January 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

To describe P and NP as "fast" and "slow," then use the practical example of cryptography
by professor rat 02 Jan '23

02 Jan '23

>>> problem spaces like P and NP are defined by asymptotic behavior as some number n goes to infinity. There are no layman situations where going to infinity is useful, and the precision needed to define it that way is brutal. As such, I find its easiest to describe P and NP as "fast" and "slow," and then use the practical example of cryptography because it's interesting to people. I start with NP (because there are fast and slow P algorithms, so I want to anchor their concept of "slow" to that of exponential time before bringing in P). Everyone has dealt with some sort of geometric growth somewhere, even if its just compound interest, so there's something to start from. Once I think they have some idea of exponential time, I introduce the cryptography link. One of the goals of cryptography is that adding 1 bit to a key doubles how long it takes someone to break it. The essential part is to connect the idea that adding work to the sender/receiver multiplies the amount of work needed by the attacker. With that, I can then bring up Moore's law, which very roughly says computing power doubles every 18 months. That means my attacker is able to do twice as much work if he can wait for the hardware to catch up. When his attacking capability doubles, I have to add a bit. Then he doubles again, and I add a bit. Then I can show just how asymmetric this game is -- every time they do a massive amount of extra work, I have to do just a little extra work to keep things even. Now I can teach polynomial time as algorithms that run faster than exponential time. This is a bit of a simplification, but for a layman I think it's okay. If my crypto algorithm were polynomial time, as my attacker's computational speed got better, I'd have to be adding bits quicker and quicker, bogging down the system. Everyone knows what it means when a computer runs slow! << https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/81556/simple-non-mathematical-defini… Reposts not non-stop, mad rants about orthogonal issues of historical abuse

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Freedom of Speech: Islam Goes Apeshit over Charlie Hebdo Muhammad Cartoons Repub, Quran Eating, and Successful Critical Analysis grarpamp
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

JULIAN " All that threatening to ‘destroy’ states does is to make them want nuclear weapons to make sure they don’t end up like Iraq & Libya " ASSANGE JulianAssange ( April 2017 ) Follow Follow @JulianAssange More CIA head Pompeo: "This [WikiLeaks] Ends Now" We & partners published the next day. Quality stuff from the folks who gave us Iraq & al-Qaeda <<< Fuck Islam. Fuck Muslim. Fuck Sharia. Fuck Halal. Fuck Mecca. Fuck Korans. Fuck Hijab. Fuck Female-circumcision. Fuck Allah. Fuck Mohamed. The character of Islam involves violence, corruption, tyranny, poverty, and illiteracy. Fuck Islam. Fuck Muslim. Fuck Sharia. Fuck Halal. Fuck Mecca. Fuck Korans. Fuck Hijab. Fuck Female-circumcision. Fuck Allah. Fuck Mohamed.

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The spirit of 1996
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

That our new years resolution not be abridged https://stiffs.com/celebrity/joebiden Attempting to kill US presidents a cypherpunk tradition since 1996 - continuously every year since 2000 " . . . traders in a market have no incentive other than making the right prediction—that is, there are no bureaucratic or political factors influencing their decisions—so they eliminate many of the hurdles that limit the flow of information within organizations. That’s especially important in the case of the intelligence community because we know that, for example, in the case of 9/11 there was lots of valuable and relevant information available before the attack took place. . . . " Cypherpunk revolutionary, Jim Bell, suggested replacing traditional intelligence-gathering with a market as early as 1995. " Anarchy is not lack of order - its lack of ORDERS "

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Call for international anarchist gatherings in St-Imier, Switzerland, in July 2023
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

Call for international anarchist gatherings in St-Imier, Switzerland, in July 2023. Appeal to clarify the concrete motivations and how we wish to organize them. Read the full call here: https://anarchy2023.org/en/international-anarchist-gatherings-in-st-imier-s… #anarchism https://twitter.com/anarchy2023/status/1601979237795241984?cxt=HHwWgICx5aHo… Repost in leisure suit repent in Haston

