Fwd: [Cryptography] The Dawn of the Crypto Age

grarpamp grarpamp@gmail.com
Sun Dec 20 23:01:49 PST 2015


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CANNON NATHANIEL CIOTA <cannon@cannon-ciota.info>
Date: Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 12:41 PM
Subject: [Cryptography] The Dawn of the Crypto Age
To: cryptography@metzdowd.com


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The Dawn of the Crypto Age
by CANNON C. , in the year 2015

- -An essay on how crypto technologies will shape our world, and why
these technologies are often met with government opposition-

 Throughout all of the chapters of history, civilization struggles in
a constant battle between liberty and tyranny, progression and
corruption. For the world is plentiful in numerous points of its
history of a populace oppressed by governments. Like a beast untamed
or loosened, or a fire fueled and spread, it is the natural tendencies
of governments to become corrupt and to perpetually expand and
maintain power. This is not because government in itself is corrupt,
but rather because mankind is corrupt through greed, in the pursuit of
wealth and power at the expense of a nation while utilizing the
powerful body of government as their tool. Government makes a handsome
target of exploitation to the corrupt and enemies of liberty due to
the centralization of power that governments wield and the position of
the tool of government being in the high layer of power, known as the
political realm.

 Until now, the balance of power sat in the hands of governments who
have gone rogue at the conduction of usurpers and tyrants and have
been used to empower themselves while oppressing the populace and
liberty, whether openly or covertly. However, in the modern age, in
this dawn of the crypto revolution which follows the still advancing
and parallel technological revolution, the balance of power in the
world is shifting from that of governments and usurpers to the people.

 Throughout history, humankind has been through various golden ages of
enlightenment, and of technological advancements and progressions. It
is this evolution in the advancement of humankind which has altered
the foundation for which future technology and the direction of
civilization is based. We have had the Age of Enlightenment, the
scientific revolution, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and
the technological/informational revolution, to name a few. And now,
even when the latter is still young, we enter another age that
parallels it: the dawn of the crypto revolution, which is based upon
the infrastructure of the current technological/informational
revolution.

 The context of the word "revolution" in the case of this writing
refers to that of sudden change in the world brought about by
advancements in technologies and discoveries, while "crypto" or
"cryptographic" is referring to the use of encryption (codes) paired
with technology to create systems immune to espionage, control, and
takedown by an enemy.

 The newly emerging technology brought about by the crypto revolution
is built on our current technological infrastructure. The advent of
our current computerized cyber-infrastructure makes an easy way to
build, host, and deploy decentralized protocols. It is also cyberspace
that connects us all and breeds innovation through uncensored and
decentralized communications such as the Internet, hence why the
crypto revolution began shortly after the birth of the technological
revolution. This new technology will secure itself and also secure
society from the current flaws in our informational technology
infrastructure which that same society has come to rely upon.

 The crypto revolution will alter the shape of the workings of
civilization in positive ways to advance us towards a more perfect
civilization, just as the technological revolution altered the way we
communicate, do business, interact, etc. And just as how the
industrial revolution altered the way we travel, manufacture, and
live, to too shall the crypto revolution shape our world. This time,
this era in human progression will impact the workings of the economy,
politics, banking, governments... all in a way that will make the
workings of the pre-crypto age antiquated and perhaps even scoffed at
by future generations.

 Just as the crypto revolution is based on the technological
revolution which was based on the industrial revolution, so too shall
some other future progressions be based on the crypto revolution.
These future progressions as a result of the crypto revolution I
foresee being comprised of political, economic, and social
advancements.

 Although progressions in the advancement of civilization are often
beneficial to the human race, advancement is sometimes met with
opposition by the existing power structure. This opposition by the
minority who wield power over the rest is due to the threat this new
technology/discovery presents to their power. Opposition can also
often be due to lack of understanding of the new technology.

 The future of technology I am describing can be referred to as
decentralized cryptographic protocols - secure, open source, self
regulating, decentralized, cryptographic protocols, to be more
descriptive. For the new way will be a better way, a way void of the
major flaws and imperfection of the former which have empowered the
corrupt and created insecure systems causing results which have
haunted our society. These newly emerging technologies will repair the
security flaws which came about by having a society that became
reliant upon informational technology. The root of many of the current
security flaws in our world come from the exploitation of
vulnerabilities that are a result of the lack of the following three
items, which I refer to together as the triangle of security.

Integrity, Availability, and Confidentiality
- --------------------------------------------

* Integrity.
Through cryptographic proof. Protecting from unauthorized manipulation
or forgery.

* Availability.
Through decentralization, keeping safe from attack by denial of
service. or takeover by corruption and those security risks that are
posed by centralization.

* Confidentiality.
Again, through cryptology. Keeping communications and information safe
from unauthorized access.

 The flaws caused by a lack of any part of this triangle of security
can be mitigated with decentralized cryptographic protocols which
address a solution for all three of these security needs.

