- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

btc price analysis
by Juan 06 Nov '15

06 Nov '15

I can't disclose my source, but I heard the pentagon is going to launch a prediction market denominated in btc. It's going to be open source and all western freedom fighters will be able to join the coding the effort. Hence the current spike. (It's all based on the scientific principle known as "the wisdom of crowds" - Individual retards are retarded but when millions of retards bet together, there's an emergent and huge surge in wisdom)

2 2

Zerocoin Startup Revives the Dream of Truly Anonymous Money
by coderman 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

Zooko++ http://www.wired.com/2015/11/zerocoin-startup-revives-the-dream-of-truly-an… Andy Greenberg Date of Publication: 11.04.15. Zerocoin Startup Revives the Dream of Truly Anonymous Money Bitcoin, despite its reputation as anonymous internet cash, was never designed for perfectly private payments. For the promise of fully untraceable money, cryptocurrency fans have been waiting for Zerocoin—a technology designed to have default uncrackable anonymity. After years of development, that incognito cryptocash is finally showing signs of a life, now in the form of a stealthy startup. Late last week, a company calling itself the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company published a post on Angel List, a website startups use to raise funds from private investors. Zerocoin’s new CEO and co-founder, cryptographer Zooko Wilcox-Hearn, confirms in an email to WIRED that the company will put into practice the Zerocoin (alternatively known as Zerocash) design initially created by a team of encryption researchers at Johns Hopkins in 2013, with the goal of creating a bitcoin-like currency with the greatest privacy and anonymity protections that modern mathematics can offer. “Bitcoin is HTTP for money. We are HTTPS,” reads Zerocoin’s Angel List description, an analogy to the layer of privacy enabled on encrypted web pages versus the surveillance perils of visiting an unencrypted site. In fact, Zerocoin’s privacy advantages over bitcoin could be even more substantial than that HTTPS comparison implies: Bitcoin transactions are published on the blockchain, the public record of all bitcoin payments that serves as the backbone of the bitcoin economy. Any slip-up that identifies a user’s bitcoin addresses also makes it possible for anyone to trace all of his or her payments from and to those addresses. Zerocoin’s blockchain, on the other hand, uses a cryptographic trick known as a “zero-knowledge proof” to guarantee that transactions in the Zerocoin economy aren’t fraudulent or forged. But that zero-knowledge feature means that in contrast to bitcoin, Zerocoin’s blockchain doesn’t reveal anything about the payment’s origin, destination, or even the transaction’s amount. (Read the full paper Zerocoin’s creators presented at the 2014 IEEE Spectrum security and privacy conference here.) In other words, Zerocoin will let users spend internet cash with theoretically perfect anonymity. But Zerocoin’s new Angel’s List page also notes that if necessary, the same zero-knowledge proof trick can also allow a zerocoin user to forego that privacy and choose to reveal proof that any individual transaction was his or hers—say, as a receipt for some zerocoin purchase. “We are adding *selective disclosure* to Bitcoin and Blockchain technologies,” the Angel’s List page reads. “Transaction metadata in the Blockchain is confidential by default but can be disclosed to specific parties. This allows the best of both worlds: both strong privacy and transparency on the Blockchain.” Just how Zerocoin will make money as a startup, however, is far from clear. For now, Wilcox-Hearn declined to answer any of WIRED’s questions about how the company will function, when it will officially launch, or how it plans to put its new cryptocurrency into circulation. Like any bitcoin alternative, Zerocoin will no doubt face stiff competition from bitcoin itself, which already has buy-in from millions of users and an exchange rate that’s appreciated sharply in just the last week. Even so, a roster of influential angel investors have already invested $715,000 in Zerocoin, according to Wilcox-Hearn. Two early backers listed on the Angel’s List posting are Naval Ravikant, an investor in Twitter and Uber, and Barry Silbert, the founder of startup equity trading platform SecondMarket. Another is Roger Ver, a staunchly libertarian bitcoin mogul who’s made investments in startups like Blockchain.info and Bitpay, and who used his substantial crypto-fortune to bankroll much of the criminal defense of now-convicted Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. Zerocoin also cites an impressive collection of “advisors” on its Angel’s List page. In addition to the academic team that designed Zerocoin, led by Johns Hopkins computer science professor Matthew Green, those advisors also include Vitalik Buterin, the founder of buzzy cryptocurrency startup Ethereum, and Gavin Andresen, one of the first bitcoin coders and the chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation. The company’s CEO, Zooko Wilcox-Hearn, has crypto cred of his own: He’s the creator of the Tahoe Least Authority File Store, or Tahoe LAFS, a decentralized, encrypted file storage system. Even with those supporters, Zerocoin is sure to face criticism and even legal trouble because of the very privacy properties that make it unique: A cryptographically untraceable, anonymous currency could offer massive potential for money laundering and black market sales. The Silk Road’s federal prosecutors, after all, proved how valuable a tougher-to-track cryptocurrency would be to criminals, when they traced $13.4 million worth of bitcoin from the drug-selling site to its creator Ross Ulbricht’s laptop. Zerocoin’s creators attempted to answer that concern in their online FAQ, pointing out that criminals can already make anonymous transactions with cash, or even with bitcoin if they’re careful to use “mixing” services like Dark Wallet or Bitcoin Fog that are designed to anonymize transactions. “The introduction of yet another method to anonymously move money is of little consequence,” they write. But cash can’t be spent online, and mixing services only make tracing payments more difficult—they don’t render it impossible, as Zerocoin’s zero-knowledge proofs are designed to do. More convincingly, the Zerocoin authors also argue the opposite point: that the alternative to their cryptocurrency is to rely on bitcoin, whose blockchain can create real problems for any user seeking to keep his or her transactions private. “Would you want to publish your bank statement for everyone to see? Of course not: your bank statement can reveal…intimate details about your life,” they write. “For example, your payments to a psychiatrist could reveal that you have a mental health issue.” Zerocoin’s coming launch as a startup, by contrast, revives the cryptocurrency community’s dream of truly anonymous money—with all the promises and perils that come with it. Stay tuned.

