December 2021 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Cryptocurrency: Collective Strength - Countries WarGame Global Financial Collapse, 1984
by grarpamp 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

As with the biomedical wargames and playthings in the 201x's leading to Corona, and other historical seeded-ideas-turned-reality, including from Orwell's 1984... next up we have... IMF, World Bank & 10 Countries Held Alarming "Simulation" Of Global Financial System Collapse https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/exclusive-imf-10-countries-simulate-cyber-a… Earlier this month Reuters produced a report which didn't receive nearly enough attention among the American public - its contents would be sure to alarm most people concerned with the outbreak of yet more 'global catastrophes'. At the very least it's curious timing: amid the recent pandemic induced disruption in global supply chains, powerful nations and banking institutions decided to get together to run a global economic collapse scenario. The report described that Israel led a "10-country simulation of a major cyber attack on the global financial system in an attempt to increase cooperation that could help to minimize any potential damage to financial markets and banks." It was centered on a catastrophic scenario in which "hackers were 10 steps ahead of us," according to one official who took part. Collapse, illustrative image via Reuters Dubbed "Collective Strength", the exercise was held in Jerusalem (after being moved from the original proposed location of Dubai) and included the participation also of the United States, UK, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Thailand. Officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Bank of International Settlements were also involved. The financial-geopolitical gaming simulation was set amid a scenario where sensitive data was leaked on the Dark Web, which combined with "fake news" reports going viral across societies, resulting in the collapse of global markets and an ensuing run on banks. Further, the simulation envisioned a series of devastating hacks targeting global foreign exchange systems, which also disrupted transactions between importers and exporters, according to Reuters. The simulation set out a severe crisis period lasting about a week-and-a-half. Events were guided by a film and narrator which related the fast moving 'live' events... "These events are creating havoc in the financial markets," said a narrator of a film shown to the participants as part of the simulation and seen by Reuters. Further the report detailed of the simulation hosted under the aegis of Israel's Finance Ministry: "The banks are appealing for emergency liquidity assistance in a multitude of currencies to put a halt to the chaos as counterparties withdraw their funds and limit access to liquidity leaving the banks in disarray and ruin," the narrator said. The participants discussed multilateral policies to respond to the crisis, including a coordinated bank holiday, debt repayment grace periods, SWAP/REPO agreements and coordinated delinking from major currencies. Simulation participant countries and institutions, Via Reuters Ostensibly what was a "successful" ten day exercise was aimed toward each country being prepared to contain the global damage coming from some kind of major cyber event or threat. The key takeaway was that only through rapid global cooperation and open communication among nations, would there be opportunity to prevent total collapse of the global (or perhaps rather Western-led) financial system. Interestingly, some participants said in reality they would in reality move faster than in the simulation in the instance of a cyber disruption of that scale. They said "in a real cyber attack situation governments would take action more quickly than in the simulation," according to Reuters. "One European financial official said that in the case of such of an attack, his country would not wait 10 days to act." However, we doubt much of the Western public will feel "comforted" by global elites engaged in a simulated global meltdown 'readiness' scenario. Again, as if 2020 and 2021 under the pandemic weren't enough of a "real world" disaster and crisis scenario, one questions the need to game out a 'pretend' scenario in the first place.

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Anarchism 1 Libertarianism 0
by professor rat 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

https://returnfire.noblogs.org Here you’ll find the newest part of Return Fire vol.6; chapter 3. There’s also a separate version of the cover for reprinting here. Additionally, this release includes a supplement related to this volume’s theme: Green Desperation Fuels Red Fascism, submitted to us and now also hosted on the Danish-language site Konfront. (The latter much-needed intervention before the totalitarian urge which we imagine will only grow in the climate discourse is also hosted as an imposed PDF for ease of reproduction.) The contents of the main ‘zine are detailed below.

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Walls close in on all loudmouth, Batshit-crazy Dumbfucks
by professor rat 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Now that a few brain-cells in a jar can play Pong its only a matter of time before strong AI exposes all pro-Russian trolls and Nazi-fag-morons ( do I repeat myself? ) here at cypherpunks. Between now and CYPHERPUNK 2027 they may look forward to being doxxed, tracked, tagged and bagged for later slow torturing to death ala " the affair of the barbarians ". Then life goes on without you, Gramps, Batshit & Karl Semich. You can run - but you can't hide.

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Recovering Moron antes up
by professor rat 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Quite unlike some list cowards that hide in closets and never deadpool any politicians. nbcnews.com Utah billionaire leaves Mormon church, donates $600K to LGBTQ group Jeff Green, a billionaire from Utah, resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and donated to LGBTQ group Equality Utah. Welcome to the waking-woke and non-GovCorp real-world, Jeff!

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Autonomous "Slaughterbots" Could Soon Be Used By Drug Cartels, Warns MIT Professor
by jim bell 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Autonomous "Slaughterbots" Could Soon Be Used By Drug Cartels, Warns MIT Professor https://share.newsbreak.com/9lsbbbwq

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Microchip Implant as COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker? It's Coming
by jim bell 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

Microchip Implant as COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker? It's Coming https://share.newsbreak.com/9lsiwedq

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State-as-operating-system metaphor calls to mind plot of " 2001 - a space odyssey "
by professor rat 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

State-as-operating-system metaphor calls to mind plot of " 2001 - a space odyssey " where the remains of the human race are trapped on board a migrating starship and have to deal with the ships computer being infected with a logging virus. The key to survival involves jury-rigging basic systems like supplies, communications and love-dolls. Your parsec mileage may vary.