 A few examples of how the birth of cryptographic technologies will
affect us in these three ways (not in any particular order but of
equal importance):

 Confidentiality: No longer can threats to the populace undermine the
security of the world through informational-warfare/espionage with
ease as civilization and informational infrastructure shall be secured
with cryptology. No longer can governments, oppressors, and
adversaries unjustly spy on a population with ease or target them for
political gain, intimidation, persecution, or control. Cryptology will
ensure confidentiality by preventing governments from spying on
communications.

 Availability: No longer will society be prone to attack by an
adversary due to the weakness of centralization. When a society is
reliant upon informational technology, as is the current case, that
same society is vulnerable to a compromising of protocols and
information that are centralized. For centralization introduces a
higher risk of security due to a single point of failure. This is the
case with both technology and government structures (an example being
why governments are prone to corruption due to their centralization;
even when governments are designed to be decentralized, they often
becomes more centralized in power over time). Cryptology, in the form
of decentralized cryptographic protocols, will ensure availability by
preventing governments from taking down services, protocols, or
information they do not like.

 Integrity: No longer shall our civilization be vulnerable to
spoofing, identity theft, fraud, or manipulation - whether that
manipulation be of just a simple document, the voting results of
public consensus. or other information (just to name a few examples).
Through cryptographic proof, cryptography will ensure integrity and
prevent tampering of data.

 This is why information and technological dominance is a very
valuable and sought after asset. In the technological/information age,
unauthorized access to informational technology can compromise all
security since everything runs on technology. These are the same
security flaws which this newly emerging technology will help to
protect us from.

 Technology can be used against the people just as much as it can be
used to empower the people. This is why governments wish to suppress
technological and, ultimately, human progression. For the future
eliminates imperfection and corruption. We are now at the crossroads,
in which technology used against the people is now progressing to the
point that it will be used against corrupt governments and bring about
a global balance of power. Governments also hate anything they cannot
control. If governments cannot control something. they will attempt to
destroy it.

 Some of the changes, among many, which will be brought about by this
new technology of decentralized cryptographic protocols will be
decentralized markets immune to government control or takedown;
distributed autonomous corporations and stock exchanges;
self-enforcing smart contracts; secure and decentralized
self-regulating financial systems known as crypto-currencies (such as
Bitcoin); along with secure peer-to-peer escrow protocols resulting in
anonymous and theft/confiscation-proof money, distributed
crowd-funding platforms, and secure communications systems (such as
Bitmessage or I2P-Bote); secure, anonymous, and fraud-proof
identities; secure voting and consensus systems; distributed secure
databases of information and records (such as Namecoin); legal
document timestamping (known as "Proof of Existence"); secure property
titles; secure wills and legal documents; secure distributed
authentication systems; and distributed and anonymous reputation
systems. Another result of crypto is meshnet networks immune to
government control or surveillance that are known as darknets, which
may eventually replace the current Internet infrastructure. The main
structures of banks and governments may very well be replaced by
secure, decentralized, self-regulating protocols which run on this
technology. This is just to name a few things that will emerge or have
started to emerge as a result of the crypto revolution.

 Crypto technologies offer the ability to secure a population from the
security flaws which cause identity theft, fraud, financial theft,
corruption, manipulation, surveillance, and cyber attacks. Though this
new technology protects society from such things which we suffer from
today, it is also these things that governments and criminals use to
control society and the populace. As a result, the security brought
about by the newly emerging technology of decentralized cryptographic
protocols threatens the ability of governments and criminals to
continue their grip on a monopoly of control and power. Governments
are often opposed to cryptology for this very reason. The suppression
of cryptology is often done through "regulations" that are actually
intended to cripple that technology, as well as outright bans on it,
along with the targeting of its users. Another technique often
deployed is use of the media to demonize cryptology through lies and
fallacies - telling us that such technology is dangerous to our
safety, when the truth instead is that the lack of cryptology leaves
our liberties and our society insecure. Another fallacy often used to
pass crippling regulations is that such technology needs regulation,
which is a fallacy, for decentralized cryptographic protocols are
already regulated by the principles of math which such protocols are
built upon. These very rules of math which power these decentralized
cryptographic protocols are perfect and incorruptible, unlike
regulations done through government. Governments will try to suppress
technology and human progression at the expense of the security of a
nation, leaving us vulnerable to the security threats which currently
plague our world - that is, if we allow ourselves to submit to tyranny
by willingly complying.

 There is a name for those who promote, develop, and support this
crypto technology and who refuse to comply with the power structures'
demands to abandon its progression. They are called the cypherpunks.
They are the modern day architects, the visionaries of today, and the
founders of tomorrow.

 You can make a difference and help the crypto-age win. Join me. Join
league with the cypherpunks to improve the world. At the least, learn
about, support, and promote crypto technologies. If you are up to it,
learn how to code so you can also contribute to these technologies.
For we are now in the beginnings of a new era of advancement in
civilization and the human race: the dawn of the crypto age.

Bitcoin Tip Address (to help support my writings):
1HcfM3dwy6zoT4kL2zWMD9qZRcsJdjiTST
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