November 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

AI: X.com Launches Grok Language Model
by grarpamp 08 Nov '23

08 Nov '23

https://x.ai/ xAI @xai @grok @xdaily Nov 5 Announcing Grok! Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask! Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor! A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the 𝕏 platform. It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems. Grok is still a very early beta product – the best we could do with 2 months of training – so expect it to improve rapidly with each passing week with your help. Thank you, the xAI Team x.ai

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Cryptocurrency: Govts Claim Human Privacy Is Criminal, Force 1984 Court Secrecy Chainalysis
by grarpamp 08 Nov '23

08 Nov '23

US Government Frames Bitcoin Privacy As "Criminal" https://bitcoinmagazine.com/legal/us-government-frames-bitcoin-privacy-as-c… https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.232431/gov.uscourt… https://go.chainalysis.com/rs/503-FAP-074/images/Crypto_Crime_Report_2023.p… Authored by 'L0la L33tz' via BitcoinMagazine.com, In another unfortunate turn of events for anyone hoping their right to privacy to be protected as guaranteed by the US Constitution, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, or applicable state and federal law, the US government has argued that the disclosure of proprietary Chainalysis heuristics information in the case US vs. Sterlingov would “jeopardize numerous law enforcement investigations and impact the effectiveness of law enforcement tracing tools” by enabling the development of “criminal countermeasures to blockchain analysis.” The oath each and every US government employee pledges when first taking office reads: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God." Apparently, this oath is only applicable so long it serves the US government’s agenda. While attempting to retain a protective order to seal the disclosure of Chainalysis heuristic information, the US government has, in essence, argued that the right to privacy does not exist when transacting on the blockchain. In the newly released court documents, the US government defines software developed to protect individual financial privacy on the blockchain, such as coinjoins, as “adversarial”, contending that the disclosure of Chainalysis training methods and techniques bears the reasonable expectation to enable “circumvention of the law.” Unfortunately, it is unclear which laws the US government is referring to. The argument that the disclosure would enable “ criminals, drug trafficking organizations, and terrorists” to circumvent law enforcement cannot be made in good faith, as Chainalysis’ own 2023 Crypto Crime Report has found the overall transaction volume of illicit activity to lay at merely 0.24%. Just as the early internet was allegedly only used for crime, the share of day-to-day commerce on the blockchain increases as Bitcoin adoption grows. It therefore cannot be argued that the development of privacy protecting software is adversarial in any sense of the word, except to Chainalysis’ business model and the surveillance agenda of the US intelligence complex, who invested $1.67 Million USD in Chainalysis in 2020 and another $1.64 Million USD in 2021 via the Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital fund In-Q-Tel. As long as the development and use of privacy protecting software such as PGP, E2EE or VPNs cannot be deemed as criminal under the first and fourth amendment, neither can the development or use of software aimed to protect one’s financial privacy in Bitcoin. However, it appears that constitutional frameworks do not stop the US government from putting forward statements which directly undermine the people’s right to protection from unwarranted surveillance. Classifying blockchain surveillance countermeasures as criminal is just another step the US government has been taking towards the total surveillance of US citizen’s communications in recent years. In 2015, congress voted for the prolonging of the Patriot Act via the USA Freedom Act, which continues to allow the bulk collection of telecommunication data via telecommunications providers, and the proposed EARN IT Act, which, in essence, would outlaw end-to-end encryption. So far, the only attempt to circumvent the law in the US government’s response to minute order is to be found in its own argumentation.

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Reuters: US lawmakers introduce surveillance reforms intended to curb FBI spying
by jdb10987＠yahoo.com 08 Nov '23

08 Nov '23

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FWD: [Srg] Crypto Wars Episode II: Empire Strikes Back
by zeynep＠keemail.me 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

