- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Re: [Cryptography] Bitcoin theft and the future of cryptocurrencies
by grarpamp 26 Dec '17

26 Dec '17

On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 6:50 PM, Howard Chu <hyc(a)symas.com> wrote: >> https://z.cash/ shows near term updates coming that significantly >> raise performance. Specifically sapling, which incorporates performance, 2nd ceremony, other updates. This list should really be quite interested in reviewing sapling's new choice of curves, eg at minimum somewhat rigorous methodology like... https://safecurves.cr.yp.to/ > Lots of promises, very little delivery thus far. Their github issue tracker > looks like a disaster area. No different than many other coins, with technology and demands of the space advancing every quarter, to which people should be well accustomed to this as standard nature by now. Same for "volatility". > Zerocash does no such thing. > https://btcmanager.com/linkability-zcash-transactions-study-precipitates-de… More media and crap rhetoric from competing coin rivalry. Of course t-tx are not private, by design. Use z-tx to z-tx if privacy is wanted. Of course private z-tx make up only 20%, because t-tx is default, what do you expect, and users are both stupid and haven't been trained by those who might know (this list perhaps) into using privacy properly. The available pool of z coins is similarly limited as a result. The tin says t-tx and z-tx options exist so user can choose transparent or private use cases as needed. Nor do any coins generally implement options for random time delays between tx, which has unfortunately or not been the realm of swaps and their counterparty risk and fees. Whose fault is it that services and users elect not to use z-tx? Maybe they are not interested that privacy often comes with cost, even computational cost, so what side are they truly on? Will they change with sapling, or with future better coins? 'Shiny new maths'... isn't that the realm of this list? Even a read of the abstract shows as flaws in user usage, *not* an exploit of the coin itself. Should a coin baby and encode user usage? To what extent does babying correct the combined user failure? Should they have options for distributing coins to addresses in powers of 10 with sub-penny remainders being sent to charity of choice? Or for a function mandating z output different amounts? Decide that and more and bring the results to market. Here's the actual paper... On the linkability of Zcash transactions Jeffrey Quesnelle University of Michigan-Dearborn https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.01210.pdf Are any of these things really not documented or out in common knowledge to the point of being exploits? > And coinjoin was already demonstrably broken over a year ago. Coinjoin, Monero, swaps... all just mixes. Zerocash... cryptographic privacy. Two totally different analysis vectors. Formerly linked... Zerocash... at least sender recipient amount, expect future coins to get more exotic with more functions under privacy. Zerocoin... partial cryptographic privacy. And now some searches on zk-snark vs zk-stark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ9K_o-RRSY https://youtu.be/kYmnXxs9kUM https://eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/2017/134/ And proof / tx sizes have to be low enough to offer viable benefit compared to BTC's on-disk accumulation. Monero is quite a lot larger than anything to date. PQ... https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/805 https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2527 Perhaps expect a new coin before long that will be strictly sapling "z" - sn / st with an interesting airdrop little to no founder reward or corporate ties and other nice things. That's the beauty of the new cryptocurrency model, right?... fork away from flaws and inefficiencies, import new tech, exchange and move on. Even exchange fees and user-timing-market realization losses are less than fabled tax optioning right? Search also... Ethereum Metropolis Monero adopting zk-tech https://people.csail.mit.edu/silvio/Selected%20Scientific%20Papers/Proof%20… "The founder’s reward does not only seem somehow greedy. It violates the important principle of cryptocurrencies, that the network pays its peers for work than can be proven on-chain. The Zcash tax is paid for the developers regardless of the amount of work that they do. The blockchain cannot proof the effort of developers and thus should not pay for it." "Fungibility is lost under optional encryption." "Zcash ""plans"" to kill off t-tx." "Kovri to make the offering complete by masking IP addresses" Early days... so much future!

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The Real History of Christmas & How a Real Grinch Stole It!
by Zenaan Harkness 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

