they've always been sketchy to me but this is crossing a line of no return for me personally. arent we here for permissionless, improved payment systems that say fuck you to the legacy system...not integrating with it just so we get a handful of corporate merchants to adopt ( although they probably still wont )? Terrible, or let me know what I'm missing... 🤙
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1691 sats \ 2 replies \ @nullcount 25 Feb
The suits are here. And they're looking for someone to pay so they can rest assured that they 'remain compliant'.
By operating as a for profit company with investors, Amboss has a direct incentive to seek profit by any means. Including catering to the 'needs' of fiat minded companies.
'Bitcoin Companies' and 'Bitcoin VCs' are still tied to fiat and state apparatus. The state will use them to try and control BTC.
They may succeed if allowed.
There's a reason Bitcoin was not founded as an LLC or CCorp. Bitcoin was/is FOSS because it has to be in order to resist the state.
If your bitcoin project isn't foss and you're not actively resisting the state, you are just an arm of the state working to control bitcoin.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @badabing 25 Feb
Hear hear.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bzzzt OP 25 Feb freebie
theres your daily dose of signal if you hadnt gotten it yet, well said preach it.
1388 sats \ 5 replies \ @ambosstech 25 Feb
The entire product does payment operations for businesses and business needs are very different from consumers.
With Elizabeth Warren and others grandstanding against Bitcoin as being money for criminals, businesses using lightning are in a bind. How can they show that they aren't participating in nefarious behavior? "Take my word for it" has been their best option to date.
Reflex gives each business the ability to configure a payment policy on what laws to abide by (or to ignore). OFAC is a huge one, especially for international businesses, that is make-or-break for many companies.
This tool isn't meant to support any financial censorship laws; it is meant to support an individual's decision to comply with programmatic payment policies and documentation to demonstrate their practices to regulators or banks.
Reflex has no ability to enforce payment policies or peering policies (it just organizes public info and gives a pass/fail).
What's critical to understand is that many businesses in the lightning space are wasting money trying to launch their products and are getting blocked by regulators (some since 2018!!) or are getting de-banked. This is harmful to the industry's growth.
As an analogy, just because the Internet is used by criminals doesn't mean that every business using the Internet is also a criminal. Reflex gives businesses a clear separation between their activity and the activity of criminals.
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @bzzzt OP 25 Feb freebie
what is the difference between this tool , Reflex, that you are building (and selling ) to facilitate state surveillance compliance and Chainalysis, in your opinion? Or, is Chainalysis and the surveillance tools they sell not a problem, in your opinion? genuinely curious im certainly not an expert.
Im just not personally behind your justification of this is what businesses need being a reason or excuse to build such a product considering the whole point of bitcoin is to route around these obstructions and the legacy system.. this is not the kind of building i care to support. But, its your choice of course so 🤙
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ambosstech 26 Feb
The existing "compliance" solutions are provided by companies that win through enforcement actions.
The solutions that they provide also aren't suitable for lightning since they largely rely on heuristics.
Our solution is built to help businesses navigate regulation and flexible based on their jurisdictional requirements. Amboss wins with more businesses thriving in lightning, not more enforcement actions.
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26 sats \ 2 replies \ @garyKrause_ 25 Feb
Who gets to decide what makes something "criminal"?
Very disappointing answer. You clearly misunderstand the purpose of Bitcoin and seem to be actively complicit in aiding criminals in their endeavors of controlling the money.
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387 sats \ 1 reply \ @ambosstech 25 Feb
What's "criminal" or not is a judgement and that is not Reflex's job to determine. The purpose of Reflex is to apply a business's policies to information and provide documentation to the business.
This is not an enforcement tool; it is a tool to help businesses navigate regulation and get bank accounts for their operations.
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25 sats \ 0 replies \ @garyKrause_ 25 Feb
"I just built the gulags so I'm not complicit in their use."
-- Amboss
Do better.
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313 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 26 Feb
Is this a surprised?
#182218
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97 sats \ 0 replies \ @ZezzebbulTheMysterious 25 Feb
Amboss always was icky, this seems more par for the course.
Amboss, if you read this, question your alignment. If you wish to curry favor with the authoritarians, the Bitcoiners will not remember it fondly.
And stop inventing new classes of fear and problems.
And this is why Tor was made part of LN.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 25 Feb
Yes, its sad to see.
When will OFAC compliance include every sat that's KYC'd?
Must push back against this.
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