My 7a cost $300 this summer. Very expensive for me but I don’t regret. 8 is around $400 in that store now that 9 is out, maybe it would drop in price with time (or as 9a comes out?).

How do people who don’t have smartphones do it? Is there some harder roundabout way?

You can at least swap to BTC from XMR. Although I avoid that because BTC has big fees.

Yeah, point is - just how thoroughly do they check if the info is fake? Like, you reveal a realistic name and a real address somewhere.

What about putting believable but fake info there?

It is not about customizations - again, my argument was about features as basic as not having ads online. Or for some people - accessing their bank app (including phone payments, which Apple also made impossible there).

My point was that I too put zero effort into my daily drivers, and can easily have perks that Apple would deny.

My point was that if you want something slightly outside of what Apple wants - something as basic as a Youtube app - it becomes “a ton of effort and potentially impossible”. A custom Android OS would indeed face more trouble than a stock Android/iOS (like with bank apps, again), but I was thinking more about desktop Linux, which would just exist without arbitrarily bothering you.

Also bank sanctions are rare but are applied to a ton of people simultaneously, which is also the case when an average person can find themselves at odds with their own phone.

IDK, iPhones might be easy when you’re using them in relatively narrow usecases, but ridiculously hard or even impossible to use in certain way. Your bank gets sanctioned and its apps removed from App Store? You need to go to the bank’s office and do a dance with a tambourine. Want adblocking in your browser? There is none, only some DNS solutions. Want an adless Youtube client with extended functionality? Too bad. Not to mention that Apple ecosystem would not even be a point of reference for most, as most would be unable to afford this all.

There are distros that do just that - exist without bothering you.

Yeah, but the powerful, expensive exploits are not spent on average people - they’re for the important targets.

Because your actual threat is most likely passive government surveillance rather than targeted attacks?

Also the size. My “a” was already at the edge of being usable with one hand, while Pro is even bigger. Plus - the "a"s don’t have glass backs, unlike the Pro and even the normal ones.

My 7a being $300 was already very expensive for me. None of those prices are acceptable for a phone of all things.

At least in some places, having open wi-fi without KYC is illegal, so the neighbors aren’t going to do this - passwordless is not the default.

I don’t think “feeling like an idiot” is productive. People helping scam victims try to make them not feel embarrassed, as it can get in the way of thinking rationally about this.

I think you should not feel like an idiot in this case. Just keep in mind that EVERYONE can fall for a scam, even the experts. The people who think they wouldn’t are themselves likely victims.

App-based would be bad, as bank apps are notoriously unfriendly to people who don’t own Google/Apple smartphones. Rather, a TOTP or Yubikey.

It was soon after Samourai arrests, so apparently the owners got scared of potential cryptocurrency crackdown and legal pressure. Its closure was pretty abrupt.

Localmonero died recently :( Haveno is the one that is taking its place.

I avoid KYC exchanges at all cost. I am less concerned about law enforcement in this case and much more about leaks.