December 2020 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

BITCOIN - This machine kills govts
by professor rat 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

Price is not how the revolutionary cypherpunk judges Btc value- collapse of govts is. Btc works for anarchism above all else. Btc rocks. Btc cuts through, clarifies and captures the rapid-evolutionary teen spirit. Btc - mark my words - will not only progress cypherpunk, crypto-anarchism but also save that other moribund institution known as the coderpunks list.

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Re: referendum to "reset" Trump's right to re-run in 2024 and 2028 -- DECRYPT - becoming human
by Zenaan Harkness 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

It is unlikely that a presidential executive order, ordering any referendum (to ascertain the will of the people) would be successfully opposed in say a legal challenge. There are other paths as well. The people are the ultimate sovereigns. On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 08:37:33PM +0000, wrote: > That method is called a constitutional convention. It would require, AFAIK, > all states (their legislatures I assume) to call for this, not just a > majority or plurality. Even the Southern Insurrection did not evoke such a > reaction. > > On Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 8:32 PM Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> wrote: > > > Interesting. > > > > Well then, the procedure is implicit - the same procedure followed by > > those who first formed it and/or the amendments. > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 02:14:26PM +0000, wrote: > > > AFAIK, there is no provision in the Constitution for a federal > > referendum. > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 3:49 AM Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> wrote: > > > > > > > On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 08:45:59PM -0600, \0xDynamite wrote: > > > > > > > There is no government that is so perfect as to not allow some > > > > portion > > > > > > > of monies and holdings to be petitionable and used by the People. > > > > > > > > > > > > Quite an interesting concept. > > > > > > > > > > > > Here and there, many utopian community attempts have been gifted > > land > > > > by a wealthy or land-holding benefactor, and such experiment in > > community > > > > begins again. > > > > > > > > > > > > They have (almost?) always failed - and from internal reasons, not > > > > "external govt clamp down", notwithstanding the Wacos... > > > > > > > > > > It's true, because none of them had as sophisticated set of > > principles > > > > > and balance of power as the Constitution already. I've adapted, in > > > > > fact, the Constitution to this end at appropedia.org, which > > hopefully > > > > > you can find, if interested. Things like doubling the term if a > > > > > person gets re-elected and reverting to the original term if they > > > > > don't > > > > > > > > Interesting. > > > > > > > > The USA could get/give a reset to Trump (same as Putin), with a > > > > referendum, since Trump's first term was basically cock blocked the > > whole > > > > way. > > > > > > > > Trump's right to run for presidency could simply be "reset" with a > > > > referendum. > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- a self-organizing government that requires no oversight from > > > > > above. > > > > > > > > > > marxos > > > > > >

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Schlicter: "attack the enemy in a manner the enemy can neither limit nor control" - [PEACE]
by Zenaan Harkness 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

Kurt Schlicter on the war path, oh it's on muh gritty muffaduckas :D It’s Time for Us Conservatives to Riot https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2020/09/28/its-time-for-us-c… ... It’s a lie. They have nothing real. They have no combat power, no tactical control of anything besides a few square blocks, and they only have that because the cops are held back by liberal city leaders. They have no more than the power we give them by fearing them and reacting to them. So, civilians kicking their sissy tails is a meaningless exercise. For us, a riotous riot gets us nothing. Plus, we own the stuff that would get burned down. That means a traditional riotous riot is a dumb strategy for us, a counterproductive move that would play into the left’s nearly-nonexistent strengths while exposing our weaknesses. Instead, we should riot our way. That is, attack the enemy in a manner the enemy can neither limit nor control and both cause real damage to its forces while demonstrating, as part of our own information operation, that we are in control. There are two components to our riot. The first is a riot at the ballot box. We need to ruthlessly eliminate all opposing candidates of either party. That means mobilizing to turn out votes and to vote viciously. Your nice city councilman who is kind and gentle and sort of squishy? He cut the ribbon at the petting zoo and send you emails about a library book drive? Yeah, he needs to go in favor of the bomb-thrower who wants to buy the cops a new armored personnel carrier. No Democrats, not ever. No soft Republicans, not ever. Only harsh conservatives who loudly live the dogma. Elect conservawoke candidates who understand the threat, and who savor the opportunity to use their political power to harm the left in every way they can. ...

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Fwd: [Cryptography] Bitcoin is a disaster.
by Robert Hettinga 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

