this is implemented in a way that forces all existing messaging services to implement this or shut down

This is not possible. Anybody can host a messaging service as a tor onion, and there is nothing they can do about it :)

The only way they can make it work is to basically only allow connections to whitelisted services (not even GFW does that).

proof of stake

well, already addressed that in my comment :)

proof of weight

seems to be mostly the same thing as PoS.

less resource-intensive schemes

Tell us about the options.

And I sure hope you are not talking about "less resource-intensive schemes" that are based on "let's give money to people who have the most money" thus making the cryptocurrencies that use it not only unfair but also even more centralized than bitcoin with its ASICs, right?

You naming it conscription instead of kidnapping doesn't mean it's not kidnapping. Talk about calling spade a spade..

That’s not freedom.

Have you read what I've written? Let me quote myself again:

Ukrainians who failed to escape Ukraine don’t really have a choice other live in fear that today might be the day they (or their family) get kidnapped and sent to the army, or try to escape and get caught by “heroes” of the border patrol who carefully watch that nobody escape the meat grinder (unless they give them a hefty bribe).

You're absolutely right about Russia having problems you've described, I've never said Russia is a good place to live (except when comparing to current situation in Ukraine) but in Ukraine people are getting kidnapped and sent to die! Literally! How can you even compare those two things?
If you don't like what happens in Russia - you can just leave. You are not a hostage! If you like Ukraine so much - go buy a ticket and join army as a volunteer.
If you don't like what happens in Ukraine - you can't do anything! You are not allowed to leave country, don't even dream about going to Russia! You can't even come close to a border! You are treated worse than a street dog! You can only try to hide from the government until it gets overthrown or until somehow the war ends.

That's quite a reasonable one, except

they were unable to discuss

because AFAICS nobody tried to discuss anything with them, so for me it wouldn't be an easy task to grade their discussion skills. On the other hand I suppose you have a point that their message doesn't invite a discussion either..

Have a good one.

Thanks, you too.

Before you block me as well (I suppose you will want to do that, as I similarly express unpopular opinions here), could you please answer just one question that intrigues me?

Why is the USA left (I hope it's not controversial to say that majority on lemmy are left-leaning?), that clearly considers itself to be more intelligent than the right (the right are all conspiracy theorists, all believe in flat earth, don't trust the science/vaccines, vote for Trump because they are dumb, etc.), is so incapable of having a civilized discussion and exchange of opinions, confuses facts and opinions, and instead prefers to silently downvote everything they don't agree with and block people with different opinions?

You might be providing this service with the best intentions, but, what prevents you from one day changing all of the records to your own address? Or changing a record whenever it is requested from "a-company-that-is-known-to-do-big-monero-payouts.domain"?
Again I am not saying this is your intention, but Monero's purpose is decentralized digital cash and I personally would not use such service for anything except maybe a convenient donation address that you don't expect to get big payout to.

Okay, so it finally has been resolved (Jan 8).

I got a refund, actually 2x of what I paid for the gift card as a compensation "for the time wasted", after speaking with Vik on Matrix.

The problem cited was "I guess our provider had some availability issues". So I wasn't scammed, and even earned some money in the end I guess.

Sent you an email. I would still prefer a gift card.

I think it would also be cool if you could make a post/comment explaining what exactly went wrong with my order and what was/will be done to make sure it will not happen again in the future to regain trust of myself and others reading this post in the future, but it is up to you obviously.

If he wanted to know this - he would have searched it (or read a wikipedia article about xmr). You are feeding a troll (or a very dumb person)

Because bitcoin is more of a religion than a cryptocurrency now, and therefore the bitcoin is the only true ~~god~~ crypto, everything else is heresy :)