That subject of course needs to say something like "The real history of Western HUwaite history & how a real grinch stole it", but that would probably be politically incorrect and draw out allegations (completely substantiated) of tribal partisanship and "religious" tomfoolery. BUT, but but but! America, your (giant) menorahs have replaced your Christmas trees, by order of your (((Supreme Court))) - your tribal institutions have been taken over by (((another tribe))). Which leads of course to the question which makes such discussion worthwhile: Is this really the nation you want? The linked version even has cute pictures. Merry Christmas y'all :) Zen ----- Forwarded message from "Dr. Duke" <drdukeupdates(a)hotmail.com> ----- To: zen(a)freedbms.net Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 16:01:26 -0500 (EST) Subject: Dr. Duke -The Real History of Christmas & How a Real Grinch Stole It! [1]The True History of Christmas & How a Real Grinch Stole it! Merry Christmas to You! From 1789 to 1989 - the first 200 years of the American Constitution -- it was perfectly legal and very loved by Americans to have Christian and Christmas Cultural Icons on public ground as part of our American traditions and fabric. In addition Christmas has deep and ancient roots in the European people...solstice, Christmas Trees, Yule celebrations -- that are just not acceptable to the new rulers of America! You will read the truth in my "Illustrated True History of Christmas Card." Even the date of our Constitution was signed by its authors with the preface: “In the Year of our Lord.” In 1989 it became illegal to have any Christian-themed Christmas display on any Federal, State, County or City ground. It became illegal to say any Christian prayers in schools, forbidden to even sing Christmas Carols in them or even call the Christmas holidays, “Christmas Holidays!” With unbelievable chutzpah the same Supreme Court decision that outlawed all Christian Symbols decreed that the oldest symbol of the Jewish Religion, the Menorah - even huge, monster Menorahs - could be put up on public ground anywhere in America! Where Christian motifs once stood in front of the White House and city halls, giant Jewish Menorahs became perfectly legal, along with Rabbis lighting it in Jewish rituals! How did this happen? Who is the strange, powerful Grinch, with enormous media, banking and political power -- who Stole Christmas? On this link you can link to my unique illustrated Christmas Card that I mailed out to my friends, patrons and subscribers: [1] http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001PeFjbJ5IFeYq0JHvTYJHV3Fdr2LKkfUDl-Gp3ONk54OU… ----- End forwarded message -----

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[Song] Looking For An Answer - Linkin Park
by Cecilia Tanaka 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

No, it isn't a Christmas song, sorry. I was informed only today about one of the members of the CypherPunks list's death and it's still hurting a lot. He was an amazing guy, so sweet and intelligent, so young and full of dreams, and I've lost the chance of hugging him at least once and say hello... and goodbye too... I do still not know if there is a God or not, but I really wanted to believe that my friend is well now, with no pain or sadness, feeling cozy, protected and loved. I don't know about other lives, possible karmas, and reincarnations, Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, but in any case, always there will be the atoms and the Chemistry to comfort me without judgements or any kind of social hypocrisy... My sadness is not a 'lack of faith' as some religious people say, but simply what I am feeling now. I am missing a dear friend, who will never contact me again... :'( Ceci =========== "Looking For An Answer - Linkin Park" https://youtu.be/labrkIEGxyA [Verse 1] There's an emptiness tonight A hole that wasn't there before And I keep reaching for the light But I can't find it anymore There's an emptiness tonight A heavy hand that pulls me down They say it's gonna be alright But can't begin to tell me how [Pre-Chorus] And I ask myself out loud [Chorus] Have I been lost all along? Was there something I could say or something I should not have done? Was I lost all along? Was I looking for an answer when there never really was one? Was I looking for an answer when there never really was one? [Verse 2] Is there sunshine where you are? The way there was when you were here 'Cause I'm just sitting in the dark In disbelief that this is real In disbelief that this is real [Chorus] Have I been lost all along? Was there something I could say or something I should not have done? Was I lost all along? Was I looking for an answer when there never really was one? Was I looking for an answer when there never really was one? [Pre-Chorus] And I ask myself out loud [Chorus] Have I been lost all along? Was there something I could say or something I should not have done? Was I lost all along? Was I looking for an answer when there never really was one? ------- "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live." - Mae Jemison

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Bitcoin... Destroying the planet
by Yule Father 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

> g2s g2s at wiseup.net > Fri Dec 22 10:47:19 PST 2017 > nationalism is fascism I think you got it all wrong. [pic related] > To the gaschamber with you. Joyful Yuletide to you and your family, Rayzer.

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Re: [Cryptography] Bitcoin theft and the future of cryptocurrencies
by grarpamp 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 4:36 AM, James A. Donald <jamesd(a)echeque.com> wrote: > On 12/20/2017 3:27 PM, grarpamp wrote: >> >> Bitcoin is nowhere near private or anonymous. >> Genuine cryptographic privacy needed for that, such as found in >> the Zerocash (Zcash) family of coins, > > > We already are facing big trouble over scaling. Zerocash is too damned > slow. https://z.cash/ shows near term updates coming that significantly raise performance. > I suggest that rather we should employ the coinjoin algorithm. https://reddit.com/r/joinmarket There are surely other mix implementations you could list, including mix coins such as Monero, or simple swap services such as helix / fogcore. > Pretty soon, the state is going to declare some bitcoins to be "blood bitcoins". Already happens, search: chainanalysis > Coinjoin, like zerocash, makes > equality of bitcoins a fact of mathematics, rather than a policy of humans. Which is why all of swap / mix / privacy methods may be useful in certain use cases. However as before in the Zcash thread, in general, a well studied reviewed and used true cryptoprivacy coin may seem to be most and long term resistant to analysis, usage error, liquidity / anonymity set, unlike swaps / mixes. > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus Needless, untrustable, bloating, assertion.

