March 2022 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Fwd: FOIL Request Confirmation from Open FOIL NY
by Gunnar Larson 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <noreply(a)its.ny.gov> Date: Sat, Mar 5, 2022 at 10:17 AM Subject: FOIL Request Confirmation from Open FOIL NY To: <g(a)xny.io> Thank you for submitting your FOIL request through Open FOIL NY. Here is your Open FOIL NY confirmation information for future reference: LARSON_DFS_20220305101740295 LARSON_EXEC_20220305101740295 LARSON_NYSIF_20220305101740295 *INFORMATION SUBMITTED:* *Records Requested From* Department of Financial Services Executive Chamber New York State Insurance Fund *Short Title* PayPal Conditional BitLicnese - Goldman Sachs Deferred Agreement *Description* Dear Madam or Sir: We would like to receive any and all records relating to any coordination (and/or no coordination) related to the Goldman Sachs Deferred Prosecution Agreement and the PayPal Conditional Bitlicense award. May we kindly submit: October 21, 2020, PayPal Conditional BitLicnese: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202010211 October 22, 2020, Goldman Sachs Deferred Agreement: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/goldman-sachs-resolves-foreign-bribery… As of July 23, 2021 Goldman Sachs held $1.83B in PayPal Stock (PYPL). The New York State Common Retirement Fund held $562.71M and the New York State Teachers Retirement Fund held $369.54M. With these figures, you can xNY.io would like to assess any and all press/media (and all other) coordination on the aforesaid announcements. Respectfully yours, Gunnar Larson *Uploaded Files* *FOIL Response Format* Email *If fees apply, please contact me if costs will be greater than* $25000 Your FOIL request has been forwarded to the organization(s) you selected, and the respective Records Access Officer will contact you directly for further processing of your request. Please allow up to five business days for such communication(s). For your convenience, here is additional contact information: Department of Financial Services One State Street 20th Floor New York, NY 10004 Executive Chamber State Capitol Albany, NY 12224 New York State Insurance Fund 199 Church Street New York, NY 10007 -- *Gunnar Larson - xNY.io <http://www.xNY.io> | Bank.org <http://Bank.org>* MSc <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - Digital Currency MBA <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454-9107 New York, New York 10001

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Bantering with punk-stasi-victim was Re: Slavery was Formally Abolished Today, Happy Freedom Day
by Karl 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

On 2/2/21, Punk-BatSoup-Stasi 2.0 <punks(a)tfwno.gf> wrote: > On Mon, 1 Feb 2021 15:48:18 -0500 > Karl <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Juan, you don't mean these things you say here. > > Of course I mean what I say. And I say what I mean. And I'm one of the many reincarnations of hope, but that doesn't mean people should ever make decisions based off of that. >> You don't have to say them in this thread. > > Why would I let that sort of US govt propaganda pass? I find it especially > repulsive. Thanks for keeping the thread nice for the rest of the day I posted it <3 It's is _disgusting_ that they call it human trafficking now instead of slavery, and that makes it _obvious_ that slavers influenced them. It's still pretty obvious they're resisting that. > Maybe you shouldn't be promoting the US govt on this list? And painting the > US govt as being opposed to slavery, a preposterous idea. There are at least two different US governments: 1. the words written on paper 2. the behaviors that people actually engage in and they're blurry. On paper, the US govt is firmly opposed to slavery. Most people believe in the paper and hate the actions. It would be ideal if we could share human trafficking rescue avenues that are run by anarchists, but if I did that they would get obliterated by their local government's unwritten behaviors. > https://humantraffickinghotline.org/national-hotline-overview > > "received $3.5 million through competitive funding through the U.S. > Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and > Families, Grant # 90ZV0134-01-00. The project will be financed with 71.87% > of federal funds and 28.13% ($1.37 million) by non-governmental sources" > > of course that '28%' of 'non govt sources' comes from 'private' fascists of > the bill gates-soros kind. It's shitty that our avenues are the ones that are "authorised". It's ludicrous to ask every victim to ask for help themselves, when victims are taught alternate languages where asking for help is spoken in words that keep everyone enslaved. I don't know this situation well enough to respect you, here, but it's obvious that you're posting things that are illogical more than it is worth your time to do so. It's obvious that me, zenaan, and professor rat are also doing these things. The things we're posting help the interests of people with a lot of money. Those people have probably effectively enslaved us in some way. Some of us may be viscerally and highly aware of that being the case, and that set of people may not be related to the set of people able to talk about it, but all of us can get government aid for being abused if we demonstrate real symptoms of abuse.