4 4

Tor cameo in the comic “Les Vieux Fourneaux”
by grarpamp 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lunar <lunar(a)torproject.org> Date: Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 5:46 AM Hi! “Les Vieux Fourneaux” [1] is a comic in French published last year by Wilfrid Lupano and Paul Cauuet. Amongst other characters, it features a group of anarchist elders called “Ni Yeux Ni Maîtres” [2]. In the story you see them fighting gentrification by filling up a trendy lounge bar until it goes out of business. One of the elder is getting hacking lessons from “Arno Nimousse”. The latter has an onion sticker on his laptop. Some images: https://people.torproject.org/~lunar/volatile/2015-11-04-WplBy28xyVg/Les_Vi… https://people.torproject.org/~lunar/volatile/2015-11-04-WplBy28xyVg/Les_Vi… https://people.torproject.org/~lunar/volatile/2015-11-04-WplBy28xyVg/Les_Vi… [1]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Vieux_Fourneaux [2]: Meaning “No Eyes No Masters”, but it sounds more funny in French. -- tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org To unsubscribe or change other settings go to https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk

1 0

Re: The BlackList
by coderman 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

On 11/2/15, jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > About the time you sent this message, you did something to screw up my Yahoo > email account. I started getting bounces, and eventually I was entirely > prevented from sending emails. Please explain what you did. Jim > Bell > From: coderman <coderman(a)gmail.com> > To: jim bell <jdb10987(a)yahoo.com> > Cc: Cari Machet <carimachet(a)gmail.com>; cpunks <cypherpunks(a)cpunks.org> > Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2015 4:44 PM > Subject: Re: The BlackList... Jim, i am often a well selected individual, as you must be at times, too. you should assume any centralized service will become unusable at any time. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon - they are all real-time malware conduits, when they're not simply denying service selectively, or en masse. the only thing i have seen survive the highest level of scrutiny are bespoke systems communicating only over hidden services with end-to-end crypto. (and by survive - i mean not immediately pwned - long term resistance is only through constant evolutionary and radical improvement based on interactions with attackers...) what a world we've built! best regards,

1 0

Value of Earth Human Life
by coderman 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

for a US citizen: $7.9mm to $9.4mm for a Russian citizen: $40,000 to $2mm other legal precedent: ~$200,000-400,000 each earth human. for an AP target? should there be a "minimum kill price"? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life

7 17

Re: [Cryptography] Happy Birthday, No Such Agency!
by grarpamp 04 Nov '15

04 Nov '15

On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 5:06 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote: > Signed into existence by Presidential Decree in 1952 (same year I was > born!), even the name of the NSA for a secret for years. Who gives a fuck? If you can't resolve your issues and cooperate globally openly without resorting to dirty tricks, opression, subjugation, murder and more, what the fuck does that say about you? It's the 21st century, we're supposed to be better than that.

