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Linux RNG Fail, Facebook Fake Clear, SQL Concurrency
by grarpamp 07 May '18

07 May '18

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16969325 http://www.interdb.jp/pg/pgsql05.html

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Intel Buggered Again
by grarpamp 06 May '18

06 May '18

https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Exclusive-Spectre-NG-Multiple-new-Intel-CPU… https://www.guru3d.com/index.php?ct=news&action=file&id=27160 Shit's so bad even poking blindly at closed hardware provides for endless fail. https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-17/thursday/us-17-Domas-Breaking-The-x86-I… https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16938423 https://s21.q4cdn.com/600692695/files/doc_financials/2018/Q1/Q1-2018_Earnin… https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/T768R6FxUhKKRzhyQjJVwn-650-80.jpg "We have best *secure* performance" -- Intel lol Jim Keller at Intel https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16934007 Power9 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16829593 #OpenFabs , #OpenHW , #OpenSW , #OpenDev

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Cryptocurrency: Asicboost Update, Defensive Patent Licenses
by grarpamp 06 May '18

06 May '18

https://www.asicboost.com/ https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.00575 https://patents.google.com/patent/CN205121469U/en https://blockchaindpl.org/ https://www.coindesk.com/former-bitmain-chip-designer-seeks-to-revoke-minin… https://blog.bitmex.com/defensive-patent-licence/ https://halongmining.com/blog/2018/03/06/bdpl-offering-announcement/ https://qrfsolutions.com/offering-announcement-for-blockchain-defensive-pat… https://defensivepatentlicense.org/ Opening AsicBoost for Defensive Use March 1, 2018 We are announcing today, that we committing to the Blockchain Defensive Patent License, meaning the AsicBoost patent will be available under these terms once the PCT patent has been granted. We would like to share the thought process that has lead us to this decision. AsicBoost is an innovation that allows more energy efficiency when grinding SHA256 based proof-of-work used in Bitcoin mining. There are two forms of AsicBoost, one that provides optimizations by manipulating the merkle tree, and the other way which ultimately uses two bits from the nVersion field. The merkle method is also known as “covert AsicBoost” because it is difficult to detect. This method has received a lot of bad publicity in recent times because the method is easier to perform with low transaction count, and thus, smaller or empty blocks. Some variants of this merkle grinding also interfere with so called coinbase commitment schemes which negatively impacts protocol changes on Bitcoin. We have strong reason to believe that some manufacturers of mining equipment have been secretly using this covert method to evade detection by the patent holder and gain unfair advantage over others but not revealing what they were doing, and without making it known to the patent holders. Conversely, version-rolling method of AsicBoost is completely transparent in the blockheader of each boosted Bitcoin block. The method has no negative side-effects, like encouraging miners to mine less transactions and thus smaller blocks. A feature of Bitcoin is permissionless participation, and patents are a genuine concern to the Bitcoin community if wielded in a way to stifle competition. This could have a centralizing effect on the protocol and mining, and ultimately impact the security and guarantees afforded by decentralization. There are a number of what we consider, dangerous patents, in the mining space, which could be used to suppress mining competition. Hardware patents are a particular concern because they are agnostic to POW algorithm changes. At the time of writing, the largest mining manufacturer is using a hardware patent against a competing mining manufacturer. While the patent is considered prior art by most, it is a granted patent, and thus backed by state enforcement. We believe this sets a dangerous precedent and could escalate in the future. The patent concerned can be considered an essential patent because it governs how power is efficiently distributed on hash cards (the board which host the mining chips). Defensive Licensing schemes aim to incentivize patent holders to pool their patents in such a way to create a disincentive for patent aggressors. The most famous is the Defensive Patent License. However, on closer investigation, it appears the license scheme is wanting when applied to blockchain technology that required strong guarantees of decentralization. A fantastic analysis was made by BitMEX Research Labs in a recent publication. We believe AsicBoost is such an important an innovative patent that, if licensed defensively, can become a force for good to protect decentralization in Bitcoin. At this point, it is clear that covert AsicBoost does not serve the interests of Bitcoin due to the negative incentives outlined, however, version-rolling AsicBoost has none of these drawbacks, and is additionally more efficient than covert merkle grinding. No matter how efficient a mining machine is made at hardware level, version-rolling AsicBoost will always deliver more efficiency when done correctly. If this method of version-rolling is used by a large portion of the hash-rate, there may be no escaping the need for all mining equipment manufacturers to use it to remain competitive. As such, today, we are offering the AsicBoost patent under the Blockchain Defensive Patent License in the hope that it will both discourage patent aggression in the mining space and encourage others to join the licensing regime. This will create a powerful patent pool and protect the interests of Bitcoin, which is in the best long-term interest of everyone in the ecosystem. Lastly, because we have spent considerable resources on acquiring and opening the patent for the benefit of the Bitcoin community, in return we welcome donations towards our costs. If you would like your contribution to be publicly acknowledged on this page, please contact us on donations(a)asicboost.com. Bitcoin BTC donation address: 3PMR379VLzfnGHck9BLdE1HuhdXUm96JHj. Our BDPL offering announcement can be found here. For more inquiries, please use our contact form. Offering Announcement for Blockchain Defensive Patent License March 1, 2018 This Offering Announcement is issued by Little Dragon Technology LLC, California, USA (“Licensor”). All capitalized terms herein have the meaning as defined in the applicable numbered version of the Blockchain Defensive Patent License. Licensor hereby commits to offer all of its Patents and future patents under the Blockchain Defensive Patent License version 1.0 or greater (“License”) to any BDPL User. The Licensor shall refer to the License for the procedures on granting and accepting such License. Date: March 1, 2018 Licensor’s contact information is: licensing(a)asicboost.com Little Dragon Technology LLC c/o Getech Law LLC attn Jun Ye, Esq. 203 N LaSalle, Suite 2100 Chicago, IL 60601 USA AsicBoost Press Release March 24, 2016 A breakthrough invention in Bitcoin mining named AsicBoost allows to improve the total cost of hashing 20%. The patent-pending invention by Timo Hanke and Sergio Demian Lerner is applicable to any type of chip design for Bitcoin ASICs. AsicBoost is a patent-pending method to improve the efficiency and cost of Bitcoin mining by approximately 20%. Through gate count reduction on the silicon AsicBoost improves two essential Bitcoin mining cost metrics simultaneously and by a similar factor: the energy consumption (Joule per Gh) and the system cost ($ per Gh/s). With the system cost being proportional to the capital expenses of a Bitcoin mine and the energy efficiency being proportional to its operating expenses, AsicBoost reduces the total cost per bitcoin mined by approximately 20%. For the Bitcoin mines of the future AsicBoost will make all the difference between a profitable and an unprofitable mine. The AsicBoost method is based on an ingenious new way to process work items inside and outside of the Bitcoin mining ASIC. It involves a new design of the SHA 256 hash-engines inside the ASIC and an additional pre-processing step as part of the mining software outside the ASIC. AsicBoost’s hash-engine design is compatible with design philosophies such as “rolled cores” and “fully pipelined cores”. The performance gains are achieved on top of all other optimizations that an existing design may have achieved through optimized timing, pipelining, path balancing, custom cells and full-custom design, etc. Inventor Timo Hanke describes the idea behind AsicBoost as follows: “Through clever pre-processing and crafting of the work that is sent to the chip, the ASIC is allowed to re-use about one quarter of the information that would otherwise be created and discarded on a continuous basis internally to the hashing cores. A hashing core adopted for AsicBoost can save up to one quarter of the gates by re-using that information over time or by sharing it with other hashing cores.” More information and a technical description of the AsicBoost method can be found on http://asicboost.com. For licensing inquiries or consulting on the adoption of AsicBoost please contact asicboost(a)gmail.com. About Timo Hanke Timo is a mathematician and cryptocurrency expert. He has been a long-time academic researcher with a PhD in mathematics, a long-time Bitcoin enthusiast and contributor, and has had the role of CTO at a Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer. About Sergio Demian Lerner Sergio is a renowned security and cryptocurrency expert and researcher, inventor, contributor to the Bitcoin core software, the mastermind behind several inventions in Blockchain technology, security advisor to the Bitcoin Foundation, co-founder of RootStock Labs, among many other things.

