November 2021 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Artists who want to issue NFTs, but do not want to destroy the environment in the process, should check out Avalanche.
by professor rat 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

Artists who want to issue NFTs, but do not want to destroy the environment in the process, should check out #Avalanche. el33th4xor - 38m Avalanche is a Net Zero chain! Artists who want to issue NFTs, but do not want to destroy the environment in the process, should check out #Avalanche. Quote Tweet Mattereum @mattereum · 1h How @avalancheavax @nori @Mattereum changed the world today. In spring Vinay Gupta (CEO of Mattereum) did a rough calc of @avalancheavax CO2 emissions to see if it could be a green chain. It was low. Really low. Double checked with @Nori and they confirmed the estimate. 1/5

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Privacy for the poor - transparency for the powerful
by professor rat 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

Such is the cypherpunk way. Where there is injustice - there you will find us. " . . . to reach a formal conclusion on Covid’s origins, researchers wrote that they would need “greater transparency and collaboration from Beijing.” https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/04/fauci-says-rand-paul-egregiously-incorrect-…

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That a proton or neutron should contain the equivalent of 1.509 bits of encoded information
by professor rat 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

Its a cryptopunks universe we just live in it. Using Shannon's equations, Vopson calculated that a proton or neutron should contain the equivalent of 1.509 bits of encoded information. . .' https://www.livescience.com/how-many-bits-in-the-universe In his 2006 book, Programming the Universe, Seth Lloyd contends that the universe itself is one big quantum computer producing what we see around us, and ourselves, as it runs a cosmic program. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Pagels The Cosmic Code Its safe to infer most of this 'code' must be quantum-encrypted and anarchic. Hence background entanglement and decoherence involve quantum gravity. My own pet theory " Split-Key Cosmology " ( from 2015 ) later helps me rediscover Charles K. Rhodes work along these universal cryptoanarchist lines . . . 2003 - Cryptographic Unification of Mass and Space https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0217751X03016392?journalCo… 2010 - Cryptographic Theoretical Calculation of the Fine-Structure Constant https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.4537 2012 - Direct Cryptographic Computation of the Cosmological Constant ( PDF ) https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1212/1212.5941.pdf A suggested candidate for Dark Matter / energy is lost ' key halves ' which further suggests most of our ( singular, unique ) universe's life-span has been used up. Not your quantum-encrypted keys - not your code.

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Cryptocurrency: Laughs at Wealth Taxes, Unrealized Gains Taxes, Govt Deficits
by grarpamp 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

The economic fuckups and commie crony thieves known as Politicians worldwide, are coming for your personal net worth... going to make Cyprus look like holiday. ps: People revolted for imposition of fractional percent "income tax", now global income tax is many 10's of percent, now they're adding this, and tracking every $600 you move so they can steal more of it. You don't need any such Govt to live your life and do what can be done together. Revolt Now... Adopt privacy capable crypto. Joe Biden's "Eat The Rich" Coming To Bite You https://jonathanturley.org/2021/10/29/warning-joe-bidens-eat-the-rich-pitch… https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/578648-warning-joe-bidens-eat-the-ric… https://jonathanturley.org/2021/03/22/warrens-wealth-tax-how-a-new-bill-wou… https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/richard-neal-skeptical-billionaire-tax https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/28/bidens-claim-that-his-sp… https://nypost.com/2021/09/27/joe-biden-slammed-for-build-back-better-price… https://jonathanturley.org/2019/08/05/eat-the-rich-democratic-candidates-pl… https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-we-will-tax-the-hell-out-of-the-… https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-democrat-proposes-annual-tax-on-unrealized… https://jonathanturley.org/2019/02/20/reductio-ad-absurdum-a-response-to-pr… https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-10-22/us-budget-deficit-… Below is my column in the Hill on the renewed effort to pass a wealth tax by the Biden Administration. The effort to tax “unrealized capital gains” has been growing for months as an alternative to Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax. However, it raises similar constitutional questions. What was most notable is that the new tax was simply put into the Senate bill with the support of the Biden Administration without a single hearing or debate. That led to objections from figures like the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Richard Neal who noted that it was not vetted or studied. It is not part of the House bill. However, many are still pushing the concept despite the significant questions over its constitutionality. Here is the column: President Joe Biden has struggled to get the massive new spending bill through Congress with a pitch that would make Joe Isuzu blush: “We talk about price tags. It is zero price tag” and “My Build Back Better agenda costs zero dollars.” The trillions in spending is “free” — according to Biden — because others will pay for it. It’s like claiming your college tuition was free because your parents got the bill. Biden is hardly the first politician to shrug off spending by saying “the rich will pay for it.” Indeed, during the Democratic primary, the candidates lined up behind figures like New York Mayor Bill De Blasio declaring “we will tax the hell out of the wealthy.” Of course, the “eat the rich” mantra has been part of politics for over 200 years. What is different now is that President Biden has embraced a plan to tax the rich that is not just unworkable and unprecedented but likely unconstitutional. The Biden administration appears ready to give up on a massive tax increase — but intends to keep its “freebee” pledge by taxing the “super rich.” However, it is not the target but the tax that is different. The administration wants to tax “unrealized capital gains,” a term akin to oxymorons like “exact estimate,” “openly deceptive,” or — perhaps more apropos with the Biden tax — “going nowhere.” Biden is suggesting that he will pay for the new spending by taxing people not on what they have earned but what they could earn from selling assets. Most people have assets that increase in value over time. Consider a family home. Over the course of many years, it can easily double in value, but you do not “realize” that money unless you sell it. Biden is suggesting that the government should start taxing you based on any increased value of the things you own, even though you have not actually made that money. It doesn’t matter that the home or stock or art could ultimately go down in value after you are taxed on the higher value. Indeed, if you tax some unrealized gains, you could in extreme cases force people to sell assets like a home to pay the tax on income that they did not make. The administration has started where few would object: billionaires. The proposal would apply to fewer than 1,000 individuals who are worth more than $1 billion or have annual incomes above $100 million for three consecutive years. Taxing the appreciating asserts of a bunch of fat cats is hardly a rallying cry for street protests. The “Wyden plan” would allow for a one-time tax on unrealized gains, with an annual tax on each billionaire’s gain in net worth. Initially, it is expected to address losses, illiquid assets and enforcement; however, the limitations to the super-rich is politically rather than constitutionally driven. And, if successful, it is unlikely that this untapped source of money would be confined to the Bezos class. It would allow the government to tax wealth. The point is that the Biden administration is seeking to tax the value of assets rather than income. In many ways, this is a more creative way to achieve Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) long-standing dream of a wealth tax. As I have addressed earlier, the wealth tax runs counter to constitutional limits on the taxation authority of Congress. Article One permits Congress to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.” However, it requires that these “be uniform throughout the United States.” The next section says, “no capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” A wealth tax is a “direct tax.” There are arguments that a wealth tax would be constitutional, and there are cases on both sides of that issue. Advocates cite estate taxes and other forms of taxation. However, there is then the small problem of the 16th Amendment, which states “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” The 16th amendment was passed after the Supreme Court struck down an income tax as an unapportioned direct tax. The amendment was passed to allow for an expanded federal tax authority, but it was specifically limited to “income.” While Warren thrilled liberal audiences by promising to go after the “Rembrandts … diamonds and … yachts” of the wealthy, it was practically and constitutionally dubious. Now however, the Biden administration wants to take a less direct and smaller step toward the same such tax. If successful, there would be little to stand in the way of a full wealth tax on all Americans. Such a tax, however, would have to pass constitutional muster with the Supreme Court, which would have to accept the oxymoronic notion of non-income income. It would also have to sign off on the idea of the government taxing the value of assets that continually fluctuate or change. It is like waiting for a gambler to win a hand at blackjack in Vegas and taking 37 percent of his chips before he can play the next hand. Underlying this push is the notion that the wealth of individuals is really “our” money being kept from us. That was born out during the last primary debates when Warren made a show of gleefully rubbing her hands together after saying that she would take some of the wealth of her opponent John Delaney, a self-made millionaire worth $65 million. People pay taxes on income when it is earned. They also pay taxes when assets are sold. Now the Biden administration wants to tax assets before they become income — imposing a continual taxation of wealth. Even law professors pushing this tax admit that it is not clear that it would pass constitutional review. If it didn’t — with Biden’s “free” trillions already spent — the public, already saddled with a deficit in the trillions, could find itself the recipient of a bill for trillions more for what they thought was free tuition, day care and other programs. Some lies can be harmless, even charming. When Joe Isuzu promised customers that a new car “has more seats than the Astrodome,” you did not have to buy the car. With this new tax, Joe Biden is promising a free car that the public may have to buy whether they like it or not.