1 0

Re: [Cryptography] Clipperz
by grarpamp 03 Nov '15

03 Nov '15

On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 10:29 AM, Stéphane Mourey <stephane.mourey(a)impossible-exil.info> wrote: > Has anyone tryied Clipperz (https://clipperz.is) ? > In any case, have you an opinion to share about it ? If they're pushing their miracle crypto code down into your browser for execution, then it's garbage. So are all other self proclaimed centralized corporate crypto services that do the same thing, or force you to use their special client. Because someday they will either be forced or subverted into pushing bad code and compromising some user, quite possibly you. Come back when you can install and pin down peer reviewed third party crypto code in your browser, or use any client that meets an open API spec they publish. Better yet, support and use p2p storage and messaging instead of central corporate services. Or at least do it locally and store it on a few $5 shells if you need it online. > Clipperz... "knows nothing about you and your data" Nothing? Really? I'll bet anyone on these lists .1337 BTC they do.

1 0

Re: Shiny stuff and designer societies
by Shelley 03 Nov '15

03 Nov '15

On October 28, 2015 5:01:18 PM Zenaan Harkness <zen(a)freedbms.net> wrote: > On 10/28/15, Shelley <shelley(a)misanthropia.org> wrote: > > > Ever heard of voluntary simplicity? It's a concept I have embraced for all > > of my adult life. I don't have much money because I don't want it. I > > I support and respect your choices. > > I say money is not something a sane person should want or not want, > for itself. Money is a tool in our present "reality". > Sane...yes. Well that explains the Wall St vultures, then! > I don't "want any money", but I do want to travel here and there and > connect to the internet to type with you. At the moment I need certain > amounts of money to facilitate achieving these things. Right, and I do understand that. While I truly wish we lived in a world where could trade and barter for everything, the ISP and utility companies want actual payment for services ;) As was mentioned, nothing is pure or perfect. Doing the best we can, which will be different for everyone, is the goal. Some people really need to have a car. I don't, so I do not. A friend and I do our grocery shopping together. He has a car because of work; I very often take care of his cat. I'm not going to pretend that I can walk or bike home with an armload of groceries and 13 kg of cat litter, lol. We get to catch up and the chore of shopping goes by quickly. > > I don't have a TV - stopped watching 30+ years ago as a teenager as I > found so much awesome stuff to read and learn, including the > creativity I felt when learning to program a computer. Doing for the > sake of enjoyment - climbing a tree was as enjoyable as typing in the > next BASIC program, or some years prior, collecting a large pile of > golden treasure grass (hay). > Right on, Zenaan! (Sounds like we're about the same age, too.) It's been about as long since I watched tv on a regular basis as well. For my few indulgences, like The Walking Dead (yep, vegan pacifist likes zombie apocalypse. Hannibal, too! Save the animals, Eat the Rude :D ), I go watch with friends. More fun that way anyway. I, um, may have downloaded Mr Robot. Shhh. > > My conscience won't allow me to mindlessly consume at the > > expense of the planet and other people. > > A good thing of course. Perhaps a maker workshop within your travel > capability would appeal to you? > There are several hacker spaces and maker spaces in my city, and many informal gatherings. I'm very fortunate :) > ... > >> Preparing my own food is a waste of time, other people are cheaper, mass > >> production is cheaper, I'm very mediocre at cooking. > > > > It is not ANY of these things. Use that time on the bus to learn how to > > cook basic stuff! Cook on the weekend while hanging out with > > friends/family or rocking out to music and make your lunches and dinner > > main dishes for the entire next week. How is that not saving time, money > > and being good for your health? > > Is the essence of your point to "be mindful" - whether travel, food, > things? It is remotely conceivable to me that being mindful might > possibly contribute to a fuller and more meaningful and relaxed > existence. > Well, yes. Being mindful isn't always easy, but does lead to a more fulfilling existence. It's more of... just trying to be a decent human, as I see it? We're all stuck on this rock spinning in space. We may as well be decent to each other, things seem to be better that way. What other rational choice is there? Arbitrary boundaries of countries are drawn and redrawn like a game of Risk played in a dorm room, and with far less care; they mean nothing, in the humanistic sense. We're all in the same damn boat. We sink or swim, together. Note: boundaries of other countries never seem to matter to the jerks who run mine, for a much different reason. I am sorry, world. More than I can convey. So, yes. I feel that all of our choices have a global impact, one way or another. I try to tip the scales in favor of the greater good, when I can. > > > Wouldnt want my "fuck" counter to push me higher on the offensiveness list > > ;) > > Oh, yes, you, would :) > Z Well, fuck. Ya got me :p -S

