I used to watch on odysee but unfortunately MoneroTalk stopped posting there. GrayJay is an alternative the NewPipe that tend to work better, but when it doesn't work, NewPipe tends to work. Unfortunately the two apps don't have a common playlist so you'll have to manually add all your NewPipe channels to GrayJay and sync them.

Thanks Kewbit. I hope this is a misunderstanding that can be resolved. That being said, it's unlikely many people will beta test a binary without source code, especially if the main reason to use Haveno is to avoid KYC. IMO, it's probably best to address the drama and move on. Since you're likely gun shy about speaking out, it's perhaps best to contact a diplomatic friend that can help express your side and why you don't feel comfortable releasing the code and what would it take to do it.

IMO, there would only be two reasons why you've sent out a follow up post here: (1) You were sincere but made some bad judgements (e.g. timelines, amount of work, how much XMR you needed, "life got in the way", overreactions that cascaded, the code is uglier than you thought and wanted to clean it up, etc) and you hope there's some way forward, (2) You're hoping to make more money either through binary back doors or selling data or convincing people to fund the rest of the project outside of CSS so you can scam them.

I haven't decided which conclusion to make. At the beginning of the last crypto crash most people were angry at the original Haveno team for halting work when the price of XMR crashed with many calling that team scammers. They made a poor judgement on pricing and could have avoided the drama if they priced their work in USD (paid with XMR). Of course, if XMR continued to go up they'd miss out on the USD gains, but fair is fair. Either you want security or risk. Choosing one and then complaining about not choosing the other isn't fair. When they continued their work once the XMR price appreciated and released, all past accusations were forgotten (I know I did until tried to remember an example) and they were and still are appreciated for their hard work.

If you are sincerely #1 and are able to express yourself reasonably, there is a way back. If not, #2 will be the conclusion most people will make and releasing the binaries without source code will reinforce this conclusion.

Given Monero's anonymity and the media lock out, it would be hard to know how popular Monero is in Russia. Haveno isn't the best measure of adoption. Perhaps Russians prefer swapping Monero for other easier to acquire crypto on Russia-agnostic DEXes? Remember also Russian citizens are masters of covert communications. Back when computer programs were on cassette tapes a common strategy was to embed programs and documents in the middle of extremely hard to listen to music like high volume death metal or MERZBOW Woodpecker #1. Any guard charged with finding illegal content would have to listen through hours of ear-bleeding and harsh music before they could detect that "something" was being hidden. Perhaps there's an active trade in the underground market which the average citizen is a part of. Perhaps they have an active independent street exchange as is available in Argentina (from what I know, street vendors tend to give the best rates).

Fortunately, you're reading the numbers wrong. Yes, some projects have 1-3 projects. Those projects tend to be side projects (e.g. Revuo, web site maintenance, etc) and are likely founded mostly from wallet providers and Monero service providers since it helps spread information that helps the ecosystem. I know Cakewallet has funded a few of these. The really important projects have 5-70 contributors. If donations stop, then some people would keep working on it because Monero is important, but they wouldn't be able to spend very much time on it so progress would be incredibly slow.

Since you're not asking about Haveno, the key question is, what are you trying to federate and what do you mean by localmonero?

This is what I liked about localmonero: (1) It had an easy to use web site -- this can be federated over onion; (2) it had many options (especially necessary if you're not using USD or EUR) -- federation reduces liquidity per mistance; (3) It had a reputation system for sellers -- this is hard to federate; (4) The arbiters have been proven over time to be trustworthy -- this may be impossible to federate without a reputation system.

So, IMO, your first task is to come up with a federated trust system for both arbiters and sellers. Once you have that, listings and trading can happen on any platform, even lemmy or nostr or Simplex or Haveno or something like robosats.

In my simpleminded approach, a wallet public key could have multiple reputations associated with it (e.g. seller, buyer, arbiter). There would have to be a way to confirm that sellers actually "sold" and "buyers" actually bought and arbiters actually arbitrated....I'm sure this could be done in a hidden ZK way by adding transaction IDs to the reputation . Could this be abused since a person can create multiple wallets and trade with himself? Sure, but that could also be done in localmonero and it did fall apart.