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Re: [Cryptography] A quicker block chain? ... Thunderella
by grarpamp 06 May '18

06 May '18

On Sat, May 5, 2018 at 2:19 PM, Tom Mitchell <mitch(a)niftyegg.com> wrote: > On Sat, May 5, 2018 at 12:07 AM, grarpamp <grarpamp(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> Per the "arbitrary and capricious whim" of moderator, cryptocurrency >> discussions... those by definition being a fully charter compliant part of >> "the technical, social, political, security, privacy, legal, >> multinational aspects of cryptosystems"... >> further free and fair discourse on same, are banned from this list. >> Posting about cryptocurrency here is chilled and deprecated, thus >> your work is at risk and highly discouraged. You may freely discuss >> all said aspects, and more, of cryptocurrency without censorship >> on the cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org list. >> Including whatever else came from the conference: >> https://cyber.stanford.edu/bpase18 >> Blockchain Protocol Analysis and Security Engineering 2018 >> >> >> 'Messages that use the term "crypto" to refer to currencies will not be >> forwarded by the moderators.' >> >> Now of course more rational people would say that context is everything... >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQQFA9YXCZ0 >> >> We talkin crypto ;) > Block chain is vastly bigger than a crypto currency. > It is evolving into a distributed ledger system and has potential > in the secure (cryptographicly secure) foundation of supply > chain management and even banking. Yes, obviously. There will quite possibly always be applications independant from the currency chains, but curiously, perhaps they need not be. > It does not need to obfuscate and hide transactions or the identity. Blockchains absolutely must develop various forms of obfuscation / hiding / anonymity, even more properly... fully cryptographically private transactions, and fully decentralized survivable resistant transports, including end to end encryption, overlay networks, out of band possibilities... all enabled deployed and used where and as deemed needed by the users, not anyone else... if they are to fulfill many of the philosophical promises that they were born from in the first place. Further, "supply chain", "banking"... generally "business", are all private by default. Don't believe it, go walk up and ask any player in those sectors to just give you their business records. They'll immediately laugh you straight out their door. They'll have public what they want public, private what they want private, and blockchain tools that fill their needs from one end of that to the other. Turn privacy on or off, use pointless corporate / government owned shitcoins or not, that's up to the user, but *do not* try to claim cryptographic privacy coins / blockchain privacy features are universally invalid. > However reliability and correctness does mater for business systems. Sure, unless fuzzy logic, random outcomes, bitrot, and attacks have benefit therein. Funny that some crypto mining papers suggest possibility of more business profit from acceptable errors. Since the list needs injection of other points of view, such as the need for privacy, debunking crypto antis / FUDsters, etc and more "crypto" and cryptocurrency talk as called for in its charter above, yet such has been documented as being censored from the list... go join cypherpunks list where you can speak freely about *crypto* and cryptocurrencies and even cryptosporidium if you want ;)

