> Is it really a cryptocurrency when it's completely centralized? No.

What is decentralized about a handful of Chinese miners controlling all supply?

That there is a well established (if expensive) method to re-take the decentralized control should things go south.

Same for open source software, the best pieces are generally run by a no-nonsense autocrats.

Could you please expand? If the big Chinese miners go rogue (actually go rogue, take over a currency and actively tries to stop the larger public from taking it back), what recourse does the larger public have? Wouldn't they need more mining power, or an impractical fenced-off network that's still decentralized in some manner?

2nd best over x categories is pretty good.

Where x is large. Which it is for Python. Which is probably why I use it so often.

They still take Visa, and don't insist on an authoritarian government's surveillance app.

They're mostly private, JFC...

Really?

yes but only WeChat is tied to an authoritarian government's surveillance network

i've lost count of the amount of times i've been refused a coffee or beer because they don't except cash or visa card.

It's only going to get worse.

What gives it value? If you free spend and free print money to pay for said spending, the value goes away. Quite quickly, as well.

That's why you have taxes to destroy money and control inflation.

There are good reasons why budgets should be close to balanced most of the time.

> Is it possible to distinguish between someone who believes taxes are bad for society, or immoral

Ask them if they are currently living in a country with a centralized government, a police force, civil society, etc. If the answer is yes, you don't have to listen to them anymore.

> The smart thing to do is to have a public number and a private number.

What's the easiest way to do this?

Use Twilio Proxy https://www.twilio.com/proxy

That's only "easy" for the HN crowd.

Most people use second-line apps like Hushed, or the traditional method of getting a second line from your carrier.

The journalist in question here has access to an "opsec" team, seems like it would be their job to handle things like this and they dropped the ball

Two phones.

(or a double SIM phone, but then you still risk messing up yourself by mixing data / calling from the wrong number / etc)

Try anveo.com, they have numbers globally which start at less than $1 per month but with a setup fee of a couple of dollars and a per-minute fee of around 1 cent per minute. You can also pay more per month charges for no per minute charges.

You'll also need a SIP client. Some Android phones have these built in but you can also use things like Grandstream Wave. I have no idea about iOS, MAc aor Win but there should be several options for those.

I have our work VOIP account set up on my Android phone. It's integrated into the dialer and works for incoming and outgoing calls. On outgoing calls I have to select whether I want to use the SIM or the VOIP account.

It's a geographic (local) number to our office and costs £7.99 per month. Seems like it would be easy enough to add one for personal use as well.

Two phones.

How is this different than Brave?

Brave is based on cryptocurrencies and selling eyeballs, with users getting a share. It's a for-profit startup.

Brave user here, 1/10 the CPU and memory usage and built on the same tech. Welcome!

Are brave in control of the web request API within their build? I know it's a fork of Chromium, just not sure how much is available for them to change.

I have been using brave for months and intend to continue if uBo keeps working. Braves internal ad blocking doesn't stop everything.