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Morgan Stanley says the true price of bitcoin might be zero
by g2s 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

And they should know because they PWN ur btcz gambler. They can put you "In a cardboard box by the river" any time they choose. http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-on-bitcoin-value-2017-12

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Qubes
by Ryan Carboni 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

I don't recommend Qubes. I attempted to try it within Virtual Box. Didn't work. Not certain on the number of devices that Qubes is certainly known not to work with and not planned to be supported. Never used it for more than ten minutes.

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[SPACE] did anyone get a copy of this? - “(VIDEO) NASA’s Orion Engineer Admits They Can’t Get Past Van Allen Radiation Belts”
by Zenaan Harkness 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

This 'tube video is now “ERROR: NlXG0REiVzE: YouTube said: This video does not exist.” Was from March 14 (or earlier) 2015: http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/03/14/video-nasas-orion-engineer-admits-the… Did anyone get a copy they could email (if it's small enough) or reupload? Here's the text of the above article: (VIDEO) NASA’s Orion Engineer Admits They Can’t Get Past Van Allen Radiation Belts March 14, 2015 By 21wire 2 Comments 21st Century Wire says… If this does not get the skeptics going wild on the moon debate, we don’t know what will. In the video presentation below, NASA engineer Kelly Smith explains about many of the risks and pitfalls surrounding the new Orion Deep Space Mission to the planet Mars. Surprisingly, chief among Kelly’s concerns is whether or not his spacecraft can successfully pass through the perilous Van Allen Radiation Belts. Such is the prospective danger in fact, that NASA will have to send a dumbie craft first in order to ‘test out’ what the potential radiation effects will be on future human crews, as well as on the ship’s delicate sensors and equipment. Hold on. Why the guessing game by NASA? Why don’t they just use the same 1969 technology they are said to have used on the first Apollo moon missions? SuperPerformance72 explains, “This video released by NASA about the upcoming Orion space exploration craft, shows a NASA scientist admitting that they still haven’t worked out how to properly shield the spacecraft from the radiation emitted from the Van Allen belts.” This is the ultimate conspiracy, as it brings together two huge issues – the viability of the Apollo Moon Landings, as well as dreams of a human colony on Mars. This latest admission by NASA places both of these in jeopardy. Watch… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlXG0REiVzE Thanks, Z

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ALL I WANT FOR YULETIDE: ANARCHY
by Yule Father 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

> juan juan.g71 at gaymail.com > Sun Dec 24 09:11:33 PST 2017 > wikipedia content is political propaganda o'rly Gay pride is the positive stance against discrimination and violence toward "gay" people to promote their self-affirmation, dignity, equality, rights, increase their visibility as a social group, build community, and celebrate diversity and variance."" Black pride is a movement that encourages black people to celebrate black culture and embrace their African heritage."" White pride is a motto used by white separatist, white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist viewpoints."" Source: wikipé̩dia.org/itsokaytobewhite [pic related] But I did find this: wikipedia.org/wiki/Haavara_Agreement Joyful Yuletide Everyone. And a Salty Shitpost New Year!

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MUH COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOINS !
by Bitcoin Cash Shills Be Like 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

