• 2 Posts
  • 87 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: January 8th, 2024

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  • You’re well on your way to making some really good choices. I also have to ask, are you using a password manager already? And if so, which one are you using? I use keepassxc on linux and keepassdx (from fdroid) on android and sync the database with a flash drive. I don’t trust any clouds, and so I don’t have any of my files on clouds. Also, are you using Monero yet?


  • What you can do is download the Aurora store from fdroid, which will give you access to Google Play apps without needing the Google Play store, and then go in and disable Google Play services. That way, if something breaks that you absolutely can’t live without, you can go turn it back on again. What you will find is that most apps will no longer send you notifications because most apps use what’s called Google FCM to provide you notifications which requires Google Play services. So in most cases apps will no longer send you notifications. Some apps will give you warnings to the effect of this app may not work properly without Google Play services and give you an OK button and in most cases they will work alright. And some few apps will just absolutely refuse to work. I know for a fact that Uber and Lyft will refuse to work without Google Play services enabled. With uber at least you can visit m.uber.com.

    As the person mentioned above, using open source apps as much as you can is a great step in the right direction as they don’t phone home nearly as much. If at all. Make fdroid your new best friend and maybe add the izzyondroid repo to it.

    Another category of apps you may have trouble with is mobile banking. I used to have a Neo bank called Chime, and their app worked fine without Google Play services, but I wanted to not need the Aurora store anymore, and I could not transfer between accounts with the Chime website, and so I ended up switching banks entirely.


  • You definitely don’t want the ETFs such as GLD or the miners because those are shares and you don’t actually physically own them. So you’re going to want the physical or goldbacks.

    Edit: With the gold, if you don’t hold it, you don’t own it. With Monero, you need to have your own wallet with your private keys, because again, if you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.

    Having anything be for benefit of means that it can be revoked as it’s nothing more than an IOU with conditional redemption.


  • Fiat cost average into Monero and gold. I know a lot of people would say Bitcoin. But if you buy Bitcoin, then the government is going to know that you have it. Whereas if you buy Monero, the government is not going to know you have it.

    Also, start participating in the Monero circular economy by buying and selling goods and services on XMRBazaar.com denominated in Monero

    Here is my store, for example. https://xmrbazaar.com/user/AuroraGeneralStore/

    For gold, you might want to have a look at goldbacks since they go down to one thousandth of an ounce of gold and can be used as a transactional currency.






  • That’s my understanding as well. It’s to keep people like the media from being able to determine upcoming functionality by looking at code snippets. So the development would go on in secret, and then once per year, all the final code would be pushed to AOSP. However, OP does make a good point because if you have to examine all the final code at once, you might miss something that would be privacy detrimental.