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Comment by mirimir | Hacker News Reader

I got one drop, but then there was the demand for a mobile number. So that was that.

And what are Lumens good for, anyway? Are there any ~anonymous exchanges with Bitcoin, etc?

I went looking around when I got the first airdrop, and it looks like the answer to "what are lumens good for" is "Nothing." Turning into Bitcoin I guess...

Stellar looked promising a few years ago, but doesn't seem to have gone anywhere.

I guess ...

I never had much interest in trading or investing in Bitcoin.

But I do earn a little Bitcoin, now and then. And I like to play with VPS, and the occasional server. So I probably spend maybe $100-$200 in Bitcoin each month.

And given that I do all that ~anonymously, it'd be far more hassle without cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin isn't anonymous. The ledger is public and your wallet has to be linked to you only once for every purchase you've done to be entirely attributed to you.

This can even happen years after you've deleted the wallet key and moved on to a new wallet.

Sorry, forgot to mention mixing multiple times, using multiple Electrum wallets, in multiple Whonix VMs via Tor, using different mixing services, etc, etc, etc.

So sure, all that Mirimir spends is linked. But nothing is linked to my other personas, or to me in meatspace.

Edit: Bitcoin Fog was used to mix thousands of Bitcoin from at least two thefts. In 2013 from Sheep Marketplace, and in 2015 from Bter. And as far as I know, none of that was ever traced.

That's just one of the mixers that I used. So I'm not at all worried.

Edit2: I should mention that the current status of Bitcoin Fog is unclear. See their Bitcoin Fog thread. So best don't use them.

Make that "... Bitcoin Forum thread".

Spending anonymously is much easier if you hold Monero and send Bitcoin through xmr.to.

Well, at xmr.to:

> We can recommend Monerujo on Android and Cake Wallet on iOS. These wallets integrate natively with XMR.to.

I don't use either Android or iOS.

Do you recommend a suitable Linux wallet?

Just use the official Monero wallet, the only difference is that you'll need to visit xmr.to to enter the Bitcoin address you want to pay to instead of doing it in-app.

OK, thanks.

I was amused when their FAQ had "Q: So, what can I do with these?" and the A was basically... "send them to people I guess I dunno". -.-

My wife received the first airdrop and then they wanted her mobile number while I've never been prompted for it. I doubt too many people were willing to sell their mobile number for some funny money. More for me! (Not that I know what I'll do with it.)

They're great for randomly holding / forgetting you're holding onto and waiting for a bubble, like that time in 2014 that Stellar gave away bundles of free coins (I think it was like 6K coins per user?) and then it bubbled in 2018.

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