplatformed now and again, even if the ratcheting of control doesn't progress any further. They just can't help themselves. **Almost all the decentralized platforms run on other networks**   A large chunk, if not almost all, of censorship-resistant platforms run on some other kind of cryptocurrency. Whether this is integral to a decentralized framework like LBRY, or simply a censorship-resistant form of money to be used on the site like Flote, various crypto-tokens abound in use. Particularly since censorship hasn't reached wide-reaching and ridiculous levels yet, a new platform needs a way to entice users and content creators, making tokenized monetization an attractive tool to employ. This means that when Bitcoin maximalists get run out of town on legacy platforms, their next place of refuge probably necessitates them using other coins. Because of the attractive effects of monetization, most of the traffic will likely not go to simply censorship-free sites without this feature. Also, the changes are slim that Bitcoin will be used (particularly exclusively) for said monetization, both because of high transaction fees and times, and because of the "don't spend, hold" ethos embraced by many users. Either way, Bitcoin maximalists will need to partake in a world that runs on the antithesis of their viewpoint. **Growing censorship may force an "adapt or die" scenario**   The tighter the censorship controls become, the more crypto content creators are forced to migrate to other platforms. Those who refuse to do so for ideological reasons will increasingly find themselves boxed out. Users will gravitate to whichever platform provides the most and best content they crave, and if Bitcoin maximalists aren't there, their viewpoints simply won't be represented. Eventually, maximalism must either become watered down by accepting the presence of some other coins, or lose out entirely. A difficult choice for sure. **Even if censorship stops, maximalists can't be the "boomers" left behind on lame platforms**   This one cuts more to the center of what it means to be a Bitcoin maximalist, and its cultural attitude. As previously mentioned, in order to compete against a diverse field of technologically evolving competitors, Bitcoin must double down on being the most entrenched and valuable. The second element is cypherpunk culture. To become a Bitcoiner means you're bucking the system by hoarding a confiscation-resistant asset, which helps to take your mind off the years in between throwing away your life's savings and the investment breaking even. Because of the present lag in material utility compared to the rest of the field, it became necessary to sell the lifestyle of being cool, sexy, digital rebels. And nothing is more antithetical to that image than to stay away from platforms where the real rogues, who actually got censored and deplatformed for saying dangerous things about the powers that be, congregate. Even if maximalists want to stay exclusively on the old platforms, their potential audience and their whole general vibe will have gone elsewhere, and if they don't join them they'll just be a bunch of old-timers shouting about how cool and edgy they are just, like a group of aging friends wearing leather biker jackets out to the mailbox to get their pension checks. The crypto purge is coming, and it will fail in silencing the ideologies it seeks to set back. Except one. Bitcoin maximalists won't survive the changing winds of online content intact. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 17 April 2020

Kingsley Edwards on Flote, Crypto Patreon and Social Network https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hTuyXLQLVM I had the great pleasure of interviewing Kingsley Edwards, the CEO of Flote, a new crypto-leveraging social media and content platform. We went over the platform, and how it provides a crypto alternative to Patreon, including fiat on-ramps, allowing for a total replacement of fiat-based subscription services for content creators. We also covered the ambitious plans for Flote, including marketplaces and private groups with their own funding models. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c

@TheDesertLynx 16 April 2020

Our "Tank Man Moment" Is Fast Approaching In 1989 a lone protester stood his ground against an armored column leaving Tiananmen Square in Beijing in a now-immortalized symbol of the triumph of the human spirit over totalitarian oppression. Now, faced with economic disaster resulting from the quarantine orchestrated to stem the growth of the global coronavirus pandemic, the people are starting to fight back. Protesters have rallied across the US, defying stay-at-home orders in an attempt to regain their livelihoods. The unique situation surrounding this worldwide disaster has brought revolution closer than ever before. https://reason.com/2020/04/15/michigans-emergency-stay-at-home-order-is-a-hot-mess-now-4-sheriffs-say-they-wont-be-enforcing-parts-of-it/ **The pandemic showed just how quickly and ruthlessly governments become totalitarian**   Some of the more naïve among us may have believed in government respecting reasonable limitations of power. Within a matter of weeks, all that was gone. The right to peacefully conduct commerce, to assemble, to travel, and many others was quickly suspended without due legislative or judicial process. When we really get down to it, there is no separation or limitation of powers. There is only absolute and total power, just a crisis away from being flexed. The anarchists among us already believed this was the case, and now only fools will continue to doubt. **Government's response has proven to be cruel, corrupt, and incompetent**   Soon after it became very apparent that governments possessed all the power, it became even more apparent that they deserved none of it. The stories of hypocrisy, sheer incompetence, and inhumanity have already piled up. The mayor of Chicago broke her own order deeming hair salons to be non-essential businesses in order to get her own hair done, a decision she defended as essential because of the importance of her position. Police descended on churchgoers on Easter in Mississippi and Kentucky, issuing citations and mandatory quarantines, including for drive-in services. A Colorado father was handcuffed in front of his daughter for playing in the park, while a Miami doctor was similarly detained to prevent him from giving medical assistance to the homeless. New York City cops forced a married cohabitating couple to physically separate or face citations, while speaker-equipped drones flew overhead playing Orwellian warnings to stay inside. These are not your friendly neighborhood public servants. These are thugs, they have always been thugs, and now they have been exposed as such to an increasingly large audience. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/10/the-view-shreds-chicago-mayor-for-lockdown-haircut/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-defends-mississippi-drive-church-service-n1183761 https://nypost.com/2020/04/12/kentucky-worshippers-met-with-nails-in-road-as-they-defy-lockdown/ https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officer-arrested-park-throwing-ball-daughter-due/story?id=70032966 https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/492596-miami-police-launching-probe-after-black-doctor-working-on https://twitter.com/elliot_sperber/status/1246544202760163329 https://thehill.com/policy/technology/491410-faa-investigating-mystery-drone-telling-new-yorkers-to-socially-distance **Economic and social crises are making people desperate**   Beyond lessening deaths associated directly with contracting the virus, shutdown measures were supposed to prevent overburdening the healthcare system and the damage caused by widespread panic and societal collapse. That outcome, however, is closer and closer to happening as a result of, not despite, these measures. The economic devastation mandated has caused countless businesses to shut down permanently, ruining the dreams and hard work of their owners and laying off untold millions. At the same time, many are not handling social isolation well, with anxiety, loneliness, depression, and other ill effects taking their toll. For both groups of people, the forced shutdown and quarantine are a more real threat to their health and safety than the virus itself. In most countries, openly and directly defying government orders represent an extremely risky proposition. During times of desperation, however, people tend to get a hell of a lot more desensitized to risk. Animals become dangerous when cornered, and humans are no exception. As the protests around the world begin to multiply, the chance of reaching a true boiling point increases. **Social media is making it incredibly difficult to control the narrative**   One of the beauties of having this happen in the modern age is that we all have to contend with the decentralizing presence of social media. At first this only served to exacerbate and hasten the global panic, but it has now just as quickly amplified voices of the resistance. Anyone, anytime, anywhere can record an incident of abuse, compare and contrast on-the-ground situational realities, and broadcast this to the entire planet, where it can spread like wildfire organically and without any backing distribution network. Keeping the people under control is only possible when they are similarly kept ignorant. The latter is no longer possible. **How much longer until we have a global revolt?**   The protests we've already seen show how far this situation has already escalated. How much further will it go before governments either rescind their extra powers of face a full-on revolution? What happens when the people really start to get desperate? Governments were unknowingly baited into showing their heavy hands. Now, in an inability to give back power, they're rolling out the big guns. When will our generation's tank man appear? *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 14 April 2020