Tarih: 7 Kas 2023 23:30 Kimden: forgottenlance(a)gmail.com Alıcı: srg(a)maillist.bilkent.edu.tr Konu : [Srg] Crypto Wars Episode II: Empire Strikes Back > Herkese selamlar, > > Yine bir AB yasa tasarısı ve bu sefer tarayıcılar aracılığıyla yine şifreli görüşmelerin dinlenilmeye çalışılması, sonuç olarak da bütün internet trafiğinin güvensiz hale getirilmeye çalışılması. Başka hiçbir işimiz yokmuş gibi dünyanın her yerindeki uzmanlar olarak bu tasarıları inceleyip, bilimsel olarak yanlışları net bir şekilde açıklayıp, gelişmelerden haberi olmayan vatandaşları medya yerine bizlerin bilgilendirmeye çalışması (ve bence tam anlamıyla başaramıyoruz). > > Kripto savaşları geri döndü demiştik yıllar önce, maalesef bitmeyecek bir savaş içerisindeyiz ve sesimizi duyuramazsak tüm dünya vatandaşlarının kaybedeceği bir savaş olacak... > > Bu sefer durum bir öncekinden daha kötü çünkü diğerinde Draft herkese açıktı ve cevap vermeye vakit bulabilmiştik. Bu sefer kapalı kapılar arkasında değişiklikler yapıldı ve içeriden bilgi alarak hazırlanabildik. Açık mektubu Türkiye'den yine tek imzalayan olmama rağmen bu sefer basın sözcülüğü görevimi devrettim, Anadolu Ajansına durumu anlatma ihtiyacı hissetmedim çünkü artık vakit kaybı olarak görüyorum. Türk medyası olayın önemini kavrayamıyor. Bu nedenle bu sefer mektubumuzu Türkçeye bile çevirmedim. Bart'ın İngilizce yazacağı yazıyı herkesle paylaşacağımı söylemiştim, öyle de yapıyorum. Bart Preneel'in olaya bakışı: > > We can all agree that there would be value in an improved identity infrastructure for the EU and in a fortified legal framework for trust services. This is what eIDAS 2.0 claims to deliver. > However, it turns out that during the trialogue (the process in which EU legislation is finalized), a number of subtle changes have been inserted behind closed doors. These changes are completely unacceptable as they facilitate mass surveillance. > The proposal grants Member States the authority to insert their keys into browsers, which facilitates the interception of encrypted traffic by Member States. In addition, security checks to these keys will be restricted to the limits imposed by ETSI – this will likely result in innovative solutions that offer a stronger level of protection being blocked. > > Finally, creating a digital wallet for mobile identity is commendable but if citizens are compelled to employ identities issued by EU Member States, anonymous credentials or pseudonyms should be used to prevent linking all online interactions. Unfortunately, in the latest draft, the introduction of unlinkability remains optional, setting the stage for a race to the bottom, wherein citizens' privacy protections will be dictated by the Member State with the weakest safeguards. > > In collaboration with 335 top level scientists and multiple non-governmental organizations, I have drafted and signed an open letter that meticulously underscores these significant risks and presents concrete suggestions for mitigating these issues. > > The full letter is here: > https://lnkd.in/eMHRe-jj > Links to short explanation and press articles: > https://lnkd.in/ePdAVFsA > -- > Cihangir Tezcan> , PhD > Director of Cyber Security Center > Head of Department of> Cyber Security, Informatics Institute > Middle East Technical University > Ankara, Turkey >

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Tom's Hardware: Intel Kills Off Its Chip-Freezing Cryo Cooling Technology
by jdb10987＠yahoo.com 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

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Quanta Magazine: Cryptographers Devise an Approach for Total Search Privacy
by jdb10987＠yahoo.com 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

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Elon Musk and Pete Thiel need killing ( my 2k sats)
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 06 Nov '23

06 Nov '23

But don't just listen to moi . . . https://www.cryptopolitan.com/luddites-lessons-for-tech-resistance/ Reposts for world peace through superior firepower

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Gmail users dropped due to bounces
by Greg Newby 06 Nov '23

06 Nov '23

Admin notes from your current list maintainer: This is an FYI that perhaps Gmail-based subscribers will find in the list archives: https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/ Around 50 cypherpunks subscribers were automatically removed from the list today, due to excessive bounces. These bounces were because Google throttled messages so badly that some messages were held for over 5 days and eventually bounced. We use a standard Linux-based setup: Postfix for mail delivery and Mailman for list management. We implement the standard anti-abuse mechanisms: DMARC, SPF and DKIM. Back in September, I reported that there were issues with list congestion (https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2023-September/author.html) When I looked further into what the cpunks list was experiencing, I found that it wasn't just us: Google had begun to throttle incoming messages, even when the systems sending those messages were completely compliant with all of Google's guidance on how to avoid being throttled or bounced. Despite some changes to list settings to somewhat decrease daily list traffic, the throttling has continued for over 6 weeks. I am manually re-subscribing the addresses that were removed, but there is no reason to think this is a long-term solution. A better solution will be to subscribe from a different service, OR to pay for a custom Google-hosted domain. I've confirmed that while @gmail.com is throttled, other Google-hosted domains are not. Write back to the list or privately if I can help with any of this. It's unfortunate that list traffic is not getting through to some subscribers, and so I'm writing to inform everyone of what's going on and possible mitigations. ~ Greg Newby

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Israeli defense minister says people in Gaza can end the war faster by killing Hamas leader themselves
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 06 Nov '23

06 Nov '23

Hey! There's an app for that! APster! The original killer-app! And people in Israel can end the corrupt provocations too! By killing Bibi themselves. WHO wants to join the *LAST* revolution? The one to take down *ALL* the governments! Anarchism is not lack of order … its lack of *ORDERS* TIMOTHY " An anonymous computerized market will even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and extortion " C. MAY 1992 TIM " I guess now that the Pentagon is setting up a murder pool it can't be illegal for us to do it " MAY. 2003

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The political philosophy of cypherpunks is anarchism
by professor rat 06 Nov '23

06 Nov '23

Build something called ' cryptoanarchy ' and they will come. Real anarchists began arriving in 1996 and the C-punks list was never the same since. Within a half-decade, Eric Hughes had run like a rabbit and Mongo declared the first ' Crypto Winter '. Twas a famous victory. But maybe if the ' cyber liberty ' type give it some more mouth-to-arse resuscitation? The Austro-libertarian empire will return in all its Dollfuss - Pinochet - Bukkake glory! This seems to be the project of grarpamps. All brownshit fascist propaganda all the time. Aided and abetted by FBI agent Karl Semich. CLAP HANDS IF YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! And go fuck yourself if you believe in trying to replace anarchism with any fake crap from the lunar right.

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