September 2021 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Co-winner of a Gödel Prize - on the anarchist revolution
by professor rat 17 Sep '21

17 Sep '21

Tim Roughgarden, a top-notch computer scientist (co-winner of a Gödel Prize), is teaching a class on blockchains. He’s only just begun to put up material but I liked this bit of “hype” from Lecture One. It’s worth recognizing that we’re currently in a particular moment in time, witnessing a new area of computer science blossom before our eyes in real time. It draws on well-established parts of computer science (e.g., cryptography and distributed systems) and other fields (e.g., game theory and finance), but is developing into a fundamental and interdisciplinary area of science and engineering its own right. Future generations of computer scientists will be jealous of your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this new area–analogous to getting into the Internet and the Web in the early 1990s. I cannot overstate the opportunities available to someone who masters the material covered in this course–current demand is much, much bigger than supply. And perhaps this course will also serve as a partial corrective to the misguided coverage and discussion of blockchains in a typical mainstream media article or water cooler conversation, which seems bizarrely stuck in 2013 (focused almost entirely on Bitcoin, its environmental impact, the use case of payments, Silk Road, etc.). An enormous number of people, including a majority of computer science researchers and academics, have yet to grok the modern vision of blockchains: a new computing paradigm that will enable the next incarnation of the Internet and the Web, along with an entirely new generation of applications..." FROM https://marginalrevolution.com

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Bitcoin & Burner Phones
by professor rat 17 Sep '21

17 Sep '21

I notice Batshit Crazy is for technofascism now - the pentagon created internet - flawed crypto-currency, Btc ( deliberately flawed? We don't really know till Satoshi gets waterboarded. ) Anyway, simply accepting the DARPAnet as kosher marks Batshit out as a suspected FBI informant. He probably still loves NSA jooboi, Jakob Applecheeks. Police filth written all over him.

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Bitcoin & Burner Phones
by HisName 17 Sep '21

17 Sep '21

Greetings, I first joined this list in the mid to late nineties. Back then there were a lot of posts with code in C or C++, IIRC. I have never really pursued programming to the extent that I should have, so I guess I'm no cypherpunk. I may have posted before, but I don't think so. I have some questions about Bitcoin and cashing out. It seems that I can't really access withdrawel or getting cash if someone pays me in Bitcoin without identifying myself? Is that correct? I'm in the US. I use a burner phone and would like to accept Bitcoin or other Crypto Currency and get the cash for it without identifying myself. Is that possible? I switch phones every once in awhile, I suppose using some kind of wallet makes that not a problem. If it matters, I'm in the US. Anyone willing to help me with these questions? Thank you. -me Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com/) Secure Email.

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Police scanner encryption?
by jim bell 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

"Baltimore Goes Dark: Police Scanner Encryption Creates New Danger" https://nationalinterest.org/feature/baltimore-goes-dark-police-scanner-enc… Jim Bell's comment: One possible compromise would be to delay the 'plain-audio' by a short time, 5-10 minutes, possibly using encryption. Depending on the circumstances, the delay could be shortened, eliminated, or lengthened.

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The bloody battle for digital anarchy is intensely exciting . . .
by professor rat 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Quite a contrast to the deadly-dull, tussle for digital privacy! The batshit-boring, crypto-privacy crowd must have zero self-respect. No shame. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/technology/digital-privacy.html

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JULIAN Assmange BFF served with legal papers for being criminal garbage
by professor rat 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

JULIAN Assmange BFF served with legal papers for being criminal garbage The Washington Post Roger Stone served ‘a big, big stack of papers’ from Capitol riot lawsuit during radio interview

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Another existential threat to " GOVCORP!" and all its associated bs.
by professor rat 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

https://www.amazon.com.au/Blockchain-Code-Decrypt-Complexity-Crypto-Anarchy… Contains much unreliable c-punk list info - but the basic message is correct. Cryptoanarchism aspires to global hegemony and a new world order.

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KISS your centralized ' GOVCORP!" police-state goodbye
by professor rat 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

We have witnessed how quickly AI has advanced, and these advancements will accelerate the near-term future of autonomous weapons. Not only will these killer robots become more intelligent, more precise, faster, and cheaper; they will also learn new capabilities, such as how to form swarms with teamwork and redundancy, making their missions virtually unstoppable. Had the atomic bomb turned out to be something as cheap and easily manufactured as a bicycle or an alarm clock, it might well have plunged us back into barbarism, but it might, on the other hand, have meant the end of national sovereignty and of the highly-centralised police State. Govcorp truthers today are such chickenshit bores - but you knew that. "... One of the stories in my new “scientific fiction” book based on realistic possible-future scenarios, AI 2041, which I co-wrote with the sci-fi writer Chen Qiufan, describes a Unabomber-like scenario in which a terrorist carries out the targeted killing of business elites and high-profile individuals..." https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/09/i-weapons-are-third-…

