VOSTO EMISIO: Where Financial Freedom Meets Design

Vosto Emisio is the first “privacy-centric” marketing agency I’ve seen online. How did you get the idea to start an agency like this and what is its purpose?

Every day, our dislike for the establishment grows a little. It’s a natural reaction if you ask me, at least for the people who actively observe global events.

Some of us in the team are from countries with the highest tax rates in the world, where we pay close to 50% tax on income, so we’re basically working half the year for someone else.

However, our primary frustration lies in how the financial system gradually erodes individual privacy. The diminishing freedom over how people can use their hard-earned money is quickly turning into something restrictive.

Businesses have gone bankrupt because powerful entities froze their assets without justification or on wrongful grounds. Banks and financial institutions have collapsed and depositors lost millions in savings.

Banks are reducing the limits on the amount of physical cash an individual can withdraw, reflecting a shift towards digital transactions and far tighter control over cash flow.

The liberty to use your money as you please is no longer guaranteed, a perfect example being the Canadian government’s blacklisting of donations during the Canadian Freedom Convoy protest.

What happened during this protest highlighted a critical issue: the power of the authorities to control and restrict access to funds based on political and social stances. It’s unacceptable, and this incident is just one of many that highlight the urgent need for a new monetary solution in the economy.

It’s because of all this that we wanted to contribute and help build up a circular economy within Monero, leveraging our expertise in graphic design, animation, and marketing.

In order to break free from the current status quo, we must explore alternative methods for transacting goods and services, and Monero is really, really easy to use. It just works. You can send a transaction anywhere in the world in just a few minutes for less than 0.1 cent. Just compare the utility of that with PayPal or any other traditional financial intermediary.

What does “Vosto Emisio” mean?

“Vosto Emisio” is a term derived from Esperanto, where “Vosto” translates to “Tail” and “Emisio” means “Emission,” reflecting a unique aspect of Monero’s supply mechanism known as the Tail Emission.

This feature ensures the sustainability of mining rewards indefinitely, with the current tail emission rate at approximately 0.86% compared to the 1-2% annual increase in gold supply.

The tail emission is crucial for securing the Monero network, as it guarantees miners have a consistent incentive to verify transactions, thus maintaining the network’s integrity and functionality over the long term.

Could you show us some work from your favorite past project and tell us what made it special to you?

We enjoy working with all our clients, but one that really stood out to us was the rebranding of Liberation Travel.

I love what they’re selling: a way for the suppressed individual to unlock their individual right to freedom. It was enticing to blend the energy of the sovereign individual and mix it with travel and freedom with a focus on Latin America.

I was excited to update the website with the new logo you made for us last month! Do you think you could tell the readers more about the meaning behind it? perephoneia never had branding before, so I think it’s worth showing them how your work links to the project’s overarching vision.

Would be happy to! As always, we start by immersing ourselves in the brand we’re working with. What’s the core of the business? What makes people excited to visit or use its services? We found perephoneia is a place where aspiring artists go to read, seek inspiration, and learn.

After we believed we understood the core ideas behind perephoneia fairly well, we started researching the origins of the name. Stemming from Persephone’s myth, we researched ideas and objects that embody the core concepts of the project.

Our idea landed on the torch, a universal symbol for the “guiding light” and communicating enlightenment. The goddess Demeter actually carried a torch to find her daughter in Persephone’s myth.

All of this combined checked the marks for us for how we would want to portray perephoneia.

You’ve done a lot of great work for the Monero community and it’s clear you like the project. Why do you think people should use currencies like XMR and do you think it’s worth it for artists to find ways to accept it, too?

I will try to spark your interest by sharing a bullet point list below for why we love XMR:

• The currency enables global, borderless payments for less than 0.1 cents with full confirmation in just a few minutes.

• There’s no prying eyes, no forms to sign, and no invasive questions from financial intermediaries. You can have complete peace of mind.

• No one can censor your transactions or freeze your funds. We can finally be in control of our own money.

In some circles, Monero has a poor reputation because people fall into the trap of thinking that just because something is partly used by bad actors, it means that it’s bad for society. It’s not. Monero is just money. Privacy is not a crime and we all deserve to be in full control of our finances.

Since you focus on privacy and privacy-enhancing technologies, I thought it’d be good to ask what tools you’re currently using and recommend to others. Let’s see if we can get a list going for people who want to protect themselves and maintain their anonymity online.

We like to stay private and we’re always trying to get better at it. We currently have some basic systems in place… it’s nothing revolutionary, but we’re happy to share:

• IVPN is our VPN of choice (they even accept XMR!)
• CryptPad and Proton Drive for file sharing
• Matrix and Signal for encrypted messaging

Vosto’s PGP key: 2CA8 85AC 923F 07A3 3656 8425 83F1 9CFF 27BE A177

Working as a creative professional and keeping your computer free from spyware is almost impossible. Installing proprietary software like Adobe’s Creative Cloud and others renders the system partially compromised. How do you tackle this issue? What kind of workflow does your team currently use?

We have licenses for the programs we currently use. It’s unfortunately hard to do good work without proprietary solutions. We do, however, offer to and sometimes work in GIMP for the customers that require a FOSS only solution.

What’s next for Vosto Emisio?

Continue to design, produce and help distribute privacy-conscious projects and services to our community and beyond! No matter how big or small your project is, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

If you enjoyed this interview, please consider donating to perephoneia.art. Your support helps cover the hosting costs for the website, keeping it free and online for others to discover.

XMR address: 8Ab8K9o2pCkVBK8yszSf94SBSXpYbp5F8Y9NxXFhE9GiFTJnj94fXa66KtSxwtFc9m9NnzsRY7SynW4ZfLeAdrUm1kxWeQi