Mission is good, but how do you protect those people who disclose information to you ?
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> In fact, we pledge to distribute to tippers $200 million out of every $1 billion we collect.
What? Donating 20% of profits is great, but this sounds very weird. Is the only thing that drives this revenue donations? In which case, why do we need a rent seeking intermediary? Nostr has bitcoin tips built in, and you don't have to pay anyone to send money to whomever you want.
Have you tried actually paying with Lighting and Bitcoin before? You definitely are paying someone a fee for mining / processing the transaction.
For whistleblowing though, Monero would be top tier.
Also I am pretty sure that there are already systems which can give a list of numerous crypto accounts from one thing but still monero would be my best choice for such kind of things tbh given how usdc can still hold/censor your money in a somewhat degree y'know, maybe there are some freedom usd things or something but at that point, having them in monero makes more sense.
These are the few applications of cryptocurrency which can genuinely be used (I am a bit of crypto skeptic because I don't like what the community has become, my only respect is for monero community really and some nano contributors or some chain developers in general but they form a very small portion and the markets don't move because of them and no matter how much trust I have in a project, I don't trust markets and I don't want to play a fool's game compared to stock markets where there is genuine productivity in conservative stock markets generally speaking although that productivity is also de-linking thanks to AI in S&P 500 )
To be really honest, I just don't like crypto personally except stablecoins and that too in just a very small degree, That is my personal experience that I am not going to take part in something which feels like an speculative asset no matter its use-cases as most of these would just converge on one or two and if not, they would have some niche use cases and their use case right now is feeling more and more like a ponzi scheme more and monero is the only one which doesn't feel that way really.
Whistleblowers take all of the risk here, and only get 20% of the proceeds. Seems like a pretty shit deal, besides being confoundingly greedy.
There already are people you can trust, who aren't anonymous, who are professionals bound by ethics, and who aren't out to sue for profit: Journalists. investigations@icij.org
But the team must be known, and the company should be transparent.
> Our founders, who remain anonymous, following in the footsteps of some of our nation’s most impactful justice efforts, understand the inherent challenges faced by those seeking justice on an imbalanced playing field.
OK, seriously, who do they expect to trust them?
Actual prospective whistleblowers, or someone else?
> Once Tips are validated and determined to have a likely positive impact on justice, our whistleblowers receive their initial compensation. Then, based on the ultimate justice achieved, our whistleblowers are compensated again. [...] Earn Big Rewards - Tippers can earn rewards of $1,000,000 or more.
Maybe they only need opportunists and scammers to trust them?
And donors/investors? And corporations with a problem-goes-away cost-of-business budget?
Anecdote behind thinking a bit about this... I was discussing cofounding a startup that incidentally overlapped a bit with this space. One of the very top concerns was that we needed to be seen as trustworthy, to both employers and workers, and that trust would be a significant part of the value that we brought.
Then my prospective cofounder (a real straight-shooter) pointed out that one possible side effect of that trust (if we achieved it), was that workers might come to us with information about a company that we'd be obligated to report to gov't authorities, against the expectations of the worker. It was one of the many things we'd need to be very clear about, in course of earning and honoring the trust that enabled the good stuff we could do.
Don’t let techbros with a snazzy website template do a middle-man act on whistleblowing. Christ. These people just want a cut of the settlement.
I mean, this idea is profoundly dangerous. Every link in a whistleblowing chain increases the risk of someone being threatened, ruined or worse — hospitalised, defenestrated, family threatened -- before they can talk.
If you are going to blow the whistle, be paranoid as fuck. Ask the journalists to describe what assurances they get from their editor and publisher. Ask them to put you in touch with someone who blew the whistle to them and who can safely talk, so you can find out how they handled it. Ask them if they've ever had to help someone get the hell out of Dodge. Don't trust anyone to broker this stuff but yourself.
eg. https://www.nytimes.com/tips, https://www.washingtonpost.com/anonymous-news-tips/
> National Security Disclaimer We do not accept any tips or material of any kind related to matters of national security.
> Legal Violations Disclaimer Do not send any information or material that violates or breaches any contracts or legal obligations.
The more you write, the more you can read from others, perhaps? Some type of value needs to be assigned to Tips. Best ones can go public, or pay to make it public?? Decentralization would ensure uptime. GlassDoor already has some revealing company reviews.
> 8.6 Indemnification. If you behave in a way that gets us in legal trouble, we may exercise legal recourse against you. You agree to indemnify, defend (if we so request), and hold harmless TruthWave and our officers, directors, suppliers, partners, and agents from and against any third-party claims, demands, losses, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from (a) the content you post or submit, (b) your use of the Services (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any rights of a third party. Your indemnification obligation will survive the termination of these Terms and your use of the Services.
So if I submit a tip to TruthWave, and they get sued, I'm on the line to pay for TruthWave's legal defense? Yeah...no.
mind-blight•3mo ago
It seems like they need people willing to stretch their name to create credibility.
ramon156•3mo ago
dns_snek•3mo ago
dessimus•3mo ago
To pull an example out of thin air, would you risk whistleblowing to TruthWave on Amazon if you knew that the Washington Post was running TruthWave?
tptacek•3mo ago
exasperaited•3mo ago
This is why whistleblowers now often work with two different organisations with different ownership/politics, or in different branches of media, or with a journalist backed by the ICIJ (e.g. the Mossack Fonseca leak investigation was shared with the ICIJ).
But yes, any generic online whistleblowing broker with dozens of concurrent cases is going to be such an obvious target for state or organised crime interference. Anyone making a business of brokering whistleblowing for a cut of the reward is an obvious risk.
tptacek•3mo ago
hn_acc1•3mo ago
embedding-shape•3mo ago
joshribakoff•3mo ago
6r17•3mo ago
GuinansEyebrows•3mo ago
i think this is a good goal but i question the platform, based on this point.
hn_acc1•3mo ago
These days? Pfft...