10 52

information imbalance - The Rise of Plitical Doxing [ bonus points for contrast with AP! :]
by coderman 03 Nov '15

03 Nov '15

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-rise-of-political-doxing Last week, CIA director John O. Brennan became the latest victim of what's become a popular way to embarrass and harass people on the internet. A hacker allegedly broke into his AOL account and published emails and documents found inside, many of them personal and sensitive. It's called doxing—sometimes doxxing—from the word "documents." It emerged in the 1990s as a hacker revenge tactic, and has since been as a tool to harass and intimidate people on the internet. Someone would threaten a woman with physical harm, or try to incite others to harm her, and publish her personal information as a way of saying "I know a lot about you—like where you live and work." Victims of doxing talk about the fear that this tactic instills. It's very effective, by which I mean that it's horrible. Brennan's doxing was slightly different. Here, the attacker had a more political motive. He wasn't out to intimidate Brennan; he simply wanted to embarrass him. His personal papers were dumped indiscriminately, fodder for an eager press. This doxing was a political act, and we're seeing this kind of thing more and more. Lots of people will have to face the publication of personal correspondence, documents, and information they would rather be private Last year, the government of North Korea allegedly did this to Sony. Hackers the FBI believes were working for North Korea broke into the company's networks, stole a huge amount of corporate data, and published it. This included unreleased movies, financial information, company plans, and personal emails. The reputational damage to the company was enormous; the company estimated the cost at $41 million. In July, hackers stole and published sensitive documents from the cyberweapons arms manufacturer Hacking Team. That same month, different hackers did the same thing to the infidelity website Ashley Madison. In 2014, hackers broke into the iCloud accounts of over 100 celebrities and published personal photographs, most containing some nudity. In 2013, Edward Snowden doxed the NSA. These aren't the first instances of politically motivated doxing, but there's a clear trend. As people realize what an effective attack this can be, and how an individual can use the tactic to do considerable damage to powerful people and institutions, we're going to see a lot more of it. On the internet, attack is easier than defense. We're living in a world where a sufficiently skilled and motivated attacker will circumvent network security. Even worse, most internet security assumes it needs to defend against an opportunistic attacker who will attack the weakest network in order to get—for example—a pile of credit card numbers. The notion of a targeted attacker, who wants Sony or Ashley Madison or John Brennan because of what they stand for, is still new. And it's even harder to defend against. What this means is that we're going to see more political doxing in the future, against both people and institutions. It's going to be a factor in elections. It's going to be a factor in anti-corporate activism. More people will find their personal information exposed to the world: politicians, corporate executives, celebrities, divisive and outspoken individuals. Of course they won't all be doxed, but some of them will. Some of them will be doxed directly, like Brennan. Some of them will be inadvertent victims of a doxing attack aimed at a company where their information is stored, like those celebrities with iPhone accounts and every customer of Ashley Madison. Regardless of the method, lots of people will have to face the publication of personal correspondence, documents, and information they would rather be private. In the end, doxing is a tactic that the powerless can effectively use against the powerful. It can be used for whistleblowing. It can be used as a vehicle for social change. And it can be used to embarrass, harass, and intimidate. Its popularity will rise and fall on this effectiveness, especially in a world where prosecuting the doxers is so difficult. There's no good solution for this right now. We all have the right to privacy, and we should be free from doxing. But we're not, and those of us who are in the public eye have no choice but to rethink our online data shadows.

6 13

Re: Meet the U.S. Defense Firm Supplying Iran’s Internet
by Razer 03 Nov '15

03 Nov '15

On 11/02/2015 09:25 AM, Georgi Guninski wrote: > On Mon, Nov 02, 2015 at 08:08:19AM -0800, Razer wrote: >> <html> >> <head> >> >> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> >> </head> >> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> > Add 1000 troll points for html only. Yeah well, I use Tbird and I cleaned up the copy/paste as well as I could... You should have seen the formfield/social button mess. RR Ps. I checked for <script tags. There weren't any.

2 1