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Showing posts from February, 2023

monero log files are a mess

Monero is the only shitcoin I've dabbled in, buying a load in 2014.  It took me a while to work out it was really a shitcoin, as they did a good job pretending it was specified.  It is, in fact, very much tied to a particular implementation, and to forced updates of that particular implementation.  They also lie about offline transacting being possible.  It's not possible, because you keep having to ferry data like "key images" back and forth, as well as updates to the software, which defeats the whole point of offline.  Offline transacting means you set up your station, carefully, once, and that's that.  If you have to ship software updates to your "offline" machine, then of course it can be compromised by any of these updates.  It's not offline, dipshits, and stop lying about it.  Shitcoin. I want out, and am getting out via squidgy exchange Kraken, trying to extract meaningful records, and somehow communicate with them when necessary, as we go. I

Austria: a failed state

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In nineties radio series Blue Jam there's a doctor sketch, where the GP, with the patient physically in his consultation room, declares he's going to "do this over the phone".  He goes into the room next door, and calls the patient on the office landline.  He complains about hearing the patient through the wall, then complains about the bad line, and asks the patient to call back on an internal number.  On reconnection, the doctor says he's with a patient, and they have to make an appointment, which they do.  The patient has to leave, undiagnosed, and having received no medical attention. Yesterday, I went to post a book to a friend in London from an Austrian post office.  The post employee said: you have to complete an online customs declaration form before being able to send it.  I said I didn't want to do it online, I'm in the branch, can I do anything necessary on paper here?  The employee said no, you have to do it online.  I said I don't have acc

Kraken compliance: failure to process documents after 5 months

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Last year, Kraken's incompetent compliance team asked for documents supporting source of funds.  Since apparently the buyin logs were not enough, it was really more like source of wealth documentation that they wanted.  I duly spent several days assembling the required audit trail documentation. Kraken's web interface, which is generally appalling, could not accept multiple documents in one category (this one being "source of funds").  Kraken repeatedly asked me to email them the documents in the clear -- a clear case of criminal negligence in handling customer data.  Their other suggestion was to (really) append all the documents into one big PDF.  This, in the interest of pragmatism, I eventually did. Five months later, and Kraken's very bad "Account Documents" section for my account shows my submission as "Unprocessed".  Yes, you have to interact with the document (hovering) to get it to say the status "Unprocessed".  Otherwise, yo