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[log] dns/ssl misbehaviors to google today
by Undiscussed Horrific Abuse, One Victim of Many 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

Was stuck with this error doing a casual activity: Downloading android ndk... curl --fail --retry 3 -o ndk.zip https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r23b-linux.zip % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 88 691M 88 609M 0 0 67.2M 0 0:00:10 0:00:09 0:00:01 63.9M curl: (56) OpenSSL SSL_read: error:1408F119:SSL routines:ssl3_get_record:decryption fail ed or bad record mac, errno 0 The error means the ssl stream has been mutated, possibly by a third party. Note: it's hard for me to believe that, I kind of just feel it as paranoid fear. I got it every time I tried the download, at about the same amount into the stream. I think there are better solutions for routing, like cjdns or something, where connects are solid and prevent such things. Not set up with them. $ host dl.google.com dl.google.com has address 142.250.80.110 dl.google.com has IPv6 address 2607:f8b0:4006:80d::200e I went on the web to get other information on the ip address of dl.google.com and ended up at whatismyipaddress.com, which also has host lookup. It said the ip address was 142.250.72.238 . Since it starts with the same two numbers, I figured it was just some load balancing system. $ cat /etc/resolv.conf nameserver 8.8.8.8 nameserver 208.67.222.222 nameserver 1.1.1.1 nameserver 84.200.69.80 I tried each nameserver in sequence like: $ host dl.google.com 8.8.8.8 for each one. The first three gave the same ip address that fails for me, each request, which seems strange to me for a load balancing system. The fourth gave a different ip address. I have 172.217.19.238 in my scrollback history but presently am getting 142.251.36.14 . I moved this nameserver to the top of my list and the download finally completed successfully. This could be a coincidence, but didn't seem one at the time.

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Say bye-bye to Joshua ( James )
by professor rat 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

https://twitter.com/GammaCounter/status/1499801335083978763 Blood oath

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APster permits smart contracts & crypto-whizbangery
by professor rat 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

What forbids us running prediction-markets on people with smart-contracts and triple-encryption? And if it means more work then let the strong AI do it. Welcome to the revolution.

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Cryptocurrency: Exchanges Under Russia FUD Assault, JPMorgan Hypocrites and Rapists
by grarpamp 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-03/wall-street-is-already-p… JPMorgan Dimon caught buying up distressed Russian assets while prohibiting its brokerage clients from investing in Russia stocks, and prohibiting them from buying crypto asset stocks, and freezing/stealing Russia[ns] access to their own money, and getting criminally prosecuted and settling for $Billions by US regulatory for manipulation and fraud multiple times. Kraken fighting the good freedom fight in public first, with Binance and now Coinbase etc in the wings, against calls to mass censor millions of innocent civilians in regions, parties and other entities without any evidence, justification, jurisdiction, judicial or other due process. Astounding all those calling for censorship, foolish be they laying out tools that will be used to censor themselves and their own monetary freedom in turn. Coinbase CEO: "Ordinary Russians Are Using Crypto As A Lifeline" https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1499621509651787782 As we reported earlier this week, most popular crypto exchanges have declined requests by western officials to cut off all Russian customers, as crypto trading volume soared as investors appeared to front-run expectations for massive capital outflows as sanctions bite. While most trading denominated in Russia rubles has been taken place on Hong Kong-based Binance, even popular US exchanges like the publicly traded Coinbase have refused to cut off all Russian users - at least, for the moment. And for the first time since this "controversy" first emerged, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has spoken up to offer an explanation. And that explanation is that millions of ordinary Russians are now using crypto "as a lifeline" to preserve their hard-won assets during a time when the Russian ruble, and other Russian assets, are being mercilessly devalued. "Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too," Armstrong said. As Armstrong pointed out, Coinbase is obligated to comply with US sanctions, like any other US-based business. But until sanctions stipulate otherwise, the exchange will continue providing services to the Russian people (excluding those whose names have wound up on the US Treasury's sanctions list). And bitcoin's public blockchain, a feature of most cryptocurrencies, makes it an ill-suited avenue for Russian oligarchs looking to protect their billions, he added. See the full thread below: 1/ We've been seeing some questions/discussion around whether crypto can be used to avoid sanctions. A few thoughts... — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 2/ Every US company has to follow the law - it doesn't matter if your company handles dollars, crypto, gold, real estate or even non financial assets. Sanctions laws apply to all US people and businesses. — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 3/ So it would be a mistake to think crypto businesses like Coinbase won't follow the law. Of course we will. This is why we screen people who sign up for our services against global watchlists, and block transactions from IP addresses that might... — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 4/ ...belong to sanctioned individuals or entities, just like any other regulated financial services business. — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 5/ That being said, we don’t think there’s a high risk of Russian oligarchs using crypto to avoid sanctions. Because it is an open ledger, trying to sneak lots of money through crypto would be more traceable than using U.S. dollars cash, art, gold, or other assets. — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 6/ This is not just my opinion btw — experts at the US Treasury and NSC agree. For example: https://t.co/OVEKkMTCRO — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 7/ In addition, we are not preemptively banning all Russians from using Coinbase. We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise. — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 8/ Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too. That said, if the US government decides to impose a ban, we will of course follow those laws. — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 9/ Sanctions are a complex issue, and the situation is changing fast, so we’ll keep working with law enforcement and governments, and will take more steps as needed. We'll also of course keep working to enable crypto services for the people of Ukraine who are in need of help. — Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022 Armstrong's Twitter comments reflect those from Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who said on Wednesday that it would be "unethical" for his exchange to restrict all Russians. "It's not our decision to make whether to ban Russians...we just follow rules, we don't make them. Also, just from an ethical point of view, many Russians don't support this war." Does this leave crypto on the "wrong side" of the norms? Not necessarily, CZ said. "We're doing exactly what their recommendations are." Just like all major banks and any other financial institutions. And as strategists from Citi explained earlier this week, while the potential for capital flight from Russia remains high, trading volumes (although impressive-looking on the chart) have been relatively small in absolute terms so far (around 210 bitcoin per day on average). This suggests that the price action is more due to investors positioning for an expected uptick in demand from Russia, rather than Russian demand itself, and furthermore, it underlines the reality that bitcoin and crypto more broadly are being treated like a 'boogeyman' by Western officials. JP Morgan, Goldman Scoop Up Distressed Russian Assets As Analysts Fret About Economic Collapse A couple of days ago, as Russia-linked ETFs plunged following a battery of US and European sanctions against Russia designed to isolate its economy and cut its people off from the global financial system, we asked ourselves: who is buying all these Russian assets? The notion that American distressed investors would pass up the opportunity to pick up Russian assets on the cheap seemed, well, counterintuitive. And while China was likely one source of capital, would western investors really allow the sanctions threat to scare them away from an obvious opportunity to buy? Fast forward to last night, and a team of reporters at Bloomberg have produced an answer: at risk of potentially violating US sanctions (which have imposed strict limits on secondary market transactions involving certain types of Russian debt), JP Morgan and Goldman are already scooping up Russian corporate bonds, either for their own book, or on behalf of waiting clients. Here's more from BBG: Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase have been purchasing beaten-down company bonds tied to Russia in recent days, as hedge funds that specialize in buying cheap credit look to load up on the assets, according to people with knowledge of the private transactions. Banks routinely scoop up debt because clients asked them to, or because they expect to find ready buyers. While scooping up distressed debt is a time-testing Wall Street business strategy, buying Russian securities presents "unique risks", as western leaders seek to crack down on Russian companies, not just the government. Already, western firms have been cutting ties with Russian giants like Gazprom. As a reminder, here's a rundown of major firms that have cut ties with Russia (selling their assets or shares, likely at a steep loss). The whole point of the sanctions is to make them and their instruments untouchable. Sanctions have already supposedly cut off Russia's central bank from roughly half of its foreign currency reserves held in accounts abroad. Of course, megabanks like JPM already have a Russian securities business in London. The losses over the past five days have been steep, coming in at 78%, according to Bloomberg. Representatives for Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan declined to comment.

