October 2021 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Cryptocurrency: Securing Freedom of Speech
by grarpamp 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Seems some crypto hating Left-GovBank-sters dreamed up to propagandize FUD that Bitcoin is a 'Far Right' thing. That's false. But it can help protect free speech against censorship. Best adopt distributed privacy capable crypto today, since your speech will be censored someday too. https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-coronavirus-pandemic-technology-b… https://dailystormer.su/apocalypse-prep-retards-guide-to-using-bitcoin/ https://nordicresistancemovement.org/ https://counter-currents.com/ https://generationidentitaire.org/ https://www.identityevropa.com/ https://bitchute.com/ https://gab.com/ Far-right cryptocurrency follows ideology across borders BRUSSELS (AP) — The Daily Stormer website advocates for the purity of the white race, posts hate-filled, conspiratorial screeds against Blacks, Jews and women and has helped inspire at least three racially motivated murders. It has also made its founder, Andrew Anglin, a millionaire. Anglin has tapped a worldwide network of supporters to take in at least 112 Bitcoin since January 2017 — worth $4.8 million at today’s exchange rate — according to data shared with The Associated Press. He’s likely raised even more. Anglin is just one very public example of how radical right provocateurs are raising significant amounts of money from around the world through cryptocurrencies. Banned by traditional financial institutions, they have taken refuge in digital currencies, which they are using in ever more secretive ways to avoid the oversight of banks, regulators and courts, finds an AP analysis of legal documents, Telegram channels and blockchain data from Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency analytics firm. Anglin owes more than $18 million in legal judgments in the United States to people whom he and his followers harassed and threatened. And while online, he remains visible — most days, dozens of stories on the Daily Stormer homepage carry his name — in the real world, Anglin’s a ghost. His victims have tried — and failed — to find him, searching at one Ohio address after another. Voting records place him in Russia in 2016 and his passport shows he was in Cambodia in 2017. After that, the public trail goes cold. He has no obvious bank accounts or real estate holdings in the U.S. For now, his Bitcoin fortune remains out of reach. EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE that examines challenges to the ideas and institutions of traditional U.S. and European democracy. Beth Littrell, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center who is helping represent one of Anglin’s victims, says it’s grown harder to use the legal system to stamp out hate groups because now they operate with online networks and virtual money. “We were able to sue the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization, in essence out of existence,” she said. Doing the same today is much harder, she said. “The law is evolving but lagging behind the harm.” CURRENCY OF THE RADICAL RIGHT In August 2017, a week after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Anglin received 14.88 Bitcoins, an amount chosen for its oblique references to a 14-word white supremacist slogan and the phrase “Heil Hitler” because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Worth around $60,000 at the time, it was his biggest Bitcoin donation ever and would be valued at over $641,000 at today’s exchange rate. The source of the funds remains a mystery. Anglin now faces charges in U.S. court for conspiring to plan and promote the deadly march. By the time of Charlottesville, Anglin had been cut off by credit card processors and banned by PayPal so Bitcoin was his main source of funding. In his “Retard’s Guide to Using Bitcoin,” published in April 2020, he claimed to have funded the Daily Stormer exclusively through Bitcoin for four years. “I’ve got money now. I’ve got money to pay for the site for the foreseeable future,” he wrote in December 2020, as Bitcoin’s price surged. Anglin’s former lawyer, Marc Randazza, argued that political censorship by financial authorities drove Anglin to cryptocurrency by shutting him out of traditional banking, which he said is “more Nazi-like than Andrew Anglin could ever hope to be.” “Don’t create a black market and then be surprised there’s a black market,” Randazza added. While Anglin likely turned to Bitcoin for practical reasons, part of the appeal of cryptocurrency to the radical right is ideological. Bitcoin was developed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis when distrust of the global financial system was running high. It offers an alternative that doesn’t depend on banks. Instead, transactions are validated and recorded on a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain, which derives its authority from crowdsourcing rather than a class of elite bankers. As one white nationalist cryptocurrency guide circulating on Telegram puts it: “We all know the Jews and their minions control the global financial system. When you are caught having the wrong opinion, they will take it upon themselves to shut you out of this system making your life very difficult. One alternative to this system is cryptocurrency.” Richard Spencer, an American white supremacist, has dubbed Bitcoin the “currency of the alt-right.” It’s hard to tell how large a role cryptocurrency plays in overall financing for the far right. Merchandise sales, membership fees, donations in fiat currencies, concerts, fight clubs and other events, as well as criminal activity, are also common sources of revenue, government and academic research has shown. What is clear is that early adopters of Bitcoin, like Anglin, have profited handsomely from its increase in value over the years. Bitcoin prices are notoriously volatile. Since April, the currency has shed a third of its value against the U.S. dollar, then took a further drubbing last week when China declared cryptocurrency transactions illegal. Chainalysis collected data for a sample of 12 far-right entities in the U.S. and Europe that publicly called for Bitcoin donations and showed significant activity. Together, they took in 213 Bitcoin — worth more than $9 million at today’s value — between January 2017 and April 2021. These groups embrace a range of ideologies and include white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and self-described free-speech advocates. They are united by a shared desire to fight the perceived progressive takeover of culture and the state. “These people have real assets. People with access to hundreds of thousands of dollars can start doing real damage,” said John Bambenek, a cybersecurity expert who has been tracking the use of cryptocurrency by far-right actors since 2017. Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, Anglin’s webmaster for the Daily Stormer, has raked in Bitcoin worth $2.2 million at today’s values. The Nordic Resistance Movement, a Scandinavian neo-Nazi movement that’s been banned in Finland, Counter-Currents, a U.S.-based white nationalist publishing house, and the recently banned French group Génération Identitaire have each received Bitcoin that’s now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Chainalysis data shows. Two social media platforms that have been embraced by the far right, Gab and Bitchute, received a surge in Bitcoin funding in the lead up to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Since 2017, Bitchute has gotten Bitcoin worth nearly $500,000 at today’s values, about a fifth of which rolled in during the month of December 2020. Gab has gotten more than $173,000; nearly 40% came in during December 2020 and January 2021, Chainalysis data shows. On Aug. 1, Gab announced it was stepping up its fight against “financial censorship” and creating its own alternative to PayPal to “fight against the tyranny of the global elites.” PRIVACY COIN While cryptocurrencies have a reputation for secrecy, Bitcoin was built for transparency. Every transaction is indelibly — and publicly — recorded on the blockchain, which enables companies like Chainalysis to monitor activity. Individuals can obscure their identities by not publicly linking them to their cryptocurrency accounts, but with Bitcoin they cannot hide the transactions themselves.