I've tried to connect but there are so many options that I really don't know what to do. The link has a series of node addresses. What do I do with them. There are networks, people, chats, files, channels, forums, boards. Where do I enter the node information? As far as I can get so far is that I have a New Channel listed in Activity for monerohub. I can't subscribe to it or do anything except delete it. Can someone post a few screen shots from the beginning of how to get the boards for (I assume) monerohub . No explanation beyond the pictures is needed unless there's a "gotcha" step that's more complicated or behaves unintuitively.

I don't like CEXes and the whole transfer money in and transfer out process and Kraken appears to require an account. and I see a sign in. If ChangeNow or any other instant exchanges that don't require 3D KYC/AML, I'll use it. I haven't purchase XMR in the last few months since I have enough for a major emergency and I can't tie up more money, so I don't know the current state of instant exchanges. But when I do need to buy again, if I can't find an instant exchange with low KYC out there to buy XMR, I know that they still exist for the popular POW coins so I'd go the DEX route. But if those don't exist, I will be more open to explore other options like Haveno or Kraken.

There is no "we". Like fiat, Monero is used by activists and persecuted people on all sides of any issue or normies in messed up countries where banks prevent you from getting your own money or normies who long for something better (either new or from the before times).

I'd be perfectly happy if the fiat system returned to the 1980s when you could get a bank account without ID, banks had to bribe you to share purchase history with "partners", banks didn't censor you because of your politics, you weren't asked questions or restricted when you wanted to remove your money from the bank, MMT did not exist, and governments provided fewer services so they taxed you less. But that world isn't coming back (at least not without a collapse). A 1960s world when fiat was still tied to gold would be better. But that's even more unrealistic without a collapse. There are still a number of people who still remember the before times, and many have a similar vision and we can reach them. Bitcoin isn't good enough...it's too public...the information on it is too permanent. Showing the account balance and purchase history of an arbitrary Bitcoiner to a normie is the surest way to turn him off to crypto, especially when that normie learns that you can find out the purchases made during their younger years. People don't want to be financial exhibitionists. So privacy coins like Monero are our only hope and our only hope to reach the normie.

People who do not remember the before times tend to either accept he current state or lean to a form of libertarianism or anarchism or agorism.

IMO, it's a good thing there is no "we". It means Monero is for everyone.

It doesn't need to be on a device. You can create a "book" at the local binding store containing 200 samples of "Vogon poetry" ( http://spaceinvaders.epizy.com/vogon.html?i=1 ) . Your seed phrase can be scattered in a memorised pattern within the book. You can bring that book with you anywhere and have multiple copies in different locations.

An old school method is to write a note with every fifth word being a seed word. Keep that note among 20 others so you cannot know what is relevant.

It's nowhere near as complicated as this. Anarcho-Capitalism inevitably leads to Crony-Capitalism since some people out-compete others and eventually you arrive at a state where its possible to 51% attack any system (e.g. Cantillon Effect). There is only one solution, complete decentralisation in everything so that no-one person can dominate. Bitcoin's main weakness was the lack of privacy (so real life attacks such as censorship, KYC regulations, etc could happen), lack of ASIC resistance (so power centralises), transaction speed so you have to rely on L2s, and the inability to mine your own transactions to push them forward. Monero is far better but it is not free from these issues. Mining should be so light that all wallets do it and the chance of centralisation is near zero.

The reasons you give for using Monero don't resonate with most people. No matter what political system you're under, most people generally live very similar lives, separated more by the city/rural divide than anything else. So even if you convince people of all the threats, they'd shrug their shoulders and adapt, no matter what actually happens. Every once and a while, things get really out of whack, like during the lockdowns, but they can't stay that way because people get bored of the political blah blah and tired of being manipulated and just go back to normal despite the consequences. Revolution doesn't defeat tyrants, indifference does.

So what can be done to help Monero? Just increase the parallel/circular economy. Convince shop owners that crypto in general allows them to avoid credit card service charges and that there are only a few cryptos that are actually used, Monero being one of them. Host Monero meetups in restaurants and convince them to accept Monero during the meetup. Talk to farmers and get them to accept. Get content creators and online services to avoid dealing with payment processors and accept Monero. Basically, the usual stuff. Also, improve Monero technology. There are a lot of gaps that need filing to make the user experience as easy as credit card to use and banks to manage your money. Make it easier to live off Monero using by providing services like Spritz finance (https://www.spritz.finance/). Yes these are KYCed services, but you are already KYCed by your landlord, tax department, and electricity company so there is no loss of privacy. This does, however, allow you to live on Monero without having a bank account and some services can be made non-KYC when possible.