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there’s no KYC (know your customer) with all of this, which again makes it so cool
by professor rat 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

https://dailyhodl.com/2021/11/03/here-are-the-top-5-altcoins-with-big-poten… Next up is the Ethereum (ETH) smart contract competitor Avalanche (AVAX). Arnold notes that AVAX is growing in popularity among venture capital investors. “Avalanche Foundation continues to just funnel VC money into its ecosystem, which means it is attracting some of the best in this space. This is hugely bullish for Avalanche.

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Another Snowden trove release ho-hum
by professor rat 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

https://www.electrospaces.net/2021/11/edward-snowden-and-targeted-drone.html Two weeks ago, on October 22, a new document from the Snowden files was published for the first time in over two years. And apropos of nothing much I bet Jake Applebum misses his Thai diving holidays.

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Another 90's c-punk from Au turns out to be a rotten crook
by professor rat 04 Nov '21

04 Nov '21

Please don't judge all au-based, cypherpunk ' professors ' on just two bad apples. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/11/04/in-craig-wright-trial-plaintiffs… How can the same thing happen to the same fake-Proff twice?

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DarkMarket shut down.
by jim bell 03 Nov '21

03 Nov '21

https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/27/22748317/darkmarket-closure-internation… Jim Bell's comment: 8 years after Silk Road was shut down, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_%28marketplace%29?wprov=sfla1 I consider it utterly irrational that current dark markets are not routinely protected using an AP (Assassination Politics) kind of protection. I know I suggested this in 2013. While I think that dark markets have done a plausibly good job given their limitations, nevertheless they need to be better. As the movie Dr Strangelove said, "Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the FEAR to attack." The people who are hunting these markets need to FEAR to find, prosecute, and convict the participants. If a rather large bounty ($100k ?) were placed on the head of anyone doing that, including police, judges and prosecutors, dark markets would become essentially invincible. The risk associated with running or using a dark market would drop to virtually zero. Their costs and prices would drop dramatically, too.

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Where masks, vaccines, race & history took center stage.
by professor rat 03 Nov '21

03 Nov '21

The Associated Press @AP ·5h Several high-profile school board candidates who fought COVID-19 restrictions and critical race theory lost their election bids. The defeats in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Connecticut came in races where masks, vaccines, race and history took center stage. Now what kind of fucking moron names anything after AP? Ohai, Jim . . .

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Encrypted phone app “Cipher” mentioned in discovery
by professor rat 03 Nov '21

03 Nov '21

" . . . lawyers for Mr Kunah and Mr Brennan said their clients denied being involved with the criminal group. On the crown’s case, data from the encrypted phone app “Cipher” and CCTV are alleged to link the men to the offences. . . " https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/courts-law/six-men-face-committ…

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