As everyone has heard, Russia has launched a surprise invasion of Ukraine. The world is again faced with war, which could signal the next and possibly final war. This may be the biggest war since WW2, bigger than any of us, and goes beyond politics or nationality. This is a war at a time of peace when we are busy dealing with and recovering from the COVID-19 crisis. People are dying, and the world is guessing whether the West will join in or watch Ukraine fall to Putin’s ambitions.
We generally do not get involved in politics despite our personal views as a company. However, this is greater than politics, greater than anyone. This is a war that may end the world. It certainly is ending the lives of many innocent people in Eastern Europe. While there is little we can do, it would be wrong to profit off of it or fund it indirectly. We are canceling service to all Russian IPs and paying out outstanding balances.
We apologize to our Russian miners; many of you do not support the war. However, it is you who are supporting your nation. Without the people, Russia cannot operate. It is only through reducing the economic power of its people that we have a chance of affecting this war. We thank you for your loyalty, and I hope you understand that we do not make this decision lightly. Should this situation be resolved peacefully, we will happily welcome back all Russian miners and use our personal funds to make it up to you.
If you are in Ukraine and reading this now, know that the world is with you. We can’t change the situation ourselves. We call on other companies and people around the world to join us and make a difference together. This isn’t about politics; this is about preventing the end of the world and saving lives. Companies and people need to put the planet over profits in the modern era. Ukraine has four nuclear power plants. Even ignoring the chance of WW3, there is a chance of another Chernobyl should one of the plants be endangered. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan happened despite the plant having been forewarned so that they were shut down and built to withstand an earthquake. Everyone in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East are in danger of nuclear fallout should the worst happen. Notice that the world will only end not because people do something but because people know yet choose to do nothing.
I really appreciate your decision a lot, and I stand with you. I am also proud to be Flexpool member.
I understand that pools blocking access to Russia is just one part of the efforts needed. Saying that, I will try to do my part by blocking peers coming from Russia on my node. I will follow instructions from this website (blocking using built in Windows firewall).
I would also encourage Chia / @hoffmang to join the efforts and to block peers coming from Russia through dns-introducer.chia.net.
I am not willing to be affiliated with any Company actively engaging in war. Be it physical or economical nature.
Hence FlexPool is out of my scope now and future wise. I do not believe that War and Politics should have a place in the crypto world.
Besides that, a quick glance at all countries military spendings should make it quite apparent which countries are heavily engaged in war or not. But that is nothing to be discussed in this forum.
You continue to say politics shouldn’t be discussed or affiliated with crypto, then go on to discuss it. There are things in this world bigger than crypto, including what is happening, which affect the entire world in one way or another. If more companies take the stand, just that much more pressure to save innocent people.
God I hate to say this but I agree with the previous sentiment that your actions are completely antithetical to decentralization. Your company, your rules absolutely. But you can no longer claim to believe in decentralization which is a foundation of crypto. In fact, actions like this is precisely why we need strong cryptocurrency.
In Canada we have the right to “freedom of association”. Who we do business with is our right to choose. We aren’t censoring Russian transactions on the ethereum network only choosing not to profit off business that is channeling money into Russia that in some small part will fund the war.
We’re a business which pays taxes we are inherently centralized and we support crypto’s decentralization but that doesn’t mean our company should resemble a crypto network. We also kicked the bot posting underage pictures on our telegram last week would you have us be decentralized and not censor that? Would you service customers wearing KKK robes and buy graphics cards from someone that killed your parents? People are not machines and our company’s policies reflect that we have a heart.
in the DPR and LPR, more than 2 thousand civilians died at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities, these are the same children and parents, why were you silent for 8 years, they burned people alive in Odessa, where were you? you sat in silence, you didn’t give up Ukraine, and now for some reason you went against Russia, it’s disgusting, and this shows that your opinion is imposed on you.
You forgot to mention that Russians were firing live rounds from that building, that they were throwing stones from the roof of that building. Both sides were armed and both sides killed people from the other side. Same in DPR and LPR.
I want to join in and give my opinion to this. I think the chia community should stay out of politics. I respect your opinion but I don’t share it. The world is complicated and geopolitics is a science by itself.
It’s very interesting to listen to some people that see geopolitics without emotions as George Friedman or Peter Zeihan (there is a lot content on YouTube). It gives u a good feeling of understanding of how our so called elites see the world.
We actually intent to join with 3000 NFT a pool and flexpool was first on our list. I am not saying we won’t do it but honestly Virtue Signaling is a behaviour we strictly reject. There is too much cancel culture going on already.
…and this is precisely why politics and and religion should not be allowed on many forums. The owner of the forum should have the right to choose what is acceptable and what is not. And so should the individual.
If flexpool.io want to make this stand, that is fine, but realistically they could have done it silently without posting in a forum (and is it only this forum or many others ? I check last night when the original post first went up and could not see any ‘annoucement’ on their website).
Bottom line: Do as you see fit to meet your own personal or company ethics on this. But don’t lambast others for their choices.
Good follow your heart, not your wallet and not general clichés like “politics have no place in crypto”.
Like you said this isn’t just some conflict, this will impact the entire world for many many years to come.
Let us all pray that your rather bleak predictions don’t actually come to pass
Virtue signaling implies we aren’t taking a large financial hit doing this. Also we have employees or their families directly in the line of fire here so this is quite personal to us. That being said feel free to choose where to farm just as we choose who to serve.