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Anarcho Mashups
by grarpamp 05 May '18

05 May '18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQqZ9b0S0BY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4zjSeBUTvg

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Blockchain World Conf Jul 2018: Showdown - John Mcafee to Integrate Jamie Dimon Into Crypto
by grarpamp 05 May '18

05 May '18

http://bwcevent.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FArEMzvIoIw Published on May 4, 2018 John McAfee, famed 'bad boy of blockchain', rocked the financial establishment earlier this week when he called upon Jamie Dimon, CEO of Morgan Stanley, to accept a scathing invitation and challenge to join him in a live, televised debate, to be held in July, where Mcafee will be headlining the Blockchain World Conference (BWCevent.com) in Atlantic City NJ, directly in Jamie Dimon’s back yard. McAfee, with all of his usual candor, made no bones about how serious a threat the Crypto Currency and Blockchain Movement is not only to Dimon, but also to his financial empire. McAfee, who will be the keynote speaker at The Blockchain World Conference, and will also be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the event, spared no descriptive color in his attempt to entice Dimon to join him on stage in what many are saying would be the single most dramatic showdown between today’s financial establishment leaders and the virtual currency craze that is poised to disrupt it. McAfee, who has been no stranger to controversy over the years, may be ushering in the most controversial era of his career in technology and fintech. Billed widely as the “Clash of The Financial Titans”, the proposed showdown will be televised globally by Live Stream and through all major financial news networks. Word of this potential, history making, showdown has driven speculation that the BWC event will sell out well before it is set to begin at Harrah’s Hotel, Casino, Spa Resort on July 11-13th in Atlantic City, NJ. It is widely reported that the host venue has been forced to ramp up security in the event that this interaction between such influential figures escalates to the point of rocking world markets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3FvwNPuTSc

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Re: [Cryptography] A quicker block chain? ... Thunderella
by grarpamp 05 May '18

05 May '18

Per the "arbitrary and capricious whim" of moderator, cryptocurrency discussions... those by definition being a fully charter compliant part of "the technical, social, political, security, privacy, legal, multinational aspects of cryptosystems"... further free and fair discourse on same, are banned from this list. Posting about cryptocurrency here is chilled and deprecated, thus your work is at risk and highly discouraged. You may freely discuss all said aspects, and more, of cryptocurrency without censorship on the cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org list. Including whatever else came from the conference: https://cyber.stanford.edu/bpase18 Blockchain Protocol Analysis and Security Engineering 2018 'Messages that use the term "crypto" to refer to currencies will not be forwarded by the moderators.' Now of course more rational people would say that context is everything... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQQFA9YXCZ0 We talkin crypto ;)

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Cryptocurrency: vs Stock Market
by grarpamp 05 May '18

05 May '18

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/8gz9wc/heads_up_boys_were_… https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/8gyw45/cryptocurrency_slow… https://youtu.be/mlwxdyLnMXM It's taken five months to date since both first hit today's respective closing price. Soon one of them will have dated a key support line for the fourth time, and should reach at least 2x more this year. The other will likely remain some degree of sideways at best.

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It isn't that hard to figure out how Cellebrite's hardware works
by Ryan Carboni 05 May '18

05 May '18

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/bring-nerds-eff-introduces-actual-enc… "And that’s what companies like Cellebrite and Grayshift do. They sell devices that break device security—not by breaking the encryption on the device—but by finding flaws in implementation." Somehow Cellebrite's tools work around rate limits. This implies either the rate limit is on the secure enclave, which can be overwritten, or the rate limit is not enforced by the secure enclave. So obviously there must be some mechanism that forces the creation of a rate limit. Obviously the whole issue is a matter of more research and experimentation.... Although this whole argument seems to be against certificate authorities really...

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NSA Spies on 500M Americans
by grarpamp 04 May '18

04 May '18

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-surveillance/spy-agency-nsa-co… https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16997962 We found out that Verizon -- just Verizon -- was handing over "phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily" in June 2013. And of course 'no content' is a lie... see Utah. Why... "Government: If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law." - Edward Abbey #DecipherYou

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