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Cryptocurrency: Democrat Policies Are Worst Party In US For Crypto
by grarpamp 21 Dec '21

21 Dec '21

https://decrypt.co/88040/democrats-bitcoin-policy Democrats Are Blowing the Bitcoin Vote Democrats are alienating an important constituency with its anti-crypto rhetoric, ceding the crypto vote to Republicans. Joe Biden does not own any Bitcoin. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) took to Twitter this week to wish his followers a hearty "gm," which Decrypt readers know is crypto-speak for good morning. It was just a tweet, but as one Washington observer noted, Emmer is the second GOP member of Congress to offer up a "gm," while no Democrat has done so. So what? Does it matter if politicians throw around a piece of crypto slang? It might matter a great deal. The "gm" gap is significant because it underscores a broader trend in U.S. politics: Republicans are becoming the party of crypto, while Democrats are earning a reputation as anti-crypto. While figures like Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) push bills to boost the industry, Democrats are taking their cue from tech-averse figures like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has declared she views crypto as a thing for "shadowy super-coders." President Biden's pick to run the OCC was a vocal crypto skeptic; she withdrew her nomination earlier this week. Other Biden appointees, most notably SEC Chair Gary Gensler, have disparaged crypto at all turns and erected regulatory barriers to slow its growth and even drive it from American shores. This is a terrible mistake. While there are legitimate concerns over crypto—notably scams and rug pulls, and its implications for the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency—that is no reason to shun it. Like any technology, crypto and blockchain can be used for good or bad; the tech is apolitical. And those who mock it—like Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) did during a rant in Congress this week—are likely to be seen as fossils akin to the politicians in the 1990s who blasted a then-new technology called the Internet. Why are Democrats opposed to crypto? Their hostility may be rooted in the libertarian leanings of many early crypto adopters, few of whom are inclined to support a party associated with big government. What they're missing is that Bitcoiners will happily support any politician who supports Bitcoin, no matter how flawed, from Nayib Bukele to Ted Cruz. Today, crypto is used by millions of Americans, and is especially popular among younger people and Blacks—two groups that are important Democratic constituencies. By ridiculing crypto and adopting paternalistic policies, such as Gensler's inexplicable aversion to Bitcoin spot ETFs, the party risks alienating these voters in the same way its embrace of "Latinx" has reportedly turned off Hispanics. The irony is that crypto offers Democrats an opportunity, and some younger members of the party clearly see this. This was evident during this week's Congressional hearing when Rep. Antonio Torres (D-NY) asked how crypto can lower the cost of his remittances for his constituents in the Bronx, and when Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) proposed writing bipartisan rules to promote Web3. Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, has also been an advocate for crypto and helped found the Congressional blockchain caucus. Alas, their voices have been drowned out by older figures like Warren, Biden, and Gensler, who have made clear that the Democratic party line is that crypto is dangerous. In adopting this stance, they are rejecting a fast-growing constituency that also contains numerous potential millionaires and billionaire donors. Republicans like Lummis, who has raked in a bundle from crypto owners, and Emmis, who leads a national committee to get Republicans elected, appear to recognize the importance of these crypto whales. The Democrats are already expected to take a drubbing turning next year's mid-term elections, and angering the crypto community won't improve their chances. Fortunately for party leaders, they still have eleven months to change their tune. Saying gm would be a good start.

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How to fight the technofascist AI
by professor rat 21 Dec '21

21 Dec '21

This isn't too hard actually - just get off the internet. For those others not allergic to using intelligence now and then these are exciting times. Quantum computing is spooling up that should soon bootstrap itself into being able to model the hardest problems imaginable. ' . . . The result suggests that the possible ways we can describe the universe with math are actually much more constrained than we might have thought, Renou said. "Just by observing what's coming out of some experiments, we can rule out many potential descriptions without making any assumptions [on the] reliability of the physical devices used in the experiment," Renou said. In the future, this could mean that it might just take a small number of experiments, building from first principles, for physicists to arrive at a complete quantum theory. Beyond this, the researchers also said their experimental setup, which was a rudimentary quantum network, could be useful for outlining the principles on which a future quantum internet might operate. . . " https://www.livescience.com/imaginary-numbers-needed-to-describe-reality I don't know about 'small number' - but if a quantum computer can model the first moments of our universe successfully that will give us a unified quantum-gravity field theory automatically. And of course this is deeply linked to the future quantum ( cryptoanarchist! ) internet ever since Seth Lloyd wrote a book about it ( Universe as quantum computer 2007 )

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Cryptoanarchism rising
by professor rat 21 Dec '21

21 Dec '21

Crypto-currencies market/ economy is now over 2 trillion and poised to harness 100 trillion more in the next few years before CYPHERPUNK 2027. Polygon (MATIC) Creates $200,000,000 Fund With Reddit Co-Founder To Back Games and Social Media on Blockchain https://dailyhodl.com/2021/12/21/polygon-matic-creates-200000000-fund-with-… This is like the first net bubble when FAANG shares were dirt-cheap. And OG c-punks got the broad brush strokes right. Crypto-anarchy is the new paradigm.

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