243 sats \ 11 replies \ @SwapMarket 29 Jun freebie \ on: Why Jack Mallers Turned Down Life Changing Money for Strike lightning
I like Jack, he is very passionate about Bitcoin. But at the same time, Strike is a KYC custodial app no better than Coinbase. They block and close accounts, report everything to the state and can be one day shut down. It is against the spirit of Bitcoin, so I will never use it.
No better than Coinbase?
- Strike has supported lightning for years. Coinbase just started
- Coinbase partners with the feds doing chan analytics
- Coinbase has focused on shilling scams and shitcoins for many years instead of bitcoin.
I do not think that is a fair comparison at all. Strike is a bridge and any business in places like the US has a choice. Cease existing or abide by the ridiculous laws around money.
IMO Strike and Cash app while far from perfect could do much worse.
Out of curiosity. Do you use a bank? Do you have credit cards? If you don't good for you. Most people do have those in places like the US. To then act like Strike is bad is kinda silly.
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Sure I use a bank to pay utility bills, but I use cash everywhere else and I don't show the government my bitcoin at all.
Strike is just another Paypal over LN (aka the new neobanks), fooling people saying that is a "bitcoin company".
They are just perpetuating the use of fiat, even that the user can buy sats, they still want the user to spend fiat in shops.
If you still have/use fiat bank acc or cards, then use those directly.
If you want to use bitcoin then use bitcoin. But don't pretending.
Remember: fiat delenda est, so we must do everything possible to avoid using fiat in any form.
Read this story too:
https://primal.net/e/note1dehge57lvzf94n5qj5vhwk7z8lnew45lzaj0ku9wvpfgcjs9pmeqmyfx98
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That may be true. Not my point. My point is they provide a service people want. Clearly. People also want Paypal. They are different from Paypal in my opinion but that's opinion.
What is your point? Is it just that they are money transmitting service that works inside the state system and use dollars? I have never heard anyone say Strike and other companies are sovereign bitcoin companies. I think people get it. Mallers even promotes people using self custody. We are all grown ups here. We can understand tradeoffs and decide where we want to compromise.
It is admirable that you don't use these services (I presume). You're more based I guess. I just see little value in dunking on companies like Strike that are trying to do things different from Coinbase when they can. I think Stike is a net positive not a net negative.
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they provide a service people want
People are dumb sheeple, they consume what they see and is promoted. They think with their ass.
For US people maybe Strike is a good option to buy sats and move them to self-custody.
Even that are way more better ways to acquire sats, US people are still trapped into the fiat world and using apps like Strike and Cashapp.
US people will be really fucked up soon if they do not escape from this fiat world mindset.
And yes, I do not have any bank account from 2018. Why? Because I really wanted and I fought hard for that. But yeah some people like complacency into fiat world, because why not, NgU...
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I don't disagree with most of that.
Prosperity and laziness are the two greatest weaknesses of people in the US. This is why I have more hope for people in "less developed" countries getting bitcoin and adopting it on mass.
I just see little value in pretending Paypal, Coinbase, CashApp, and Strike all the same. They are in some ways but two of those are not like the others.
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Are all the same in the sense that are not fighting for eliminating fiat at all, but just perpetuating the use of fiat.
Yes, are commercial companies focused on profits, perfectly fine for that.
But I do not like when they mislead people and hypocrisy.
As consumers we have to critic them and not kissing their ass. Only like that we will have better services.
As I told that story few times here, about 2 shops, one accepting my sats and one doesn't.
I went to the "nocoiner shop" and I asked nicely: "do you accept payment in Bitcoin?"
The answer was "No". So I said: "fine, then I will go to your fellow merchant, in the street corner that already accept my sats and also is giving me a discount".
And repeating this few times, until after few months he finally start accepting BTC, seeing that his sales were dropping.
This is how you make the merchants to come up to the light, opening their eyes.
But if we continue to go and pay with Strike fiat, Cashapp fiat, venmo crap, Paypal fiat, VISA fiat and all kind of crap fiat methods, the merchants will never change.
I am really tired of all this stagnation and people just waiting for NgU, and still using fiat.
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Like I said, and you said the US is screwed. NgU is what attracts people in the US.
In the US medium of exchange is not a big concern. The dollar is stable enough for most people. They have high time preference. They do not care about bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
In the US the bigger issue for the wealthy is their savings and wealth being robbed by inflation/fiat. This is why you see more focus on NgU. Most people do not care about self sovereignty. I would argue most bitcoiners do not either. At least in the US.
Bitcoin doesn't care. In countries that have even worse inflation and limited options for banking and peer to peer censorship resistant commerce bitcoin has more appeal. I think we agree Darth. I'm just not as absolutist about it. I live in the comfortable sheeple world. These are the people I know. I have tried to get them interesting in bitcoin. Most just don't care. They won't until they see the need. Greed is really the biggest tool to get them in the door.
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In Latin America the residents prefer to collect dollars including tether because it’s more stable than the peso etc
Even in El Salvador most people transact in dollars.
I think it’s a progression: peso —> USD —> btc
Thanks for sharing that note btw.
Sounds like this guy sent coin joined UTXOs on-chain to Strike. I believe the same outcome would happen on any US based exchange. I do not think this is Strike specific.
I believe they could have avoided this by using your cleaning method and send sats over lighting vs. onchain but honestly this use case is not great. I would never recommend anyone use any KYC service this way.
Spend bitcoin using sovereign wallets/tools. If you must convert to fiat there are other ways.
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