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Wasabi glom onto c-punks
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

Coinjoin and other anonymization strategies implemented by Wasabi are paving the way towards a landscape in which it’s possible for all Bitcoin users to be cypherpunks https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/modern-day-cypherpunks/ Reposts not royalties over plundered landscapes

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Gramps Blockchain Systems
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

Sorry - Government Blockchain Systems >> Armes’ connections, via his crypto advocacy, to figures associated with Jan. 6 don’t end there. He also developed an association with a member of the Oath Keepers now facing obstruction charges. And he co-founded a Florida-based cryptocurrency LLC — Government Blockchain Systems — with former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, an associate of Trump adviser Roger Stone and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Greenberg would later face a slew of federal felony charges related to sex trafficking and financial crimes, including using Government Blockchain Systems as part of a scheme to embezzle $400,000 from local taxpayers << https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/27/jan-6-committee-interview-sheds-li… Reposts not Gramps garbage scow adrift in the wide Sargasso

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David Molnar on Twitter
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

Satoshi suspect sighted on suss platform zkSNACKs/WalletWasabi Public Open-source, non-custodial, privacy preserving Bitcoin wallet for Windows, Linux, and Mac. https://github.com/molnard?tab=overview&from=2020-12-01&to=2020-12-31 Repost in haste etc

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Juan must be disgusted
by professor rat 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

A growing number of QAnon supporters are emerging among Lantinx communities and communities of color; it is crucial to highlight how racist QAnon messaging is, as the conspiracy now spreads its tentacles in Central and South America https://thebulletin.org/2021/07/we-knew-qanon-is-anti-semitic-now-we-know-i… reposts etc

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Cryptocurrency: Prevents The "Office Space" Attack
by grarpamp 01 Jan '23

01 Jan '23

Seattle Tech Worker Inspired By 'Office Space' Nets $300,000 In Alleged Software Scheme https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-tech-worker-charged-for-theft-inspi… A Seattle tech worker was charged this week in a criminal theft scheme which netted around $300,000 from his employer. 28-year-old Ermenildo Castro of Tacoma allegedly told detectives he was inspired by the 90's movie "Office Space" when he allegedly wrote software code to manipulate shipping fees paid to his employer, Zulily.com, to go into his own bank accounts. According to KOMO news, citing court documents, Castro netted around $260,000 in shipping fees. What's more, he used his position as a software engineer to alter the price of around $41,000 in merchandise for 'pennies on the dollar.' According to police, the company’s cybersecurity staff found a document on Castro’s laptop titled ‘OfficeSpace project’, which outlined Castro’s scheme to ‘cleanup evidence’ by manipulating audit logs and disabling alarm logging. The theft began in February and by March the company had identified discrepancies in the shipping fees being charged to customers, an SPD report states. Castro was part of the team assigned to investigate the discrepancies in shipping fees, according to the report. -KOMO Investigators for the company eventually caught on to Castro's scheme and visited his house, where they found several boxes of merchandise piled up in the driveway and around the front door. He claimed the orders, which included more than 1,000 items, were sent to his house in error. "When asked why he never returned the items to Zulily, he said that once they fired him his opinion was, ‘f--- ‘em’," reads the police report. Seattle police wrote a narrative on how Castro's alleged scheme was like "Office Space." “In the Initech office, the insecure Peter Gibbons hates his job. His best friends are two software engineers Michael Bolton and Samir Nagheenanajar, that also hate Initech. When he discovers that Michael and Samir will be downsized, they decide to plant a virus in the banking system to embezzle fraction of cents on each financial operation into Peter’s account. However[,] Michael commits a mistake in the software on the decimal place and they siphon off over $300,000. The desperate trio tries to fix the problem, return the money and avoid going to prison.” Apparently Castro thought he could avoid 'pound me in the ass prison.'

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