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Cryptocurrency: Slimy Third Party Processors Sneaking In The Middle
by grarpamp 05 Mar '22

05 Mar '22

https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2022/ava-labs-avalanche-smart-… Crypto is P2P cash and freedom for everyone. All these companies, governments, exchanges all trying to insert themselves as profit raking control freak censorious and regulatory middlemen and FUD spewers in every transaction, they're all straight up frauds. Reject them. Go P2P, for freedom, instead.

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Crowdfunded armaments procurement or " APster " for short
by professor rat 04 Mar '22

04 Mar '22

Everyone an assassin is here - finally! " . . . crowdfunding armament procurement with donations from around the world, demonstrating not only crypto’s global capacity for peer-to-peer fund transfers but also the power of decentralized action as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and other crypto communities swiftly mobilized. . . ." https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/03/04/if-ever-there-were-a-time-for-fi… ARREST PUTIN - MUSSOLINI STYLE!

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A Call from Russia to Demonstrate against the Invasion of Ukraine
by professor rat 04 Mar '22

04 Mar '22

The following call to action originally appeared in Russian on avtonom.org, the platform that emerged from the Russia-wide anarchist network Autonomous Action. https://anarchistnews.org/content/spring-coming-take-streets-against-war Global Warnie - Reposts are not always endorsements

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The NFT surveillance nightmare
by professor rat 04 Mar '22

04 Mar '22

The metaverse may have only recently entered mainstream consciousness, but the concept has been kicking around in tech circles since Neal Stephenson introduced it in his 1992 novel, "Snow Crash." But though Stephenson imagined a network in which people gather in a virtual world via avatars—and Ernest Cline combined that idea with pop culture sensibilities in "Ready Player One"—neither author conceptualized NFTs, the blockchain-based assets that signify a deed of ownership over digital or real-world assets. https://decrypt.co/94413/polygon-metaverse-lead-anything-can-become-nft-wil… Not to belabor the obvious but the potential is here for NFT tagging to beat Govt Shitcoins as a dystopian surveillance mechanism. The ' Dossier Society " spread like ' Grey Ooze " nanotechnology.

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