I will try to keep my post as easy to digest as possible, but this is a lot of information that actually stems back to cpunks and the help of a very based anon. 1. Pre-August 2017 - /pol/ anon makes post warning other anons about the implications of the User-Activated Soft Fork on Bitcoin's blockchain. This User-Activated Soft Fork activates software called Segregated Witness, a "scaling solution" funded by a company called Blockstream, who happens to be funded by venture capital groups. This "network upgrade" initiates on August 8th 2017, and if all the miners do not follow the abundance of nodes on the network, a chain split results, which looks terrible for Bitcoin. Because of this, and previous arrangements that will benefit the miners later on, Segwit is activated. Right before activation, Roger Ver states that he does not agree with what SegWit claims to do for Bitcoin, and in turn hard forks the network in order to preserve Bitcoin's ecosystem before this radical upgrade took place. WHAT IS SEGWIT? Segregated Witness is a software upgrade that forces every-day users such as you and I off of the main blockchain. It does this using a fee-based "solution". Fees to broadcast to the main blockchain are raised x1000, going from less than $1 to $1000 EOY 2018. Instead, average users will go through Side-Chains - a patented software that allows banks to control their own centralized blockchains, this means that they choose the transactions that will and will not be allowed to be broadcasted to the main blockchain, while you as an individual must pay them a fee to even use the sidechains. This means that banks have control over who can and cannot send money, something that was previously not possible with Bitcoin. 2. Post-August 2017 Roger Ver splits the Bitcoin blockchain with his hardfork, resulting in a new Bitcoin offspring named "Bitcoin Cash (BCH)" - Bitcoin Cash follows the original roadmap laid out by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, while Bitcoin (BTC) is now a science project of Bitcoin Core and Blockstream. Nothing is too bad on 4chan, a lot of people talking shit about Bitcoin Cash, but from my perspective it seems to be pure ignorance rather than any actual shilling. WHAT IS BITCOIN CASH? Bitcoin Cash is the original idea of Bitcoin, laid out by the creator of Bitcoin, and using solutions that Satoshi Nakamoto explicitly states exist for the future of the currency. These solutions allow for Bitcoin to scale according to the amount of users on the network, without the high-fee-based scalability model. This means that regardless of whether you are rich or poor, if you have Bitcoin Cash (BCH) you can broadcast your transaction to the blockchain for close to nothing. Censorship-resistant money. 3. Bitcoin Cash Gains A Foothold As Bitcoin's (BTC) fees grow in price, less people begin to use it, the promise of Lightning Network and Sidechains are still being worked on, according to Core and Blockstream, but as of now, there is no immediate solution to these people. Raising the blocksize past 1MB is not possible. In turn, many businesses begin to drop Bitcoin, some turning to Bitcoin Cash, which results in newfound confidence and a new floor @ $1000 USD. At this point, 4chan begins to see many people shilling against Bitcoin Cash and either attempting to point people's attention toward alt-coins as the successor to Bitcoin, rather than Bitcoin Cash, which shares the same Genesis Block with Bitcoin. WHAT COINS ARE BEING SHILLED? With the failure of BTC being just around the corner, shills see this as an opportunity to begin their attack. They choose very specific coins for a VERY specific reason. Ethereum and Litecoin are the main alts being shilled. WHY ETHEREUM? Ethereum Enterprise Alliance - search it. WHY LITECOIN? Litecoin, created by Charlie Lee, is a fork of Bitcoin created in or around 2013. What is so special about Litecoin? Nothing anymore. The most notable feature though, would be Segregated Witness, which was activated on Litecoin FAR before it was activated on Bitcoin. Since Segwit is software owned by Blockstream, if the majority of Bitcoin's market cap were to flow into Litecoin, banks would have won regardless of whether BTC dies or not. Either way both have Segwit activated, so Blockstream and banks win. 4. Bitcoin Cash Begins to Suck the Life Out of Bitcoin As of Nov 15th 2017, Bitcoin Cash has begun to absorb Bitcoin's market dominance at a rapid rate, swinging between .1 and .3 Satoshi in comparison to BTC. Eventually Bitcoin Cash is projected to be at a 1:1 ratio with BTC, and afterwards will kill BTC completely, as they both work using the same hardware and mining algorithms. Bitcoin Cash has some added features including an adjusted DAA that stop miners from being able to kill the network by making it to expensive to mine at a loss when hashpower is removed. In other words, Bitcoin Cash's blockchain is a lot stronger and more resistant to the chain-death spiral that could completely (and will) kill Bitcoin. 5. Coinbrase adds Bitcoin Cash As of Dec 20th 2017, Coinbrase announces that it will add Bitcoin Cash as a USD pair, shaking confidence in BTC and bringing the market down for a short period of time. Due to not enough liquidity, the price of Bitcoin Cash shoots from $4000 USD to $9000 USD within 6 minutes, and coinbrase disables trading, as they do not believe the price is healthy and may be manipulated. WHY IS ANY OF THIS IMPORTANT? As Bitcoin Cash has grown, BTC has began to die, which ultimately was the plan of banks anyway, they never wanted Bitcoin to work. They want to kill it or control it, now they have a big issue to deal with. POINT? Anyone calling Bitcoin Cash "Bcash" is doing so in an attempt at shifting the narrative and pulling Bitcoin Cash away from the "Bitcoin" name.

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