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Internet goes down for millions, tech companies scramble as key encryption service expires
by jim bell 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

https://news.yahoo.com/internet-goes-down-millions-tech-021400230.html

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Grarpamps
by professor rat 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Go fuck yourself

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ProfRat
by grarpamp 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Grow up.

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Good free-speech money drives out bad
by professor rat 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Welcome to APster moderated cypherpunks - nobody has to die - but they do have to accept the new system. https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2021/4/13/is-content-moderation-a-d…

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Moore's Law will get us to ubiquitous quantum-based crypto-anarchism by 2028
by professor rat 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

CYPHERPUNK 2027 is specifically set up to bring the singularity forward ( from Kurzweil's conservative 2029 - 45 framework ) thats less then six years at full warp. Btw I expect global celebrations and solemn remembrances of the worlds greatest ever previous revolution in 2026. Less than six years from now at FULL WARP! ENGAGE!

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C-Punk calls into question the legal basis for the US government’s use of highly intrusive warrants
by professor rat 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

http://www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/2003-July/023219.html threats name an FBI agent assigned to the local multiagency Joint Terrorism Task Force and the government's lead prosecutor of terrorism cases in Colorado.

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Watchdog faults FBI for 'widespread' errors handling surveillance warrants
by professor rat 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

HEY! - THAT's a CRIME! The wounded eunuch screams echo in my ears. Govcorp zombies get off on this. It's like one of those tedious interminable " sovereign" / ' natural-rights"/ " Constitutional "debates that goes something like this: "You, Sir, are abusing power because you killed 25 citizens, when you should have only killed 15!" And the Powers That Be smile tolerantly. They have been doing this for a long time, and they know they are not threatened.

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Watchdog faults FBI for 'widespread' errors handling surveillance warrants
by jim bell 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

https://news.yahoo.com/watchdog-faults-fbi-widespread-errors-155649915.html WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department's internal watchdog on Thursday said he had uncovered "widespread non-compliance" with the FBI's domestic surveillance program, dealing the bureau another setback and raising questions about the accuracy of the information underpinning its wiretap warrants. Inspector General Michael Horowitz's findings mark the latest problem uncovered since 2019, when his office first discovered https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/mistakes-but-no-politic… the FBI had made numerous errors in its warrant applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as part of the early probe into contacts between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. Horowitz's report on Thursday entailed an audit of the FBI's so-called "Woods Procedures" - rules the bureau follows to ensure FISA applications to the court are "scrupulously accurate." "A failure to adhere to the Woods Procedures ... could easily lead to errors that do impact probable cause — and therefore potentially call into question the legal basis for the government’s use of highly intrusive FISA warrants," Horowitz said.

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EE Times: Moore's Law Could Ride EUV for 10 More Years
by jim bell 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

EE Times: Moore's Law Could Ride EUV for 10 More Years. https://www.eetimes.com/moores-law-could-ride-euv-for-10-more-years/ Jim Bell's comment: Less than 2 nanometers feature sizes Note: the diameter of a silicon atom is 0.2 nanometers.

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