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flag of ukraine at dusk

Flexpool takes principled stand against Russian aggression

Posted on February 25, 2022February 25, 2022 by Chris Dupres

In a message on various subreddits, Ethereum and Chia pool Flexpool has announced that they will be halting all services to Russian IPs and kicking off their Russian miners and farmers because of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine.

I did not want to get political on my site yesterday. I have a lot of Russian readers, and I like almost every Russian I have met in the Chia community. I do not believe that any of them would invade another country, given the opportunity (unless Solana was a country). However, Russia has done great evil here and Flexpool is doing what they can about it. Their message is below, but please go read it and offer them your support.

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.

Flexpool

Now, I think its possibly a little naïve to hold ordinary Russians responsible for Putin’s actions considering the personal cost borne by those who oppose him domestically. But at the same time Flexpool is making an ethical choice not to send money into Russia anymore because they are correct just spending money from the outside world in Russia helps the war machine.

And I think that is the important point that I think all farming and mining pools should consider – by sending foreign money into Russia right now you are supporting the invasion of Ukraine. Even if only tangentially. Buying milk in Russia from a private grocer, if done with outside money, helps to circulate hard currency in their economy and reduces the effectiveness of sanctions. And cryptocurrency is going to be a popular way for Russian oligarchs to attempt to evade sanctions meant to punish for this invasion. I would like anyone sending crypto to Russia, pools and other businesses, to strongly consider this. Some things are more important than a neutral, global network. Or from another angle, we cannot have a neutral, global network while land invasions are underway.

I really appreciate that Flexpool has considered this, and made the hard decision. I know the team at Flexpool fairly well as these things go, and while I may frequently disagree with them on technical or other Chia-related matters on this we are in total agreement. Russia is doing great evil here. It takes a lot of moral courage to be the first to do something that might upset your user base, and Flexpool did not hesitate.

There is not a ton we can do as farmers individually here, but some folks are running the following script to block all connections to Russia from their farm in order to boot Russia from the distributed network. I am going to share it here for anyone that does want to join Flexpool in their boycott.

# Block incoming connections from Russian IPs to your Chia node using iptables and ipset.
# Adapted from https://mtxserv.com/vps-server/doc/how-to-block-ip-addresses-by-country
# Execute as root or using sudo.
 
# 1. Install ipset:
apt install ipset
# or
yum install ipset
 
# 2. Create a new ipset called "ru".
ipset create ru hash:net,port
 
# 3. Create a file with the following contents, make it executable:
#!/bin/bash
 
COUNTRIES=('ru')
 
ipset flush countries
 
for i in "${COUNTRIES[@]}"; do
    echo "Ban IP of country ${i}"
 
    for IP in $(wget -O - https://www.ipdeny.com/ipblocks/data/countries/${i}.zone)
    do
        ipset add ru $IP,8444
    done
done
 
# 4. Execute the file you have just created to fill the ipset, it should take only a few seconds.
 
# 5. And finally, create an iptables entry to put the new ipset to work.
iptables -I INPUT -m set --match-set ru src -j DROP

Related

10 thoughts on “Flexpool takes principled stand against Russian aggression”

  1. godz says:
    February 25, 2022 at 7:53 am

    Man, this is most stupid thing I ever seen.
    Ban Russian IP?
    Answer – VPN or switch to chinease hpool.
    All sanctions, like a medal, have two sides

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    February 25, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    Thanks to Flexpool.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says:
    February 25, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    ::CLOWN::

    This dumb posturing accomplishes nothing, as well as sharing a script so other can feel superior.

    How does outside money support Russians war. A large part of his army is only there for money, but some how limiting the average Russians money influx will stop his war machine? If anything it helps it if day to day people are forced to do things they don’t want to do for livelihood, like join the army. But likely it does nothing. Russian oligarchs are not mining on flex pool or using chia.

    Reply
  4. karabas barabas (@Crypto_Karabas) says:
    February 26, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    I should say at once that I am a citizen of Russia and my opinion may seem biased to some, but I think that a stupid and not far-sighted decision. For many Russians mining and other activities (of which there are not many) is the only way of independent existence in our country, thanks to the income from mining (I mean myself now) I can afford to openly express my disagreement with the actions of the leadership of my country and not be afraid that I will be fired from my job and I will not be able to support my family. By his action Flexpool and the author of this blog deprives not the leadership of the country, but ordinary citizens of the same people who are suffering now in Ukraine. This statement is very much like a populist statement and it seems that the pool wants to draw more attention to itself, which it has already been seen to do. I would like to wish you discretion and not to do anything foolish.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says:
    February 26, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    FYI: https://vug.pl/takeRussiaDown.html

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says:
    February 27, 2022 at 6:35 pm

    fascist act.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous says:
    February 27, 2022 at 9:33 pm

    how about we do the same for Canadians
    stand with Russians that are protesting this war

    Reply
  8. Nrt Zhou says:
    February 28, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    Look at a thing to have their own thinking, should not be the media with a rhythm.
    Ukraine’s geography would have been well balanced among the great powers. The current government knows better than to take sides, yet it insists on putting Ukraine in a geopolitical vortex. Such behavior is extremely irresponsible to the people.
    Sun Tzu said: military affairs are of great importance to the country. The land of the dead and the road to survival should not be overlooked. War is a matter of national importance. It concerns the life and death of the Army and people, and the survival of the nation.
    No nation will go to war unless it is backed into a corner.
    NATO never expands east and ends up in Ukraine? The United States does not allow Cuban missiles to be deployed, but they want to be deployed to the Russian-ukrainian border? “devastating” economic sanctions on Russia? Broken North Creek 2? None of this has ever been reported in the press.
    War is always suffering the common people, the Ukrainian people, the Russian people, even including us, the people of the world, after all, soaring prices. It is hoped that the war will soon be over and Ukraine will soon find a way to develop in a balanced manner.

    Reply
  9. Anonymous says:
    March 6, 2022 at 1:18 pm

    All are welcome to my nodes.

    Reply
  10. Anonymous says:
    March 14, 2022 at 8:29 am

    Thanks to Flexpool,

    Reply

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