Monero Talk

Merged Mining and Proof of Useful Work - Security Implications for Monero. W/ Francisco Cabanas | EPI 358

July 31st, 2025  |  1 hr 17 mins

articmine, bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, cubic, fincen, fungible, monero, monerotalk, monerotopia, privacy, privacycoin, samurai wallet, xmr

TODAY'S SHOW: This episode of Monero Talk featured a discussion with Arctic (Francisco) on key developments in Monero and the broader crypto ecosystem. Arctic shared updates on his work optimizing scaling for full chain membership proofs, addressing concerns about increased transaction sizes and verification times.

They discussed the Samurai Wallet case, where developers pled guilty to money transmission violations tied to fees sent to operators, reinforcing existing FinCEN guidance rather than creating new law.

The main topic centered on the emerging “Cubic” cryptocurrency, which uses Monero merge-mining under the guise of “proof of useful work.” Arctic warned that if Cubic amasses significant hash rate, it could threaten Monero’s network security, similar to the 2018 ASIC attack, and suggested countermeasures like miner education and potential token sell-offs. The conversation also contrasted proof of stake’s flaws with proof of work’s resilience and concluded with updates on Monero’s full chain membership proofs—expected around 2026—which aim to improve fungibility despite larger transaction sizes and longer verification times, mitigated through parallel processing and hardware optimizations.

New FinCEN regulations will label you “guilty until proven innocent “ for using any cryptocurrency privacy tool w/ Seth for Privacy

October 24th, 2023  |  1 hr 31 mins

bitcoin, blockchain, cakewallet, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, fincen, localmonero, monero, moneronews, monerotalk, monerotopia, privacy, privacycoin, sethforprivacy, stealth, technology, xmr, xmrnews

TODAY'S SHOW: Douglas Tuman interviews Seth for Privacy, a Privacy tech advocate and Head of Strategy and Marketing for Foundation devices.

The two discuss Seth’s Freedom.Tech article on the extreme proposal fincen announced last week to extend the patriot act to include all cryptocurrency privacy tools.

Doug and Seth breakdown Fincens proposed regulations. Discussing the false justifications they cite, the potential implications on the financial institutions that will have to comply with these regulations, the impact on the users of crypto privacy tools, what privacy tools the regulations as written cover, including whether Monero is one of them, the suspected real reason why fincen and legislators are motivated to attack crypto privacy tools, and ultimately why Monero users and the wider crypto privacy community should be optimistic and focused on opting out and building out a parallel economy outside of the State controlled fiat system.

Cryptocurrency Regulations with Simon Lelieveldt

January 26th, 2021  |  1 hr 2 mins

bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, fincen, fintech, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, regulation, regulatoryconsultant, simonlelieveldt, technology, xmr, xmrnews

TODAY'S 🎙SHOW: Douglas Tuman interviews Simon Lelieveldt, a Regulatory Consultant for Payments and Blockchain

Monero's Organic Growth w/ Core Team Member ArticMine

January 17th, 2021  |  1 hr 16 mins

articmine, bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, fincen, monero, moneronews, moneropolicyworkinggroup, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

TODAY'S 🎙SHOW: Douglas Tuman interviews Francisco Cabanas..aka ArticMine. For those of you that are new to Monero, Francisco is the man! He is a Monero Core Team member that has been actively researching and investing in cryptocurrencies since 2011.  He holds a phd in physics and is an expert in the field of cryptocurrency scaling — specifically Monero’s elegant dynamic blocksize architecture.  He is also at the forefront of understanding how regulators will likely deal with crypto.

FinCEN’s attack on Crypto with Fight for the Future: Evan Greer & Joe Thornton

December 29th, 2020  |  51 mins 19 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, cryptoregulation, decentralized, evangreer, fightforthefuture, fincen, joethornton, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, regulation, technology, xmr, xmrnews

TODAY'S 🎙SHOW: Douglas Tuman interviews Deputy Director, Evan Greer and video producer Joe Thornton of fight for the future, a non profit organization that fights for internet freedom.