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BodyCams for Politicians - Watch Those Filthy Criminals 24x365
by grarpamp 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Unless 24hr/day, ankle bracelet, etc the criminals will just conspire when off the clock. Have fun watching who votes for/against... https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/congressman-paul-gosar-introduces-… Congressman Paul Gosar Introduces Resolution Requiring Body Cameras Be Worn By House Leadership By Jordan Conradson Published September 14, 2021 at 1:15pm Today, Congressman Paul Gosar announced a new resolution to bring transparency to the House of Representatives. Gosar’s legislation will require leadership in the House to wear body cameras and share the footage with the public. This will bring back some trust in the government. Gosar came up with this idea by asking his constituents. What a concept! Gosar: Earlier this year I polled you on the idea of having members of Congress wear body cams to bring transparency. You voted almost unanimously in favor. So I dropped the legislation today. Thx @Cernovichand on IG @bodycams4congress John Reeves. TRENDING: HUGE: Uttar Pradesh, India Announces State Is COVID-19 Free Proving the Effectiveness of "Deworming Drug" IVERMECTIN Earlier this year I polled you on the idea of having members of Congress wear body cams to bring transparency. You voted almost unanimously in favor. So I dropped the legislation today. Thx @Cernovich and on IG @bodycams4congress John Reeves. https://t.co/em3VZJqKJi — Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) September 14, 2021 Congressman Gosar’s statement said, “Today, body-worn cameras already provide valuable evidence defending police officers from otherwise false and frivolous accusations. Occasionally, the police worn body cameras show a law enforcement error. There is further movement to put cameras in school classrooms. Too often what is really happening in our schools is hidden from parents. This trend to bring transparency and honesty should also apply to Congress. For example, in January of 2021, several members of congress made false and defamatory allegations that other members of congress gave “reconnaissance tours” on January 5. Footage from body cameras would be able to rebut such defamation immediately. In another instance, a member of congress described a harrowing tale of hiding and being chased, without any witness or documentation of any type in support. A body camera would demonstrate the confabulation of such a story. The lack of transparency in Congress is driving public trust in government to near-historic lows. The best way to restore that trust is through total transparency and sharing with the American people what really happens in Washington, DC. Less secrecy from our leaders is a good place to start. That’s why today I introduced a resolution to create a pilot program that would require the leadership of the House of Representatives to utilize body-worn cameras and ensure that the cameras are activated while carrying out official business. Footage from the cameras would be shared with the public. If the American people were shown more information about what happens in Congress, public trust in our government might improve,” concluded Congressman Gosar. John M. Reeves, Founder, @BodyCams4Congress stated, “I have long maintained that body cameras in Congress would lead to better practices and transparency. I am in full support of this legislation as a great first step.” “For too long Americans have been left in the dark about what is really going on in Congress. If cops can wear body cameras so can our politicians. It’s time for transparency and this bill by Rep. Gosar is a major first step,” added attorney and producer Mike Cernovich. You can read the full legislative text by clicking here. This is a good first step towards transparency and accountability in our House We are supposed to have a government by the people and for the people. Anybody who votes against this must have a different agenda.

