I'd much prefer paying cash to get a scratch card from a retailer like Mullvad does.
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2025
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Privacy
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This would be really neat, however it's not trivial to sell those everywhere. If you're lucky to live in a country or even city where they can get those to, you're golden. If you don't, you're screwed.
Unfortunately, as much as I love the idea and tech behind Monero, actually accepting it is not practical at all, as the coin is used a lot for criminal stuff and is thus very strictly followed by many agencies. We don't know if they can break it, but even they don't, businesses can get a rough treatment just for accepting Monero. It's perfectly understandable if they'd rather not do it.
Scratchcards are sold at ecommerce sites which makes them significantly more accessible. If you really want to be "anonymous" (with very big quotes) you can buy gift cards for those sites with cash then order to a collection point. Otherwise, sure, it's not as good as paying with cash but all there's a trail for is that you bought Mullvad credits that cannot be tied to any account.
Good point regarding ecommerce shops, was not aware they were sold there!
IIRC, they've stated that they won't accept Monero because it means they would fail external financial audits they need to remain in operation in Switzerland. Sign all you want, they won't do this.
Plus - y'all, email is not secure anyway. Even Proton. Why would you sign a petition to make the payment method more anonymous than the service they provide? Just send them cash by DHL.
It can be pseudoanonymous if you use it that way. If you login to it via tor for example and only use it to communicate to people who aren't related to your IRL identity.
Besides cash and mail is still much easier to track than Monero
they're not gonna listen to it....
does proton want to be constantly harassed (aka investigated informally without charges nor warrants) by fbi, police, mi5, mi6, Interpol, Europol, etc etc via kyc laws and money laundering laws because a few hundreds/thousands petitioners said "do this"? they would receive even more requests for user data (which often don't require warrants in many countries btw) than they already receive.
or would they rather continue to enable millions of users to escape censorship while still making lots of money and only sometimes harassed by LE?
in other words do you think proton is a conscience with software attached? or are they a money-making company that has slightly better values than certain other companies?
(rhetorical questions. i know the answers already)
no personal offense intended.
This 7 year old post in their forums has nearly 3 thousand upvotes: https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/935538-accounts-payments/suggestions/33188971-monero-payment-option
Yeah, I know. But in that petition, there's actually a screenshot of a tweet from the Proton VPN person.
I don't think it's that easy. the CEO Andy Yen talked about this briefly in this podcast, it boils down to financial auditors not liking cryptocurrencies. he said even just by accepting bitcoin most of the auditors won't agree to audit their company, all the while they are legally required to have regular audits
Mullvad seems to have figured it out
Being that they still treat Linux as a second class citizen, I'm guessing they just don't care.
Well, maybe that person didn't have permission to speak like that, but they said that they would get it into the summer plans in a screenshot right on the page.
tbh I didn't read the petition page until now because I didn't expect an official source, but this is going to be interesting
That's what actually makes me think that it could happen. Just because it was an official source.
another person here also highlighted that mullvad can already do btc + monero + traditional money, so I guess maybe it could just work that way.
interesting though, that mullvad had that for many years now, didn't it? and this podcast is not old. why did Andy say what he said?
Just use trocador.app
No need to add extra work for proton when a solution already exists.
All Cryptocurrencies Are Bad
That is your opinion and an opinion that we do not share. I agree with you that most cryptocurrencies are bad.
However, there are some real diamonds mixed in with the lumps of coal, and you should really try to find them.
Cryptocurrencies are a waste of resources and gives might to those with computing force, that is the mighty.
There is no reason to inbosom it.
Let's rather effort towards moneyless societies.
No, don't create a bigger market for the anonymous cryptocurrency. Crime is a bad thing (although with the state of things on war crimes I may have jumped the gun proclaiming that).
If promoting decentralized censorship resistant private money makes me a criminal then I'm happy to be a criminal.
If you need to see criminals, just look up pictures of politicians and you'll find them.