> Begin forwarded message: > > From: Ray Dillinger <bear(a)sonic.net> > Subject: [Cryptography] Bitcoin is a disaster. > Date: December 28, 2020 at 9:07:03 PM AST > To: cryptography <cryptography(a)metzdowd.com> > > > Okay, this may be just my depressive side talking, or it may be the > stress of the last year just boiling over. But I'm inclined to think > it's not and it isn't. > > It is my opinion that Bitcoin is a failure. Worse than that, it's a > disaster. > > The pseudonymity of coins being owned by the bearer of some > cryptographic key is a failure; People have been eavesdropping and > aggressively analyzing the block chain from day 1. And the block chain > will always be there, it will always be public, and it will always be > subject to further analysis. And we are learning that analysis of that > record is sufficient to destroy any pretense of anonymity or > pseudonymity. > > The scarcity of block chain space has led people to re-invent every > last feature of the banks they thought they were going to be escaping. > Including debt brokering (lightning network) and fractional-reserve > banking, starting with the case of Mt.Gox and continuing to ventures > today by "responsible" businesspeople who just don't get, or don't > care, or both, that the entire reason the system existed, as far as the > early adopters were concerned, was to get away from exactly that. They > have made Bitcoin into a debt-based system like any other; as long as > the "exchange" holds your keys for you, there is no obligation for them > to maintain assets equal to the deposits. You can't prove that they > are, or aren't, maintaining sufficient assets until after those assets > are spent and the evidence appears in the block chain. > > And it's useless for small transactions. Had it been deployed to a > market the size of, say, a college campus it could bear the load and > the bidding for block space wouldn't exceed the value of most > transactions. But had it been deployed to a market the size of a > college campus, the small pool of miners available would make mining > bursty and unstable, and the block chain therefore not well protected > from tampering. Same could have happened to Bitcoin early on, which is > why Satoshi was mining like crazy and jumping on when needed to prop up > the block rate and back off again when the blocks were coming too fast. > > And that brings us to mining. Bitcoin mining has encouraged corruption > (Because it's often done using electricity which is effectively stolen > from taxpayers with the help of government officials), wasted enormous > resources of energy, fostered botnets, centralized mining activity in a > country where centralization means it's effectively owned by exactly > the kind of government most people thought they *DIDN'T* want looking > up their butts and where the people who that government allows to "own" > this whole business work together as a cartel. > > There's a pretense of monitoring the network to guard against a 51% > attack, but to me it seems pretty clear that what they're guarding > against is merely the mistake of the cartel failing to give the latest > warehouse full of miners a distinct network identity. The whole idea > of proof-of-work mining is broken the instant hardware comes out which > is specialized for mining and useless for general computation because > at that point the need to have compute power for other purposes is > absolutely irrelevant in having any effect on mining, and there ceases > to be any force that causes mining to be distributed around the world. > It becomes a "race to the bottom" to find where people can get the > cheapest electricity, and then mining anywhere else - anywhere the > government tries to make sure ordinary people actually get the benefit > from electricity bought for tax money, for example - becomes first > pointless, then a net loss. > > > Mining is f***ng broken, and ASICs make it actively work against a > significant number of its design goals. > > So, Bitcoin was a good effort, it deployed some new ideas and > technology, and showed that at some scale the "block chain" idea > worked, but ultimately, although a successful proof of concept, failed > to deliver. It doesn't scale, except by becoming the very thing it was > supposed to replace. > > The more scalable the network becomes, the more centralized it becomes, > until ultimately a "scalable" cryptocurrency would be doing things > exactly the same way as a credit card processor. > > Bear > > > _______________________________________________ > The cryptography mailing list > cryptography(a)metzdowd.com > https://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography

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Can Bitcoin Ever Become Worthless?
by professor rat 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

TL/DR - No. https://decrypt.co/41863/can-bitcoin-ever-become-worthless

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Fwd: [Cryptography] Bitcoin is a disaster.
by professor rat 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

Btc can justify its electricity use 'enough' to rationalize its unique POW existence. Ditto its decentralization ( as opposed to the c-punk, distributed ideal ) Closing it down now - were it possible - would only guarantee a more distributed replacement - look what happened to Silk Road. Then individuals have stashed $8.7 trillion in tax havens - there’s no huge political constituency dedicated to stopping that - and idiots - like that dingbat eunuch-moron, honky-Kraken-rider, Bob Hettinga - keep querying Btc’s value proposition. Jesus Fucking Christie. Whats wrong with all the Trumpofascist morons on this list? You miss out?

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Bitcoin is a disaster
by professor rat 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

After a one-two combination like APster 1996-2006 and Wikileaks 2006 - 2010, I guess Btc looks a little weak and weedy. Especially with such a chickenshit pussy eunuch like " Satoshi' as lead c-punk. Meh! However, Btc has bootstrapped incredible value and created the sure and certain market for a ubiquitous electronic P2P cash system that is not only more cypherpunk but even approaches the cyberspatial realization of anarchism. That is its power and that will be its everlasting glory. Just remember cryptoanarchy is a system larger than any crypto-currency and its still not really been trialled in its entirety. Some of you may remember this from 2001. Cypherpunks Subject: Everyone a remailer: Everyone a Mint: Everyone an assassin https://marc.info/?l=cypherpunks&m=100872510706876&w=2 Two out of three ain't bad - I suspect the coming cryptocoins will be based on something more like Avalanch and be uncapped but doled out in line with global GDP as some sort of UBI. Financial information wants to be free! Quantum computers and stronger AI will help us design next-gen e-cash with far better UX and security and scale and sustainability. I have some Btc but I'm never selling and I can't wait for it to go extinct. Viva la revolution.

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Bloomberg as MAD magazine
by professor rat 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

Remember their what-me-worry, tiny spy-chip scare story? Here's another doozy. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Zq3jgISWs1QJ:https://… Life spies on you though nano-technology, then your crypto-currency fails then you die. No wonder the Mercatus morons sound so depressed lately.

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Exploits: TCP Stacks Jacked with Ripple20 Amnesia33
by grarpamp 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

https://www.jsof-tech.com/ripple20/ https://www.forescout.com/research-labs/amnesia33/ And OpenSSL announces its customary quarterly hack.

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DECRYPT - becoming human
by professor rat 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

Passion of youth no panacea - that was fine in the sixties for a while but this is now - that was then. Polling quickly reveals ' chosen peoples' with feet-of-clay. Blacks, women and yes, the youth, all carry significant reactionary demographics. Just like the general population. There is not even any hope for traditional anarchism since its descent into neo-Marxism and philosophical masturbating. But I remain optimistic. Time and time again the anarchist way of organizing proves itself superior. Its impossible any intelligent AI will ever miss this and act accordingly. So this is why I keep 'retreating forward' and calling on reinforcements from the future. The *Cypherpunk 2027* is another exercise in that. Six years at full warp and we could bring the singularity forward, institute global cryptoanarchy and anticipate intelligent machines passing any test. Tomorrow belongs to us.

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