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Cryptocurrency: Privacy Tech Considered Essential
by grarpamp 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Bitcoin Privacy - A Survey on Mixing Techniques Simin Ghesmati and Walid Fdhila and Edgar Weippl https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/629 Abstract: Blockchain is a disruptive technology that promises a multitude of benefits such as transparency, traceability, and immutability. However, this unique bundle of key characteristics rapidly proved to be a double-edged sword that can put user privacy at risk. Unlike traditional systems, Bitcoin transactions are publicly and permanently recorded, and anyone can access the full history of the records. Despite using pseudonymous identities, an adversary can undermine the financial privacy of users and reveal their actual identities using advanced heuristics and techniques to identify eventual links between transactions, senders, receivers, and consumed services (e.g., online purchases). In this regard, a multitude of approaches has been proposed in an attempt to overcome financial transparency and enhance user anonymity. These techniques range from using mixing services to off-chain transactions and address different privacy issues. In this survey, we particularly focus on comparing and evaluating mixing techniques in the Bitcoin blockchain, present their limitations, and highlight the new challenges. Category / Keywords: applications / blockchain anonymity Mixing Date: received 13 May 2021, last revised 20 Aug 2021 Contact author: ghesmti at icloud com Version: 20210820:155838 Studying Bitcoin privacy attacks and their Impact on Bitcoin-based Identity Methods Simin Ghesmati and Walid Fdhila and Edgar Weippl https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1088 Abstract: The Bitcoin blockchain was the first publicly verifiable, and distributed ledger, where it is possible for everyone to download and check the full history of all data records from the genesis block. These properties lead to the emergence of new types of applications and the redesign of traditional systems that no longer respond to current business needs (e.g., transparency, protection against censorship, decentralization). One particular application is the use of blockchain technology to enable decentralized and self-sovereign identities including new mechanisms for creating, resolving, and revoking them. The public availability of data records has, in turn, paved the way for new kinds of attacks that combine sophisticated heuristics with auxiliary information to compromise users' privacy and deanonymize their identities. In this paper, we review and categorize Bitcoin privacy attacks, investigate their impact on one of the Bitcoin-based identity methods namely did:btcr, and analyze and discuss its privacy properties. Original Publication (with minor differences): Springer Date: received 24 Aug 2021 Contact author: ghesmti at icloud com Version: 20210825:064031 WabiSabi: Centrally Coordinated CoinJoins with Variable Amounts Ádám Ficsór and Yuval Kogman and Lucas Ontivero and István András Seres https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/206 Abstract: Bitcoin transfers value on a public ledger of transactions anyone can verify. Coin ownership is defined in terms of public keys. Despite potential use for private transfers, research has shown that users’ activity can often be traced in practice. Businesses have been built on dragnet surveillance of Bitcoin users because of this lack of strong privacy, which harms its fungibility, a basic property of functional money. Although the public nature of this design lacks strong guarantees for privacy, it does not rule it out. A number of methods have been proposed to strengthen privacy. Among these is CoinJoin, an approach based on multiparty transactions that can introduce ambiguity and break common assumptions that underlie heuristics used for deanonymization. Existing implementations of CoinJoin have several limitations which may partly explain the lack of their widespread adoption. This work introduces WabiSabi, a new protocol for centrally coordinated CoinJoin implementations utilizing keyed verification anonymous credentials and homomorphic value commitments. This improves earlier approaches which utilize blind signatures in both privacy and flexibility, enabling novel use cases and reduced overhead. Category / Keywords: cryptographic protocols / Bitcoin, anonymity, privacy, financial privacy Date: received 24 Feb 2021 Contact author: adam ficsor73 at gmail com, nothingmuch at woobling org, lucasontivero at gmail com, istvanseres at caesar elte hu Version: 20210301:171314 Sword: An Opaque Blockchain Protocol Farid Elwailly https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/1289 Abstract: I describe a blockchain design that hides the transaction graph from Blockchain Analyzers. The design is based on the realization that today the miner creating a block needs enough information to verify the validity of transactions, which makes details about the transactions public and thus allows blockchain analysis. Some protocols, such as Mimblewimble, obscure the transaction amounts but not the source of the funds which is enough to allow for analysis. The insight in this technical note is that the block creator can be restricted to the task of ensuring no double spends. The task of actually verifying transaction balances really belongs to the receiver. The receiver is the one motivated to verify that she is receiving a valid transaction output since she has to convince the next receiver that the balances are valid, otherwise no one will accept her spending transaction. The bulk of the transaction can thus be encrypted in such a manner that only the receiver can decrypt and examine it. Opening this transaction allows the receiver to also open previous transactions to allow her to work her way backward in a chain until she arrives at the coin generation blocks and completely verify the validity of the transaction. Since transactions are encrypted on the blockchain a blockchain analyzer cannot create a transaction graph until he is the receiver of a transaction that allows backward tracing through to some target transaction. Category / Keywords: applications / cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, confidential transaction, blockchain analyzer, stealth address, privacy, Mimblewimble, Sword Date: received 15 Oct 2020 Contact author: sword at elwailly com Version: 20201016:064939 Zerojoin: Combining Zerocoin and CoinJoin Alexander Chepurnoy and Amitabh Saxena https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/560 Abstract: We present Zerojoin, a privacy-enhancing protocol for UTXO blockchains. Like Zerocoin, our protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs and a pool of participants. However, unlike Zerocoin, our pool size is not monotonically increasing. Thus, our protocol overcomes the major drawback of Zerocoin. Our approach can also be considered a non-interactive variant of CoinJoin, where the interaction is replaced by a public transaction on the blockchain. The security of Zerojoin relies on the Decisional-Diffie-Hellman (DDH) assumption. We also present ErgoMix, a practical implementation of Zerojoin on top of Ergo, a smart contract platform based on Sigma protocols. While Zerojoin contains the key ideas, it leaves open the practical issue of handling fees. The key contribution of ErgoMix is a novel approach to handle fees in Zerojoin. Category / Keywords: cryptographic protocols / cryptocurrency, privacy, DDH, zero knowledge Original Publication (with minor differences): Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology. DPM 2020, CBT 2020. Date: received 13 May 2020, last revised 29 Aug 2021 Contact author: kushti at protonmail ch Version: 20210829:211748 Mimblewimble Non-Interactive Transaction Scheme Gary Yu https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/1064 Abstract: I describe a non-interactive transaction scheme for Mimblewimble protocol, so as to overcome the usability issue of the Mimblewimble wallet. With the Diffie–Hellman, we can use an Ephemeral Key shared between the sender and the receiver, a public nonce R is added to the output for that, removing the interactive cooperation procedure. And an additional one-time public key P' is used to lock the output to make it only spendable for the receiver, i.e. the owner of P'. Furtherly, to keep Mimblewimble privacy character, the Stealth Address is used in this new transaction scheme. Category / Keywords: public-key cryptography / Mimblewimble, Stealth address, Bitcoin, Grin, Confidential transaction, Privacy Date: received 2 Sep 2020, last revised 21 Dec 2020 Contact author: gary yu at gotts tech Note: A major updating on the scheme, and analysis on replay attack and rogue-key attack, etc., to substitute the unsafe previous version. Version: 20201221:130713

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