Live Free and Rant 6: The Worst of Evils? https://youtu.be/GbJ6jAdKAyY In this episode of Live Free and Rant we go over the various ways tyrannical governors have cracked down on basic freedoms in the name of fighting the coronavirus, from arresting joggers to ticketing drive-in Easter worshipers to mandatory quarantining of anyone who went out to Sunday services. We also go over the "Karen boom," the plethora of cases of busybodies calling the cops on their neighbors and community members for living free, and the psychological shift that has to take place in order for people to actually embrace freedom and mind their own business. Thank you so much for watching! Tips are appreciated, either here or via Patreon! If you wish to donate via another cryptocurrency, or follow on social media, please go to my CoinTree page. And don't forget to join LBRY and get away from centralized content platforms! Audio-only versions are available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic. https://www.patreon.com/livefreeandrant https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@DigitalCashNetwork:c https://anchor.fm/livefreeandrant/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0iXdXhZ7ov1St2n1vg7fT1 https://www.breaker.audio/live-free-and-rant https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMDYwNDUxOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D https://pca.st/gtf37m3m https://radiopublic.com/live-free-and-rant-GyMrOp

@TheDesertLynx 13 April 2020

The rEVOLution Report With Joël Valenzuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yqIa9KLHGE I had the great pleasure of appearing on the Revolution Report, a libertarian podcast associated with Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jacob Hornberger. We went over my journey from a libertarian sound money advocate to a cryptocurrency expert, jumping in starting in 2013, stopping accepting fiat currency in 2015, and closing my bank account in 2016. We covered living on cryptocurrency, why it matters, and what happens when you don't have control over the money, but have to rely on government instead. And, naturally, we delved into the global pandemic, the government's response to the crisis, and if it is indeed more dangerous than the virus. We also tried to guess how the world will come out on the other side of this, if liberty will be crushed or if there will be a resurgence. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 11 April 2020

Living Fiat-Free with Joël Valenzuela - Kingcast https://youtu.be/HaIEUlN9Hqk I had the great pleasure of appearing on Kingcast, a live-streamed show by Kingsley Edwards, the CEO of the Flote social network. Flote provides a censorship-free alternative to popular social media channels, and integrates with crypto payments, including a funding system similar to Patreon where exclusive content and perks can be offered for subscribers. We talked about my journey to living on crypto, from favoring precious metals to receiving my first Bitcoin in 2013 to moving to New Hampshire, eventually closing my bank account, and going all-in. This led to a discussion of switching to using Dash when Bitcoin was no longer useful for basic payments. Finally, we talked about the concept of living without fiat currency, and brainstormed a "30-day fiat-free fast" to get as many people trying to live off of crypto as possible. Stay tuned, this may become a thing pretty soon! *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx

@TheDesertLynx 10 April 2020

Who Needs Fiat/US Dollar When You Can Live on Crypto - Interview with Joël Valenzuela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nsYjdxKKLc I had the distinct pleasure of being interviewed for the Daylight group to educate its members on cryptocurrency, why and how to use it, and especially preparing for future financial collapses. We covered the basics of cryptocurrency and precious metals, and why they will hold their value better long-term than fiat currencies, which are currently under threat of hyperinflation due to pandemic era economic measures by world governments. Mostly we delved into the specifics of how to easily buy cryptocurrency, how to store it and use it, particularly to live on, including paying all kinds of bills. We also went over the challenges of this lifestyle, including high price fluctuations due to cryptocurrency's notorious present volatility. *If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or* *via CoinTree**. Thank you!* https://cointr.ee/thedesertlynx